Indiana Summer Vacation

    This has been a busy summer of travel for us!

Our office is part of the Association on Higher Education and Disability and this year their national conference was in Indianapolis. My boss and I were presenting at the conference and I tacked on some time with family before and after the conference. I gave Morey the week off so he stayed with Grandma while I went to the conference (he definitely got the better end of that deal!).

It felt strange to be without Morey for the week. My boss asked me what it was like to not have Morey with me. It's hard to explain but it gives me a sort of unsettled feeling. Like I am forgetting something all the time. There are some nice things- like not having to worry about where to take him to hurry or not having to go outside first/last thing of the day but I would never complain about doing those things in exchange for having the most wonderful service dog ever!

My mom sent daily emails with pictures of him playing in the pool, going for walks and playing with toys. When I got home the fun continued as Morey and I both enjoyed some summer vacation in Indiana!

 We had to have some trees cut down in the yard and Morey enjoyed playing king of the yard as he stood majestically on the downed tree trunks and limbs.

A ball and a pool full of water- sounds like the perfect ingredients for a summer vacation! It's fun to see Morey be such a country dog while he is home!

Baseball Buddies

One of the evening events at the rugby camp was attending a Houston Astros baseball game. We all took the Metro Rail to the stadium and, as usual, made quite a scene as 10 people in wheelchairs went through the security line. As we were waiting in the line, a security guard asked if Karen and I had our certification cards for our dogs. We both informed him that it is not required (and in fact illegal) to ask for certification cards for service dogs. When faced with me and Karen adamantly telling him he can't ask us that, two well-behaved clearly identified service dogs and two people in wheelchairs he just shut up and moved on down the line. He definitely picked the wrong people to try telling about service dogs laws and requirements!

I think Sasha and Morey would have preferred playing ball to watching it but they still seemed to enjoy themselves.

 Someone gave me a resusable Astros bag and I had Morey carry it for me. As you might imagine, he got a lot of comments/compliments as he walked through the stadium carrying it!

 One of the women wanted to buy something from the gift shop and while we were waiting for her Morey and Sasha decided to check out some of the activities in the stadium. They were disappointed to find they weren't exactly set up for dogs but we pointed out that they aren't great for wheelchairs either!

While Morey was following the directions (Place Feet Here) he didn't understand the point is to measure your stride.

Sasha did a little better in comparing her height to one of the Astros athletes.

They were lots of people walking by and taking pictures of our dogs. As one woman walked by she saw Morey move and said "Oh wow, it's real!". I guess she thought he was part of the display!

 By the end of the evening Morey offered to hold Sasha's leash and walk her home. I'd say it was a successful first date! (closely chaperoned of course!)

                               We all had a great time at the game- canines and humans alike!

Camp Friends

This summer I was invited to help coach a wheelchair rugby camp specifically for women athletes. I was excited about the opportunity to work with other women who play rugby since I am so used to playing with/against men. The camp was held at the University of Houston so Morey and I packed our bags and my rugby chair and we hit the road!

We were staying in the dorms (oh the joys of shared room/bathroom, twin bed, and cement floors!) and sharing rooms with the other athletes. Our rooms were suite style with 2 rooms that shared a bathroom and hall way. As it turns out, Morey and I ended up rooming with a woman who also had a service dog! Nothing like 2 people, 2 large dogs and 2 wheelchairs in one tiny dorm room! Luckily they kept us busy so we weren't in our rooms that much.

 At home I share a queen bed with Morey and still don't feel like I have enough room. At camp, I was sharing a twin bed with him and neither one of us was comfortable! I would have made him sleep on the floor except it was concrete and there actually was very little floor space. Karen was also sharing a bed with Sasha and it was pretty cute to see the two yellow dogs on "their" beds!

Most of our days were spent at the gym and both Morey and Sasha were pretty experienced in laying around while their crazy humans banged into each other! They seemed to enjoy each other's company as napped next to each other on their comfy beds.

At the end of each day we did let Morey and Sasha off duty so they could romp with each other. Since most of the time they were very professional in ignoring each other it was fun to give them a chance to interact and play with each other!

Sasha is four years old and is a graduate of NEADS (http://www.neads.org/). She and her human live on the UConn campus as residential life staff. Sasha is apparently friends with their mascot (a husky) and she was even invited to his birthday party! This made Morey slightly jealous since he has never met Bevo (UT's mascot). 

Given all their similar experiences (service dog career, jobs at universities, rugby playing humans), and common interests (tennis balls, sleeping in beds, treats) Morey and Sasha seemed to hit it off right away. It is difficult for dogs to maintain long distance relationships but hopefully we will be able to reconnect them at a future rugby event!

Independence Day

July 4th was such a hot day that we mostly stayed inside out of the heat but we still managed to be festive and patriotic! Morey of course had to wear his red, white and blue lei!














At night a lot of our neighbors were setting off fireworks and at first Morey didn't really seem to mind. Then I decided to go outside and see if I could see any of them and Morey snuck out with me. Our next door neighbors were setting off some pretty big fireworks and when Morey saw the light and heard the noise he panicked. He crouched low and looked around frantically so I quickly opened the door and let him inside. The rest of the evening he was nervous and scared. I felt really bad for letting him get scared since he has never had any fear issues before. I will definitely be more careful when we are around fireworks in the future!