Gracie Gets Sick

The Spring Semester has been moving along rapidly.  With only two days on the campus for a 7:45 a.m. developmental writing class that meets Tuesdays and Thursdays and writing center duty on one of those two days, Gracie and I have had plenty of time to break for long walks and to stay on top of the three other totally online classes we have this semester.  Little snow this winter has made the commute easier than normal too. 

The challenge for me Spring Semester--why it's called that is perplexing since most of it is during the hardest part of winter: January and February and much of March--is staying healthy.  Taking vitamins and avoiding the white flour and sugar treats that the English department folks like to leave in the mail room for one another is about all I can do, though.  It's really student contact that is the biggest health threat.  This winter, I have been doing pretty well and have even managed to avoid the mega-cold that has felled both Bruce and Nate.  Then, last night while I was fixing dinner, I noticed that Gracie looked odd.  Her eyes seemed to have rolled back into her head.  Her eyes were open; at least, they looked open.  When I said her name, however, she snapped back and looked at me.

By the time I'd finished making dinner and Bruce had come downstairs to eat, Gracie looked even worse.  I pulled the magnet from the vet off the fridge, and Bruce called the emergency number.  We finished dinner; then took Gracie to the all night vet. 

The all night vet is an odd place.  Though no one seemed to be there other than the in-take person and a father-daughter duo with a sick black lab puppy, we were told that there was a fairly sizable line in front of us.  We settled into the plastic waiting room chairs to wait, Gracie on my lap with her eyes half-closed and a pained look like she had a headache on her face.  The flat-screen TV was tuned to the cable channel Animal Planet, and a program about different cat breeds was playing.

Finally, after a sizable wait, we were shown to an examination room where we waited some more.  Eventually, a grizzled old vet came in and pried Gracie's eyes open.  The diagnosis was conjunctivitis.  The vet offered to do a tear test on Gracie as dry eyes is something that King Charles Spaniels are prone to get.  Being late Saturday night--by that time--and being that this was the all night vet and not our regular vet, we declined the test.  Instead, we opted for some drops.  The vet put the first round in and we took the rest of the bottle home with us.  A visit to the all-night vet is about as expensive as a trip to the emergency room for humans.  Finding out that she wasn't having a seizure, hadn't eaten human antihistamine, or any of a miriade of other possibilities that crossed my mind, however, was priceless.  I learned that acute means "comes on quickly and isn't chronic."  I also learned that dogs have an inner eye membrane.  Gracie's eyes weren't rolling back in head as I had thought they were; that inner membrane was closing.  I also learned that she is a good patient and, though she clearly doen't like having drops put in her eyes, will let me put them there.

Today, Gracie is still under the weather but seems--at least for moments here and there--to be better if not her usual perky self.  The whole episode has been a reminder of how important she is to me and how lost I would be should anything beyond my ability to fix were to happen to her.  A sick dog is sad; a sick Gracie is tragic.  I guess I'll never know how she happened to get an eye infection.  "Just something in the air," advised Nate.  But it seems to me that it has to be something less simple that that, something I can guard against having ever happen again.  Still, if this does happen again, I will know what it is and what to do about it.

We did it!



Gracie on her school rug working





A few little kisses;
doggone good too :-)

Fall semester is over; it's a wrap!  What a semester!  What a dog!  With five classes (18 credits), keeping to my code of quickly returning student work graded and commented on  has been a challenge.  I do try to keep my comments on student papers pleasant but guess I was not always successful there as one student suggested I include smileys with my comments to help students better guess my mood ( : /  :)  : 0 ).  Having Gracie as a constant companion has certainly improved my mood--no smileys needed there.  Not only is she a calm presence, but she insists on a walk or change of scene that I might otherwise not indulge myself in taking.  For example, though I love the Woodduck Trail on the Century College campus, I might have walked it once this fall instead of the many times Gracie and I walked it.  Had she not stood up to look out the car window with her tail wagging each time we turned into the campus parking lot, I might not have approached the days with as much enthsiasm.  Had she not been with me for the last class of each of my on campus courses--the other three being online--saying good-bye to the students might not have been as much fun.  Without Gracie, I could not have brought Hershey's kisses for our last meeting and called them "a few little kisses from Gracie."  Without those kisses, they might not have lined up to give her a good-bye pat.  Had Gracie not been with me at the duty day potluck lunch and long, long, long department meeting, my colleagues would not have thrown smiles my way--directed at Gracie but deflected in my direction.  I must admit that Gracie has more patience during long meetings than I have.  Of course, I can't take credit for her wonderful personality--she gets the credit for that--nor can I take credit for the training that Gracie takes seriously.  I have to give that credit to IHDI.  As Bruce tells me, I'm lucky.  Gracie is the perfect dog for me.  She is.  I hope Gracie thinks she's lucky too. 



