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Day 18: Time to Learn How to take care of our Dogs, not Just Work Them.

January 30, 2010 by Renee K Walker Leave a Comment

Well, I awoke at 2:30 drenched in sweat. Sheets were wet, so I check my sugar level. It was 121. No problem there unless it went down to far before dawn, but I didn’t think so. Finally, I got back to sleep.
Before breakfast this morning at 6:00 am, my sugar level was 130. There is the “Dawn Phenomenon.” I knew it would kick in.
Well, today is supposed to be DTC in the morning for morning routes in the neighborhood. We will eat at the mall in Bradenton. We will do afternoon routes there. This evening at 6:00 is the CPR we thought we were going to have Monday night.

We did obedience after breakfast. Joe did better with the distractions today. We then got our harnesses, “busyed” the dogs, loaded up to go downtown.

The routes we did at the DTC were in much busier streets and we went a good couple of miles in the heat. We left early trying to beat the heat and the humidity, but that is hard. I feel fine as far as the heat goes. It was only 94 in Bradenton today. Scott said it reached over 100 in the Macon area plus the heat index. I definitely am glad I am here as far as temperature goes. Joey hit the curbs right on the mark every time. He took me around poles and potholes I didn’t even know were there. Kate told me later. The only thing she missed was a palm tree branch sticking out into the sidewalk area at about ankle level. I hit it and snagged up. Kate caught me before I hit the ground. I said, “No” and popped his leash back in correction and quickly relaxed it. I pushed the branch with my foot and said, “Watch.” We then turned around and reworked it. It stopped for it, so I could scan for it and step over it. I praised him very well. His little tail began swinging wildly back and forth. I wish I could get a picture from the rear when we near a “curb”. Kate says that Joe starts wagging his tail in anticipation as soon as he spots something. He stops and wags even faster as I search. I better not forget a “party” when he is so excited about getting it. I would hate to disappoint him.

We went back to the Bradenton Mall for lunch and afternoon routes. After lunch, I waited for others while they did their routes. I finally asked a new trainer, Lynn, to take me to the restroom. Chris asked to go with us. Lynn quickly took off with Chris and Xcelerator behind her. Shoppers got in my way, so I lost sight of her. Joe however, took me right on behind her. I got confused in the maze of hallways and almost when in the men’s room behind Chris, but I finally made it. When I left the women’s room, I realized that Lynn had left me. As I stared at the fuzzy walls and shadows around me, I panicked. I couldn’t breathe, and fell back hugging the walls. I had no clue how to get back out. Now this might not sound like such a big deal to anyone, but me. However, I can’t hear much of anything and now I found myself surrounded by passageways alone. Fortunately I had prayed earlier about just these kinds of moments. Finally, words managed to seep through the fog in my brain. I could hear Kate telling me to think about where I was. Now align yourself with the wall and follow it to the end. I did and found myself at an intersection with hallways coming in all directions. I almost freaked again, but then a thought came. Ok. You came out of the restroom. Anyone coming past from there will be heading out, or anyone going in the opposite direction will be going to the restroom from the outside. Wait and follow them. Pretty soon, someone came by heading to the restroom. I went in the direction they came from. Great! It was just another passageway. I followed the wall to the end and rounded the corner. Ah! Another hallway or something. Ok, now there were choices in directions. Ugh! I was just about to panic or being unchristian like or something when someone rounded the corner. Oh, thank you, Jesus for that sign and keeping me from temptation. I followed the wall in that direction and eventually the light brightened somewhat and I heard the roar of the mall hitting my ears. I took a deep breath. I, of course, had no clue which way to go. I could only hope. Uh, Joe,find the seat. Off Joe went as followed his lead and prayed he wasn’t just going after a piece of hamburger under a counter somewhere. We made twists and turns, brushing near but not touching other people and trash cans, etc. Finally, he stopped and I realized, “Hey, Joe did it!” I cried with sheer delight. I was exactly where I started from. Now there were other people sitting in the chair, but it was the exact chair. Fortunately, Jerry was in the table at the left of us waiting for his route, so I sat there and told him of my wonderful experience. Joey is perfect for me… No doubt in my mind.
Our routes were cut short a little later. One of the dogs cut his paw on the escalator, so some left immediately. A few others waited until Katie returned with her students. I and Crystal did not get to go on the route and do escalators today, but I didn’t care. I had achieved something major here. I could wait til later for escalators.
We arrived back to the school to find out that Schotzie’s paw was fine. It bled some, but was taken care of by the on call vet. Nancy was excited as well. She told us how she had been waiting outside Dilliard’s on a bench as another student was reworking some steps. A group of school children came by and immediately started yelling, “Look a dog, a dog!” Many came running up and tried to pet the dog. Of course, Cole didn’t mind. He was in a downstay beside Nancy. He immediately wagged his tail. Nancy politely told them that Cole was a working dog and could not be petted. The children, being about 7, began responding that he couldn’t be working because he was just lying there on the floor. With a chuckle, Nancy explained what she meant by working and how petting him could distract Cole from his duty of guiding and safeguarding her. Nancy was very pleased when they obviously understood and wanted to know more about guide dogs and how to treat blind people and working dogs, etc. Nancy spent about 15 minutes talking with the children. They all promised to be careful when they saw a working dog not to distract it from its duty. Nancy was quite pleased with herself, and we were pleased with her as well.

