Day 100: Milepost!

Today started out like any day...recent any day.  Gracie woke me up when she heard the alarm, and we hurried outside.  Back inside, Gracie passed up her breakfast. No amount of coaxing would change her mind.  I had to wonder if she knew that we were scheduled to visit the vet this morning for a check-up and a rabies shot.  I know that sounds far fetched, but Gracie is amazingly intuitive.  I had an 8:30 a.m. Webinar (in the sun room, how nice!) with my composition 2 students this morning and was tempted to do some online course maintenance after that ended.  But I wanted Gracie to arrive at the vet looking her best, so, instead, we furminated.  We went to the vet on the bike and arrived right on time and so went right in. 

If imagining a trip to the vet dampened her otherwise healthy appetite, you wouldn't know it by the way Gracie schmoozed up the vet's assistant.  "Can I give her a treat?" the assistant asked.  I told her sure.  Gracie snapped up the offered treat before I could see clearly what it was--it seemed good-sized, though.  Apparently, Gracie's appetite had returned.  Then, without anyone asking her to, Gracie stepped onto the scale and sat down, weighing in at slightly over 20 lbs.  I had thought she weighed that when she arrived and said so.  The vet, by then in the room with us, said that no, Gracie had weighted 23 pounds when she arrived.  "She's still a bit chunky," he said when I said I thought our high level of activity had slimmed her down.  "We like to feel her ribs."  I assumed by this that he couldn't feel her ribs, at least not without trying a bit harder to feel them than Gracie might like.  The scale became an elevator, and Gracie was quickly raised up to the level of the vet's waist.  The assistant gave another treat, which Gracie accepted voraciously.  "Not all dogs behave like this, " the assistant said dreamily.  "You should know this.  She's exceptionally calm."  I assured her that I knew this about Gracie and found it a fabulous trait.  After the vet finished with Gracie, the assistant took her away to cut her nails.  The vet stayed with me and told me about his experience training service dogs to work with people in wheel chairs.  It was a long story and still Gracie was not back.  Finally, the vet left me in the examining room and went to track down the assistant.  Apparently, Gracie was not quite as docile while having her nails clipped as she had been while being petted and fed treats, the reason I have avoided doing nail trimming myself!  But finally, the assistant brought Gracie back, and we left.

We ran a couple more errands on the bike and then went home. I was back on the computer working on reading student journals when the mail arrived.  In it was a package from International Hearing Dog, Inc (IHDI)!!  It was the package Gracie and I had been waiting for: her orange leash and orange collar and our team ID.  Again, you might not believe this is true, but Gracie was as excited to see her new collar and leash as I was.  So, Day 100.  Gracie is slightly pudgy (and so am I!) but otherwise in excellent health.  I think I am too.  Her shots are up to date.  And today we are an official team.

Gracie proudly displays her new "hearing dog" leash!

Day 99: A Day of Rest

Actually, Gracie and I don't get a day of rest.  In trying to get the schedule of very early mornings firmly established, we are getting up to the alarm at the same time every day.  We hurry outside first thing for Gracie's toilet.  We then come back inside for my coffee and her breakfast.  After she eats, I either get ready to go to campus or go to the sunroom where the computer is currently residing to check in with my classes in the campus e-mail or course delivery sites.  Gracie likes either option because it means taking a morning nap for her.  Martha called Gracie lazy when she was here, but I think that might be unfair.  Gracie snaps too when called on to do so; however, she is the queen of getting herself comfortable. 

Today, being Sunday, a larger than usual newspaper is on the kitchen table waiting to be read, but Gracie does not like being in the kitchen for too long because it is not very comfortable for her on the cold, linoleum floor.  I had just gotten the editorial page spread out today when she demanded that I follow her into the sunroom with her open-toed "touch."  (The "touch" is when a hearing dog jumps at a person and then away before making full, knock a person over contact.)  She was insistent--her nails need trimming, which we will hopefully take care of tomorrow but which currently add extra emphasis to her "touch"--and here I am.  The course delivery system is  down for maintenance, so I can't do my Sunday class maintenance on my two composition 1 classes until 9.  So, I'm going to end this and take Gracie for an early morning run.  I see the sun on the tops of the trees and, blessedly, no lawn mowers seem to be up yet.  Maybe after we run, Gracie will be willing to curl up in the kitchen while I read the paper.  It's worth a try, anyway.