The First Semester of "Dog-in-Tow" Draws to a Close

This is Week 16 of the community college where I am currently employed's 16 week semester.  As I write, Gracie dozes deliciously on the bed behind me.  I have a gazzilion papers to grade--the catch 22 of teaching English composition at a community college; otherwise, I would be taking a snooze with her.

Gracie has been a great ally this semester.  Except for occassionally barking at intruders who suddenly appear at the threshold of our office cave, Gracie has been a model of self-control and easy-going companionship.  Without question, Gracie has improved the quality of my life.  Though some in the English Department persist in asking what she does for me and then not listening to what I say, most have quietly accepted having her around.  Most students seem delighted.  Gracie attracts lots of smiles as she saunters down the hall.  Those students who have been less than delighted I suspect of having had bad experiences with dogs in their countries of origin.  I do not press the point with them.

Once the finals have been delivered and scored, Gracie and my biggest worry will be how to snowshoe and maybe even ski without poles (as I am sure she will not like poles because of her aversion to any stick-like tool whether motorized or not: rakes, brooms, vacuums, etc.).  I am counting on our mutual love of snow--my gliding over it and her sticking her nose in it--to see us through.

Well, back to those papers.  Some of them are really pretty good, which I am taking as a sign that maybe, just maybe, America is not going to hell in a handbasket after all.

Winter Arrives!

I am not sure why the first snowfall of the season is so surprising.  It is, though.  Yesterday, well into November with less than a week to go until Thanksgiving, we had our first snow. That shouldn't have been so surprising, but it was. First it was sleet; then slowly it turned into snow and began to accumulate.  We had errands to run and would have done them sooner had I not had a morning Webinar with my composition 2 online class which is currently engaged in writing a longer paper using both primary and secondary sources.  I'm not sure who is more challenged by this: the students who have to write the paper or me who has to guide them through the process to ultimately leave them feeling successful and empowered.  Anyway, when I finished with their Webinar, I felt I had to also review their working bibliographies to make sure they were on the right track documenting their source material.  As usual, some were and some were not.  It was the "were nots" that made the task take until almost noon.  At almost noon winter arrived.

We set out on our errands shortly after twelve, flakes falling and wind howling.  I cavalierly thought we would hit the pet store first to stock up on dog food.  As soon as we reached the entrance ramp to the highway, however, I realized that we had set out at about the same time as the other 90% of the city set out.  The highway was more congested than it is on either end of rush hour during the working week.  "Is everyone crazy?" I made the mistake of saying out loud and realizing as I did that I was one of "them" as the 12 angry jurors say with such emphasis in the film I'd just watched with my campus based composition 1 class.   Our errands took longer and were more work that I had planned.  Gracie was her usual patient self through it all and amazingly seemed to get cleaner the more times she got in an out of the car--even her paws looked cleaner by the time we got back home than they had when we left.

I don't like driving in crowds on a slippery road, but I do like winter.  I do like snow.  So, leaving Bruce to unpack the groceries, Gracie and I grabbed a ball and headed for the park.  Though this had not been evident in the process of running errands--maybe because I wasn't paying attention--clearly Gracie LOVES snow as much or possibly more than I do!  She pranced.  She bounced.  She used her little black nose like a scoop and shoveled up blobs of snow with it that she then licked off with her tongue.  She shagged the purple tennis ball which quickly became white and eventually seemed to disappear.  Gracie tracked it down by running her nose through the snow like a snow plow.  She doesn't bring the ball back to me when she finds it or stops it.  Instead she stands over it waiting for me to come get it.  Sometimes I wonder who is giving whom exercise.

Today, we went back to play in the park some more.  Gracie's long toes and nails and her ability to spread her toes make her a great snow dog.  She is also fluffing out with a very thick but soft winter coat that seems to be water resistent.  She isn't too fond of any long object: brooms, shovels, carpet sweepers, etc.  I'm afraid she isn't going to like ski poles, so we may not be able to cross-country ski together.  However, she might enjoy snowshoeing with me.  Gracie just might be the perfect winter dog despite her small size!  So, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!

