CAYLEB......BREAKFAST!!

I ran down stairs, in the usual morning rush fashion and bellowed at Cayleb to feed Ivy. Entering the dining room I found Cayleb on the floor, eating his cereal. 'Okay Cayleb, I'm a dog, okay Cayleb eat your breakfast'.

Ivy had eaten, Cayleb had refilled his bowl with cereal and requested a cup of water. Handing it to him, I headed in the dining room to ensure Hermyonie was eating her toast. 'Swirl it around' came the camand from the kitchen. Cayleb than plopped his now water saturated cereal on the table and began to eat it.

Oh Cayleb, every day you make me smile! You warm my heart!

Small Town Living

The realization that we now live in a small town came on suddenly yesterday evening. After accompanying me to a long day of training at work, Ivy and I stopped off at the Acton dog park.

Ivy was greeted by at least 6 other dogs and quickly blended into what looked like a scene from a Hairy Maclary book.

The owner of a dog, affectionately and accurately known as Bear, introduced me to the group that meets regularly at the dog park. It wasn't long before I was told I had missed NSD Cruiser by a mear 30mins! 

A while late, when the sun had completely set and Ivy and I were the last soles in the park, to my regret I threw the ball one last time. As I type this entry the ball remains at the dog park.

I circled the park for one last look, and saw someone walking towards me. An enthusiastic and friendly greeting informed me that this lady was NSD Cruiser's Mom! The gentlemen at the dog park had seen her and let her know that NSD Ivy was in the dog park! 

Not 3 minutes into our chat and I knew I had made a friend for life! 

I think I'm going to like this smal town stuff!

Learning curve

So I may have dreamt that the moment Cayleb got his service dog that life would be easy and we'd be able to function like a 'normal' family.

With Cayleb's first hook up (tethering to Ivy) going so well on Monday with Vicki and Cathy present, I was ready to take on the world - or at least WalMart! 

During our week of training at NSD, Eric and I became the 'alpha' dogs in our family, and Ivy was happy to follow our commands! This was great until I tethered Cayleb up to Ivy and she kept trying to heal to me. 

This coupled with Cayleb walking every which way and Hermyonie struggling to keep up made for a disastrous situation. 

Getting a cart in the store and looping Ivy's leach around the handle, I thought things were going much better; and they were! That is until Cayleb said 'hold it in and don't poo your pants'. Half way to the washroom Ivy squatted and had diarrhea on WalMart's floor.

Quickly cleaning up the mess I made the decision to get Cayleb to the washroom before taking Ivy outside. It was in that instant that Cayleb spilled his hot chocolate all over the floor!! 

All I could do was take a deep breath and carry on. 

I failed to mention at the beginning of this blog, I decided on WalMart as a place to kill time while my tire got repaired after I ran over a nail on the way to the dog park today.

I guess the moral of the story is that NSD wasn't exaggerating when they said the first year would be the toughest. Maybe they should add that the first month is the hardest (maybe I'm wishful thinking). All I can do is push through and know that this time next year we will be settled in our new house and life will be easy.....ER!

Team Ivy & Cayleb

http://www.magisto.com/video/al9GOlYUGSAzVUZgCzE

$24K

We've reached $24,000!!!!

$794.82 of that has come from our chocolate/ice cream sandwich and apple fundraiser at Tomken!! A special thanks to Larry who is probably responsible for at least 1/2 of that ;)

$6K to go!