Days 97 and 98: Week 1

The first week at school is always exhausting for me:  meeting new students and answering their questions, discovering that I left remnants of a previous semester on a course Website, and so forth.  This week, I added Gracie into the mix.  This meant keeping track of even more things, getting up even earlier than usual, factoring in breaks for her, and more.  Friday was especially trying as we had a campus writing center hour to put in during the busiest time of the day followed by a three hour class.  The class lasts until an hour before the building closes and the computer lab people turned off the computers in our classroom when they were shutting down the lab causing us to lose ten minutes of class time.  Some students were then unable to finish the work on the classroom computers before the class ended and were left at lose ends because of it.  By the time Gracie and I made it back to my office, there was just 1/2 an hour to go before the building was scheduled to be locked down.  Facing the traffic jam of Friday afternoon rush hour traffic was not appealing.  I considered spending time on the Wood Duck trail and then heading straight to the U of M campus to meet my youngest son for his birthday dinner, but someone with a large, unleashed dog--a golden doodle perhaps--was heading for the Wood Duck trail.  Besides, it felt both hot and humid.  I decided to brave the traffic.  We made it home just in time for Gracie to eat and then to head out again.  Dinner was in an Italian restaurant and, though a bit restless, Gracie did an admirable job after all the sitting she had done all day on campus.  I wonder how long it will take me to integrate the extra things I need to keep track of for Gracie into my own routine?  Gracie inspires me by how quickly she adapts.  Of course, she is a lot younger than I am. 

Days 95 and 96: Amazing Grace

Gracie and I now have one campus class and all the online classes up and running.  We have just one more campus based class to go. Today, Gracie was very excited to get back to the campus after our Wednesday working from home--preparing class for today and keeping tabs on the online class discussions.  She knew where we were going--up to my office--and practically pulled me up there.  Today, though, instead of going right to class from the office the way we do on Tuesdays, we spent 50 minutes in the Writing Center.  On Thursdays this semester, we need to be opening up and turning on the Writing Center by 6:50 a.m. so the doors can open for students at 7:00 a.m.  I had a little trouble finding a suitable place to attach Gracie behind the desk.  But she has adapted magnificently to the idea that her rug/bathmat is "her place" and is happy to curl up on it while I help students.  Attaching her to something isn't really necessary, though it does signal that I don't want her wandering around.  Our writing center stint might as well have been our 30th session instead of our 1st, leaving me to wonder why I spent any time at all worrying about it.  She was the perfect dog during class too.  After class, she convinced me to take a walk on the Woodduck Trail...and a lovely walk it was.  Tomorrow we face a new challenge: a three hour afternoon class in a different classroom than the one the Tuesday/Thursday class meets in.  We will also spend another class hour (50 minutes) in the writing center during a potentially busier time.  I'll worry about these new challenges because that is apparently what I do.  Gracie, however, is both calm and enthusiastic.  She likes riding in the car, she likes going to class, she likes curling up in the corner of my office while I am on the computer, she likes going to the English department mailroom with me when I jump up to get my printing, she likes walking on the Woodduck Trail, and she likes coming back home.  I like having her with me.  Eventually, I may even have to give up worrying.

Day 94: Gracie Meets the Students!

Gracie says, "4:50 a.m.? You've got to be

kidding me!!"

Though we have been on campus several times, this was the first day that Gracie came to class with me.  The class starts at 7:45 a.m. and the drive to White Bear Lake where Century College is located is a 50+ minute drive from where we live.  Though I teach composition, I am able to do the math.  Adding in the morning routine we have developed so that Gracie is comfortable--fed and toileted at least, I decided we needed to get up at least by 4:50 a.m.  I was a bit nervous because we missed the alarm on Monday and overslept.  Nature must have tuned in and decided to protect me from oversleeping again because about 4 a.m. the wind began howling and a thunderstorm blew in.  We waited until the alarm went off before getting up though.  We got in a walk, Gracie's breakfast, a shower for me, and managed to be out the door, dashing through a new wave of thunderstorm by 6:00 a.m., our goal time!  Once we arrived on campus, we took a brief walk, dodging a garbage truck at the mouth of the Wood Duck Trail, amazingly not flooded today!  We took the elevator to the third floor since I had my rolling briefcase and arrived at the office about the time we need to arrive on Thursday in order to open the campus writing center for the day at 6:50 a.m.  Gracie strolled right in and settled on the bath mat rug from Target.  While she dozed, I went over my class plans another time and had just finished that with the student tutor that will be working with the early Tuesday/Thursday class arrived.  He met Gracie: two calm, friendly souls, they hit it off right away.  We went over the get-acquainted activity and then down to the classroom on the second floor the three of us marched.  I put Gracie's mat in the corner and she again settled right in.  Gracie was terrific.  If my children had behaved this well, I would probably have twelve of them instead of just the two!  If the rest of the semester goes this well for Gracie and me, we might not be ready to take our show on the road, but we will certainly be ready for Spring Semester and just maybe anything anyone cares to throw at us.

