Fond Farewell

Morey has a lot of friends at work, but he does have several favorites. One of his best buddies is Martha, who works in Judicial Services at UT. Their friendship was cemented the day they met when Morey turned himself into a pretzel at her feet in order to better position himself for a butt scratch. Since that time, Morey perks up whenever he sees Martha and doesn't hesitate to throw himself at her feet for some cuddles and pets. Since Martha is often dealing with stressful situations, she often drops by my office for some "Morey time" . Usually by the time she leaves our office she is clothed with Morey hair but she never seems to mind this "gift" that Morey bestows upon her.

Sadly for us, Martha recently took a position at another university and will be leaving UT. Although it won't be the same, hopefully Martha can stay up to date on all Morey's adventures via this blog. I am not exactly sure how she is going to reciprocate by delivering long distance butt scratches though...

Morey the Model?

The other day I stopped by a store to do some shopping. The moment you went through the door you were greeted by a display of a man, woman, and child modeling summer clothes. There was also a dog as part of the display and I wondered how Morey would react when he saw it.

At first sight, Morey stiffened and became very alert, probably surprised to see another dog in a store, especially one without a vest on! ; ) After a second or two of evaluating the situation, Morey seemed to figure out that the dog wasn't real and cautiously approached it just to confirm his assessment.

When I explained that the dog's purpose was to attract attention and look cute, Morey thought that sounded like a pretty good gig to him. I'm going to have to keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn't dump me for a modeling career!

What do you think, does Morey has a future in modeling?

Lead Morey Not Into Temptation

When you are partnered with a service dog there are times when you know you are taking your dog into a challenging situation. I try to avoid putting Morey in stressful or uncomfortable situations, but sometime it can't be helped. In those situations I always gain a new appreciation for Morey's excellent training and temperament and ability to take nearly everything in stride.

This week was a great example. I was planning to play tennis after work and since there wasn't time for me to take Morey home first, I knew he was going to have to come along. Anyone who knows Morey knows he has a love for tennis balls and it felt mean to take him to a tennis court and expect him to lay there while tennis balls were being hit all around him. But since there didn't seem to be another option, I made sure he had his own ball to take with him and off we went.

As it turns out, the tennis balls were not the only distractions Morey had to contend with. There was another dog at the tennis courts to add to the excitement. Roscoe was a small cream-colored cockapoo who was exuding enthusiasm and wanted to make friends with everyone on the courts. Morey was eager to return Roscoe's offers to play and exchange sniffs and wanted to take it to the next level with running and barking, which didn't work well while there were people playing tennis on the court.

 It took me a while to convince Morey that even though there were balls and dogs in a large fenced area, he was supposed to lay quietly under the bench and not interact with either of them. He finally did settle but it was a good hour before he seemed to relax from his alert "down" position.

I felt bad for expecting such good behavior from Morey in such a challenging environment, but he made his trainers proud by settling and behaving like the professional service dog he is, despite being tempted by some of his favorite things. I guess it could have been worse if there had been a swimming pool and/or Morey's grandma had been in the area!

Peeping Dog

There are times when a restroom stall just isn't big enough for a wheelchair and a large dog to both fit inside. When I run across one of these restrooms, I typically leave Morey in a "stay" outside the stall I am using. (Since Morey has bed privileges, I avoid having him lay down in particularly germy or dirty places and a public bathroom would definitely qualify!) It can be kind of entertaining to hear the reactions of other women when they come in the restroom and see a dog standing in the restroom who is seemingly not attached to a human. However, in order to prevent any panic about a lost dog in the women's restroom I have learned to keep up a running monologue with Morey so people know who he belongs to.

Since Morey typically does go into the restroom stall with me when it's big enough, he doesn't quite understand why I leave him on the opposite side of the door. As you can see, he sometimes feels the need to check on me to make sure a) I am ok or b) I don't find a way to sneak out without him (I haven't figured out his exact motivation yet.) I guess as long as he sticks to only peeping under my stall door it's ok- I can only imagine the response if he happened to peep underneath a stranger's door!