Bracing for Winter

Fabulous Fall!

Minnesotans (including Gracie and I) have been enjoying a protracted and unusually beautiful autumn.  We've seen frost on the grass only one morning so far.  Leaves have fallen, but the trees are still not completely bare despite more than a few extremely windy days.  I have been noticing that even the red oaks--often just a dried out brown around here in the fall--are a deep, rich red this year.  I love fall and wish it would last forever, particularly colorful ones like this with little rain, warm days, crisp nights.  Unfortunately, winter will come.  It could come any day now and come suddenly without warning.  Precedents exist for this.  Watching the activity in our neighborhood like the neighbor with the leaf blower (could it be a new one?) who seems to sit at his window waiting for a leaf to drop so he can dash out, gas up, and blow the thing into our yard or into the gutter along the street in front of our house attests to this as clearly as the squirrels madly burying nuts does.  Actually, the longer the weather stays this nice, the more frantic the activity of that neighbor...and the squirrels.  Though I wish he would pick up his leaves rather than sending them over for us to pick-up, I agree with the sentiment that has him doing this.  We all want to be ready: leaves off the grass, garden put to bed, shovels (or in his case snow blower) out and ready to go.

Gracie says, "I'm ready.  Are you?"

This will be my first winter with Gracie.  Though she is probably not preparing for winter consciously, she is certainly doing so.  Her fur is thickening up and fluffing out.  As I brush her these days, I can't help but plan what I will do when she is wet and probably a bit muddy.  Wet dog is not my favorite perfume.  More than that, though, I worry about wet dog at school: wet foot prints, dripping belly, and that wet dog smell.  Students have not minded Gracie being with me in class.  I think they even enjoy the idea of it--so far, at least.  Will that tolerance wear thin when winter presents its inevitable challenges. though?  This winter, I will be able to continue keeping our dog supplies in the office I share with one other part-time instructor who is scheduled to be on campus the days we are not (a fortunate occurrence that luck alone can take credit for).  However, the true occupant of this office is returning at the end of Spring semester.  He is a full-time faculty member who has been on a protracted leave of absence that ends just in time for the summer session.  Gracie and I will be evicted then and undoubtedly sent to the huge, communal adjunct office where nothing of a "personal" nature can be left even overnight much less over the semester.  Thinking ahead about totting our dog supplies in an out daily has me thinking of how to accomplish this now, our first winter.  I imagine needing a towel and a dog brush and maybe even a hair dryer in addition to the water bowl, dog treats, poop bags, and chew toys that we have already filled a desk drawer and part of a book shelf with.

Trail behind Century College

The other challenging aspect to winter will be managing toileting breaks for Gracie.  So far, we have been able to go outside between classes and either take a short walk between entrances to the west campus building or a longer walk around the building or into the woods.  When it gets colder, I will need my coat (another thing to carry or wear to class and then stow while teaching) and will have to deal with Gracie getting wet again.  Short breaks will by necessity be longer and more involved once we have snow.  If we have anywhere near the amount of snow we had last winter, very involved!  Because of this, breaks will take more time, and that time is time away from office hours etc.  I am not looking forward to all this, but at least I know it's coming.  If anyone who has been there and done this--taken a service dog into a part-time teaching situation with all the temporary and volatile circumstances that this implies--has a tip, hot or otherwise, please do not hesitate to share it.  Having access to a clothes dryer while at school would be nice but is just not in the cards in any foreseeable future!  Oh, well.  We're plucky and will, as usual, find a way to manage.  After all, as recent research has concluded, we European Americans are only 4% Neanderthal, which is not enough to keep us peering out from our preferred cave until we become, as they did, extinct.  Instead, we will pull the retracting handle from our rolling briefcase and roll on.

First Flight!

Making tracks on Oceano Beach

For the past few years, we have been taking advantage of the Minnesota Education Association (MEA) fall convention with its two days of no classes to take a fall trip.  This year, we decided to fly to California and revisit the town of Oceano, which is very slightly south of Pismo Beach.  We think is it one of the few beach areas to allow all and any four wheel drive vehicles to drive on it: dune buggies, pick-up trucks, and even huge (really HUGE) motor homes.  Though this steady stream of vehicles parading up and down the beach is odd, it has kept the beach from achieving the kind of popularity that drives prices up and regular, non-extremely wealthy people such as ourselves away.  The vehicles drive slowly and the ocean drowns out their noise.  Call me crazy, but I find this peaceful and a bit of a return to a California past: Beach Boy days, Happy Days.  Throw in the Oeano Diner and the dune buggy store called Kick Sand, and Oceano is the perfect place to get away from the present...a good vacation indeed! 