Day 93: Off and Running

Oh, no!  I set the alarm for 5 a.m.  It went off, but, of course, I didn't hear it.  Neither did Gracie, apparently, as she didn't wake me up.  Tomorrow we have to get up by at least 5 a.m. to get all our morning ritual completed before starting our 50+ minute drive to White Bear Lake in order to be in front of students by 7:45 a.m.  I guess we didn't practice enough or practice in the right way (without her knowing that we were just practicing--more of the "real thing" though I am not sure how we would have done this), did too many things this weekend, and simply have gotten too good at sleeping enough to feel rested over the summer.  Sadly, all that will have to stop now.  I guess we'll need to get to bed tonight by 9 p.m. in order to get started at the right time tomorrow.  Maybe we need a louder, less subtle alarm--like the smoke detector!  Gracie is very good with that sound.

Gracie says, "Is one of those for me?"

Meanwhile, in an effort to eat as many of the delicious beef steak tomatoes that we possibly can, Bruce barbecued hamburgers last night on our little Weber grill set-up on the driveway while Gracie watched him from her perch up on our deck.  Since Bruce was trying not to use lighter fluid to get the fire ramped up, the process took a lot of time.  Rather than lying down and dozing off, Gracie rested her chin on the deck railing.  Is any other dog as cute as this one?  It's had for me to imagine...now if she'd only hear that alarm clock go off!! 

Days 91 and 92: The Weekend

Safely at the concert, Gracie says, "So that is a cat!"



Gracie was a party animal this weekend.  Saturday, we went to Jeff's 40th birthday party.  It was supposed to be a surprise.  We got lost on our way there, though, and were the ones surprised to find Jeff already in the kitchen!  Oh, well.  Gracie had an exciting time keeping track of the resident cat who, though wearing a bell, felt it necessary to flaunt her freedom.  Gracie was in her vest and attached to me with her leash: in other words, she was working.  At one point, the two of them stood literally nose to nose.  I'm sure the condo would have been in a shambles in no time had I let Gracie go.  All in all, Bette was pretty nice to the canine intruder on her turf--thankfully.

Our next stop was the third annual Blood on the Tracks concert and fundraiser for a group that gives guitars and guitar lessons to veterans.  Fittingly, the concert was in Veterans Memorial Amphitheater in Wolff Park in St. Louis Park.  Gracie was not the only dog at the concert, but I think she was the only hearing dog.  I didn't see a single cat, though, at least not of the four legged variety.  Gracie and I slipped out a bit early, but we spent three hours there...a long time for both of us.

Today, we mowed the lawn and then made killer bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches with beautiful beef steak tomatoes from the vegetable garden that Gracie patiently watched me water all summer.  Afterward, we took a walk to the park where we discovered owl decoys attached to a neighbors fence.  We have noticed before that these people have three chickens: a red one, a white one, and a black one. We suspect they are left over from Easter baskets given to their three little girls.  The owl scared Gracie who jumped when she noticed it and then tried to give it a wide berth.  We turned and crossed the baseball diamond to escape the owl's ominous glare--undoubted there to scare hawks and maybe even a bald eagle as both had been sighted in and about our neighborhood park and swamp and either would undoubtedly love a nice chicken dinner (or maybe one or the other has already had a chicken dinner already and the decoys are there to save the others!)  In the park, a grasshopper jumped right in Gracie's face...and soon wished it hadn't as Gracie snapped it boldly up.  Scared of the plastic owl but fearless when faced--literally--with bugs. This is not the first insect that I've seen her catch and eat, really a fine choice as a dietary supplement for any species requiring protein.  Some red leaves have appeared in the woods and though I wish now that it's not 100+ degrees and humid anymore that summer would last forever, it doesn't.  School starts tomorrow.