Can I come in?

Feed Me!

 Morey always eats his meals out of an interactive toy. He has    quite a collection, including a Kong wobbler, a Buster Cube, and several other toys that require him to nudge and paw the toy in order to release a few pieces of food at a time. I keep some at home and some at work (since he usually eats breakfast in my office). While I have had some "non dog" friends comment on how mean it is to make Morey work for me and also work for his food, Morey doesn't seem to mind a bit.


He gobbles down food in a bowl, but an interactive toy makes him take longer and also entertains him. Getting his food out of an interactive toy also helps him develop problem solving skills that can come in handy for his service dog work; like figuring out to get it out from underneath furniture or how to move an object when it's to big or awkward to pick up with his mouth).



Is it dinner time yet?

When it gets near his meal time (or he thinks it is close enough) he will either start nudging the toy around or go lay right beside it as a subtle reminder. The other day he was looking so forlorn that I captured his endearing expression to share with y'all!



Secret Admirer

The other day I was covering the front desk at work and another UT staff member came in. I chatted with her briefly and she sat down to wait for her appointment. While she waited, I continued to move around the office and she could see that I used a wheelchair. When I returned to the front desk she said "You have a dog, don't you?". I was surprised she knew that since Morey was nowhere in site, but thought maybe she had seen me out and about on campus so I confirmed that yes, I have a dog. "And you drive a van, don't you?" This made me a little more surprised, but once again I answered yes. She might have been able to tell that I was taken aback by everything she knew about me even though we have never formally met and so she explained.

"I used to work out in the Bridgeway building with a window facing the parking lot where you park. I would always see you taking your dog out to play during the day and it always made me so happy to watch. He seems like such a joy!"

I know Morey is wonderfully amazing and has touched a lot of lives, but this woman made me realize that I may never know the extent of Morey's ability to bring a smile to someone's face-even through a glimpse out the window!

Just Add Water!

I moved into a house with a  yard last August and by then it was late in the summer to find any kid's swimming pools for Morey. This year I bought one as soon as I saw them in stores and since then it has been stored in the garage. As I was cleaning out the garage I tossed the pool into the grass and apparently Morey thought it was time to swim!

Just add water for summer fun!

 When I told him that there was no hose close enough to the pool to fill it up, he gladly volunteered to move the pool to wherever the water is. Morey is going to have a fun summer!

UT Remembers

Each year, UT hosts a memorial, called UT Remembers, to remember all the people connected with UT who have died in the past year. This year I have had several students pass away and so Morey and I planned to attend. The event was held outdoors in the Tower Garden (also home to the turtle pond) and since the terrain was a little uneven, I pulled up to the first row of chairs I could easily get to and simply added myself to the row. As it turned out, I was sitting next to a family of a professor who had passed away. The two kids, probably 14 and 11, were very excited to have Morey sit next to them and after the service their mom thanked me/Morey for keeping them entertained.

As Morey's faithful fans might remember, Morey is not quite sure how he feels about bagpipes. He has only encountered them once with me and that was at church. When I looked at the program for the service, I realized that he was going to get to hear them once again. The UT Police Department Honor Guard was going to be opening and closing the service with a bagpipe processional. Unfortunately, my seat happened to be directly next to their route of travel and so Morey got a very up close and personal encounter with bagpipes. One of the police officers who was part of the Guard is also one of the officers who work with Canine Officer Spike and I saw him smile by Morey's reaction to the bagpipes. As you can see from the picture, bagpipes are quite captivating for Morey!

What is that sound??

It's coming right toward me!

As an advertisement and memento for the event, they were handing out small cards with an orange ribbon pinned to it. It was such a windy day that mine blew away and I had to send Morey to retrieve it. He did successfully, although he may have added several additional holes for the pin!