After supper, we had a class on taking care of our dogs. We learned to use tick preventative once a month and heartworm preventative, too. We brushed our dogs’ teeth and cleaned their ears. I have been concerned for Joe. His ears keep getting dirty despite me trying to clean them out one other time this week. I used three gauzes to try and get the dirt all out. After that we even learned how to do mouth to snout CPR and rescue breathing. Rita Princivalli, the graduate director, taught the class. She had a large stuffed Dalmatian with brailled arteries and sacs attached to a hand pump to help us learn CPR. It was incredibly fun and useful.
I finished at 7:30 to join Scott on X-Box Live for our 20th Anniversary date. He sent me to our private website that has screen captures of our house security camera system. On the rear, the camera showed a large sign with the words: Happy 20th Anniversary. I love you scrawled across it. That was a perfect present being so far away. We talked until about 9:00 when I had to go to bed.
I am just finishing this up as I get really sleepy. See you tomorrow.

Day 17: Trouble on the Road

January 30, 2010 by Renee K Walker Leave a Comment

We had fun, yesterday, but yes, a very long day. To top it off we had a fancy meal with some dignitaries last night. I felt like a monkey in the zoo again. Only a few came over and talked to us and then they had us spread so far from each other that we couldn’t talk. All of us said we were miserable. Even Chris, the important one, said he was scared. You know it had to be bad. Tampa was great. I was scared at first, but Joe took over and Kate was there to help me when I got confused. Pretty soon, Joe and I were going around like we had lived in Tampa all our lives. Well, almost… I had asthma bad toward the end though. I sat in the front of the van on the way back and nebulized with the battery plug thingie. We had an interesting trip back, too. We were about halfway back when Kate suddenly pulls over at an off ramp where the lines mark between the ramp and the right lane. We had smoke come out from under the van majorly. It looks like Kate noticed something was wrong very quickly, so no danger at all. They quickly unloaded everyone and ran us to the other van in the back. They took us one at the time, so there was no waiting on hot pavement for the dogs. I was last. Chuck took Joe for me because with me in the front Joe had to get in and out the folding doors. Kate helped me as I was still wheezing. We all went sighted guide because we were very close to traffic on both sides. After we were all crammed in, we came home with no further incidents. The van was picked up and took for repairs shortly after we left. I took a pic of us all crammed in the back. There were dogs, students, and trainers all sitting or standing crushed together. Everyone rubbed their dogs since they had to sit and be close to another dog and person. It wasn’t bad. Everyone laughed and had a good time. The dogs slept in whatever position they were in. They were exhausted.
When we returned and had watered and relieved the dogs, we all retired to our rooms because the dogs needed a nap. I finished by Sherlock Holmes book and petted Joe while I nebulized.

Later we fed the dogs and waited to eat with the fancy folks. I got out of there as soon as I could. It was 8:00 pm when I finally got free. By then Joe and I were exhausted and I was going to shower. Well, then Misty and Nancy came in. Misty had learned a neat litttle tidbit from a puppy raiser who knew her dog and mine. Misty’s dog Shotzie is Little Joe’s brother. It is obvious that they remember each other. We had already remarked how much they like each other. As we talked about other things and laughed, the dogs slept. Joe and Shotzie moved close together and snuggled together. You couldn’t tell where one dog started and the other ended.
As we were talking, Kate came in a said a rough storm was coming, so we might want to take our dogs out. We all got up to do so. I got dizzy and fell down. I realized that I now felt really bad. Kate said she would take Little Joe out while I tested my sugar level. It was 60. My sugar level had been high before dinner because of the med treatments all day. Kate brought me some M&M’s and a fudgecicle from the kitchen. I was fine shortly.
Anthony joined Nancy and I in my room later. We talked and laughed until almost 11:00. This was not exactly what I had intended, but it was fun. We tested my FM system as Anthony walked around the building in the dark whispering into my mic. I repeated everything to Nancy. It was hilarious as he found one wall with his head, tripped over an extension cord, spilled water on the floor, etc. Anthony is totally blind and has been since birth, so lights wouldn’t have helped him. He is really a big clown, but he knows when and when not to do it. That is better.
Well, I am going to sleep now. Good night.

