Graduation!

On Thursday I had the pleasure to attend little Juneau's graduation as a Seizure Response Dogguide. Unfortunately, I had underestimated the time it took to get ready and didn't realize until I had settled in on the train that while the camera was in my bag, my lovely memory card remained plugged into my computer back home. So there aren't any pictures here but be sure to check out Sam's blog for some!

This was a huge night for our school- I think it was the first ceremony to have graduations from all four programs since SRD just recently became its own program separate from SSD. It was also a good night for our POOP group, and our sub-group the Poodles of Doom. Among the 17 grads were Zulu (AmyG's Zoom's sister) and Junie along with poodley Kyara! A large number of the POOP group came out to support those with grads and as usual, it was very good to see many friends I hadn't seen in a long time.

There were many speeches from the trainers, the grads, and the exec director of the school and most of them were pretty funny so I managed not to cry at this grad although it was touch and go for a while there with a few of the grads' speeches. Also, the song to the slideshow was Leann Rimes' Please Remember which reduced many people to tears. The meet and greet afterwards was pretty chaotic due to the sheer number of people but of course everyone had a great time meeting with their puppies and new handlers.

I spent the night at Sam's after a stop for delicious ice cream and got my fill of dogs. I always have fun at Sam's and that night was no exception as we watched House with Wylie and Dallas before sleeping. The next morning was rather interesting as we were awakened by the dogs' slurpy kisses and stepping on our faces. After another episode of House while cuddling with the puppies, we got up and had breakfast and then Sam dropped me off at the Go station.

It was a great grad and althouhgh I'm sad I don't have any pictures, it was fantastic to see Junie and the other dogs again, so happy with their new handlers, looking all grown up in their harnesses/jackets. And just for kicks, so this post isn't completely pictureless, the picture I made Sam's card out of ...

Sam, I know you put a LOT of hard work into raising and training Junie so a huge congratulations on her grad, and of course congrats to Juneau on being an awesome SRD! We wish you and your new handler the best of luck and a long, happy life and partnership together :)