Visiting the Reagan Presidential Library

Gracie had been with me for a couple months when we decided to go on this trip to Oceano, and thanks to the excellent handouts that IHDI provided, we knew to tell the airlines that we would be traveling with a service dog.  Because of our advanced planning and Bruce's professionalism on the phone, Delta assigned us bulkhead seats both going out and coming back becasue we were to be traveling with a service dog.  I'm not sure what might have happened had we purchased tickets at the last minute.  The bulkhead seats are the ones right behind the business class section and so have no seats that recline into the space.  Delta also told us we would need her shot record from the vet, which I got the day before we left.  We needed to show that when we showed our tickets and our own IDs.  Going out, we were in a larger plane, so there was more room on the floor for Gracie.  Our plane coming back had less space directly in front of us for her.  Of course, she was more nervious going than coming back.  As a result, she spent some of the time going in my lap.  She stayed on the cabin floor on her rug the whole trip back.  I brought the rug (bathmat without rubber backing) that she is used to lying on at home with us for her.  When I put that on the floor of the plane, she got right on it and settled.  Can every IDHI trained hearing dog be as wonderful as Gracie?  If so, I am truely amazed at their ability to select and train hearing dogs.

Hiking the Bob Jones Trail in Pismo

I also followed IDHI's advice about feeding before traveling.  I gave Gracie less food the day before the flight.  The morning of the flight, I took her for a long walk.  Then I fed her a tiny bit (she is used to eating right after a morning walk, I so I fed her) and let her have a small drink of water.  As soon as we got off the plane in L.A., I found a grassy area that the LAX has just for dogs (pretty neat!  I might not have noticed this place otherwise.  And, like much of the public areas that we saw in California, including the beaches, this area had a dispenser of pick-up bags for poop.

We met Bruce at the rental car bus stop.  When the bus arrived, Gracie hopped on, welcomed by the driver.  In fact, we only had one incident in California where Gracie's presence was questioned and that was at a small beach grocery store.  When we explained that Gracie was a service dog, though, the clerk said, "Oh" and allowed Gracie to stay in the store. 

Gracie cuddles with Bruce

Gracie settled right in at the one-room condo we rented two block from the beach and across the street from a state camp ground.  She loved walking on the beach, and when I started picking up sand dollars (the Oceano beach is litered with them--if one gets there before the vehicles run them over), Gracie started to help me by digging them out and then picking them up in her mouth.  She was also interested in catching one of the nimble sea birds on the beach.  The birds were not interested in being caught.  The contest gave Gracie a lot of good exercise...until a bird-loving beach life guard called her out.  "No dogs on this beach, " he told us--we were on our way back to the airport at this time and very close to L.A.  When we told him she was a service dog, he reminded us that a service dog had to be on a six foot lead (she was) and under control (she was...but didn't appear to be).  I reigned her in, of course.  I don't really think she was terrorizing the birds, but rules are rules.

Gracie listening for rattle snakes

I'd like to report that air travel with a hearing dog is a snap.  For much of the trip, it was.  Making travel plans early and alerting the airline to get bulkhead seats, having the dog's vet records for the pass through security (I also had the laminated cards IDHI gave me but no one asked for them.  Still, I am glad I had them because having them eased my mind), following the IHDI feeding before traveling advice, bringing along objects that the dog is familiar with to lay on and to chew, bringing along enough of the regular food the dog eats and some of her treats was also a must (we never would have found a place to buy her brand of dog food easily) all contributed to making Gracie happy, so we could relax and have a good time.  