Day 16- Beach Time!

January 30, 2010 by Renee K Walker Leave a Comment

We got up and went early today. We went to the beach in St. Petersburg. We left early and stayed until after 1:00 pm. It is was really fun. I was scared at first, though. I haven’t been to the beach in six years. The beach was always special to me because I like running through the water and making it splash. Having fish nibble my toes was always a fun treat, too. Those are very special memories for me. I really didn’t know how I could enjoy the beach again, and I didn’t want to spoil the beautiful memories I had. I needn’t have worried. We walked the beach a good ways at first. Little Joe was dilligent and didn’t trail to near the water’s edge. Just a ways from me, Anthony is walking with Hall. All of a sudden Hall took off for the water jumping several times in the waves before Anthony and the two trainers, Kate and Katie, could pull them both back. Hall wanted to go swimming very badly. It was sooo funny. We all laughed. Kate and Katie were having a ball, too. Later, the Lion’s Club of St. Pete’s fed us lunch. It was very good and sweet of them.After lunch, everyone went walking again. Kate took me to the water’s edge to let Joe and I get our feet wet. I carefully walked into the waves a bit. We were allowed to get wet this trip, but I slowly got out about knee deep. I was scared some. If I got knocked down I was afraid I would get disoriented. Joe only seem to be tolerating the water though. He stayed a step or two back. It was funny. Water was slapping us both. All of a sudden, Joe jumped up and placed his wet front paws on my chest. Water splashed all in my face, and the whole front of my shirt and shorts got wet. He pressed close and put his head on my chest. It was like, “Mama, please get me out of this water.” I really liked it. Slowly the fear went away. Maybe next time, I will go out further. I will take Joe’s harness off for that though. We came back in time to take a nap before feeding the dogs. I did my nebulizer treatment again while Joey slept next to my leg. He let me rub and massage him all over. He was snoring in no time. At his feeding time, he gulped down his food in record time. smile

I worked on JAWS and ZoomText until supper time. I also like the braille display. I don’t have to use my eyes to read it. They didn’t hurt after about 15 minutes like they usually do. Most of the time I ignore it because so much of my work is on the computer. Unfortunately these refreshable braille displays cost 2000 dollars or more. It was nice though.
After supper, I talked to Scott again for awhile.
Then little Joey and I went to play in the room before bedtime. He then slept on the floor while I took a shower. We finished off the day listening to a Sherlock Holmes story. Tomorrow is going to be a really big day. We are traveling down to Tampa for the whole day. It should be fun. Scary, though, at the same time. We will being doing routes on the busy roads and intersections. Until then, sleep tight.

Day 15: Busy, Busy. New Neighborhood Routes and the Mall

January 30, 2010 by Renee K Walker Leave a Comment

Day 15: Busy, Busy. New Neighborhood Routes and the Mall

This has been a busy, fun day. We first went to DTC and walked differents routes in another neighborhood. The routes were longer. My usual trainer has the day off since she worked a 36 hour shift over the weekend. Chuck is the training supervisor. He said Joe and I worked perfectly together. After that, we went to the DeSota Mall in Bradenton. We ate lunch first. We individually went to the place of our choice to order. I went to Chick-Fil-A because it was very noisy. I ordered everything without stopping and listed all including sauce and no ice. That way I didn’t have to listen and figure out what was being said. A new place would have been difficult since they would
have to read the menu. I would never have understand them. I made it easy for myself.
We came back and fed the dogs. It was storming here then. We had free time until supper at 5:00 then I talked to Scott for a short while and played 4 or 5 matchmaking games on X-Box. I even won one. Cool.
Next is shower and floor time with Joe.Tomorrow is a surprise day. I am gonna get some sleep now, so I will be ready. Oops. I better use my machine. Nancy just came from next door to check on me. She thought I was crying or something from all the sounds. I am wheezing pretty badly. Well, let me take care
of it. I will check back tomorrow. Good night.

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