The hardest part of the trip for me was going through airport security.  I knew from other things I have read that I would have to take off her collar and lead.  I didn't know that I would have to take off everything, including her vest and carry her through the scanner, though.  I am so glad that she is such a clam dog and small enough for me to carry at about 20 pounds.  Still, reassembling ourselves after taking all of our stuff off and out (laptop, cell phone, shoes, watch, etc.) was an ordeal.  Somehow, I was supposed to get all the bins of stuff and the collarless, leadless dog away from the end of the conveyer belt to do this.  Somehow I did.  In L.A., though, they made Gracie and I go though the scanner repeatedly until the only metal I could think of that might be left was the filling in my teeth.  I was so rattled after that ordeal that I almost left without my laptop and cell phone.  One of the inspection crew shagged after me.  This act of kindness successfully removed any resentment I might have been left with.  If you are traveling with a service dog, though, be prepared at the check-in.  You will have to wait in line with everyone else, and you will have to remove everything and get your dog through the scanner without a collar or lead.  I even had to remove my hearing aides, and this made following all the direction that several people were issueing all at one time VERY hard to impossible.

Gracie keeping an eye on sea birds

The trip was worth it though.  California is beautiful and hiking the hills and trails and beaches with Gracie was wonderful.  We even let her share the king size bed with us at night since we didn't have her bed with us.  If we were to go on another mult-day flying trip, I would seriously consider bringing her crate with supplies like her bed, food, bowls, etc. packed inside of it.  I would check this through like baggage.  We were okay without all her stuff, but were we to stay longer, the stuff would be nice to have for all of us.

At School: Week 8

How did I navigate the world without Gracie?  I can't imagine doing so now.  Did every week used to have highlights?  I don't think so; at least, I can't remember them if they did.  I am like Dorothy moving from the black and white world of Kansas to the technicolor world of Oz.

Entrance to the trail

1. Tuesday is our best day at school because we only have one class and an hour in the office.  This past Tuesday was especially beautiful.  Instead of hopping right in the car for the 50+ minute drive home, Gracie and I decided to take a stroll on our favorite wood duck trail.  We had just reached the practice fields--usually deserted--when Gracie spun around.  Of course I turned too and was just in time to move out of the way of a herd of men, probably a gym class out for a run down the trail.  Ball shagging was out, so instead, we left the tail and discovered a beautiful little lake nestled in the woods that made me long for my kayak.  It didn't take much imagination to picture a tiny house nestled on the shore of the tiny lake with my blue kayak  resting next to one side of my lawn chair and Gracie lying on the other side.  So, of  course, I had to recite Robert Frost's "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" for Gracie.  She seemed suitably impressed.

Tiny Lake in the Century College woods

Our second highlight of the week happened Thursday when Gracie and I picked up Nate at his apartment after we finished at school and used a Groupon to have lunch at the 50th Street Cafe.  Graice liked it because the booth was spacious and the floor was carpeted.  I liked the green beans in Asian dressing.

Gracie says, "Let's get out of here!"

Friday, Gracie and I went to the English department retreat, arriving at 8 a.m. as directed with our bottle of cranberry juice and bag of pretzels to contribute to the potluck breakfast.  This is usually an all day affair, but we left early--actually just a little bit earlier than the adjuncts in general who were to stay for lunch and then leave while the UFTs made their plans: summer classes and whom to hire and how. Because our Friday afternoon class meets only once a week and Week 9 is a short week, we decided two weeks in a row with no classes at all was a bad idea and resisted canceling class as the department apparently did.  It was a long day for us both as a result, another Fried day.  We were glad to be heading home at 4:30 p.m. in the afternoon and didn't even mind the rush hour traffic with its periodic stops due to frantic lane changes by the foolish people who persist in thinking that squeezing into the moving lane will get them wherever it is they are rushing to faster; instead, this action, particularly when practiced by so many, is what causes the traffic to stop.  For me the rush of lemmings to the sea is no mystery.  Lane changers reincarnated is what those lemmings are, justice meted out by the universe. 

We saw Nate again Saturday when he came over to do his laundry.  The washer, which has been not working well for awhile, didn't get all the water out of his clothes due to weak spinning.  As a result, the weight of his wet clothes did the dryer in, which led to the third highlight of the week--a trip to Sears with Gracie.  Saturday afternoon, we purchased a new GE washer and dryer from Sears and allowed the hyper salesman to talk us into buying an extended warranty.  Our salesman was like someone out of a 1950s TV comedy, *December Bride* or *Ozzie and Harriet* and the desperation he was giving off was like a cheap perfume.  Fortunately, the pair is being delivered tomorrow, just in time to wash clothes to take on our trip next week.  Gracie rides the airplane.  How to prepare?  Suggestons welcome.

View from the bridge joining the east campus to the west campus.
Century College, White Bear Lake, MN