You’re On Fired!

Erie, Pennsylvania firefighter Mary Wolski has gone to court to get her job back because she says her termination violated her constitutional rights.

The reason she was let go? While trying to take her own life, Wolski
set her father’s house on fire.
No mention was made of whether or not she also helped to put it out, something that might have helped her case a little.

I don’t know why she thinks her job should be returned to her. As Fire Chief Tony Pol quite rightly points out in Wolski’s termination letter, setting somebody’s house on fire makes you not only unsuitable for the job, but also makes you a danger to yourself and other people.

To me, letting her continue to work would be a lot like letting a sex offender continue to function as a priest. Ok, bad example. It would be like allowing cheats and criminals to serve as elected officials. NO wait, that won’t do at all. Let’s try this again. Bringing her back to the department would be like letting somebody with more than one DUI continue to own and operate a vehicle. Oh never mind, you get my point. And as long as the people in charge of making important decisions for Erie’s fire department do too, everything will work out just fine.

The Babs Journal: Day 11 (May 19, 2005)

Man I didn’t sleep well last night. I couldn’t get to sleep. Sometimes at night I worry about what will happen when I get back home. I worry that then, when I have to take care of all my other stuff and her, will I be overwhelmed? And will I be able to know what to do if instructor Tim’s not there to help me out? I mean I think I do ok, but he’s there to sorta guide me. I guess I’ll find that out this afternoon because we do the first tandem walk. I know I’m just worrying too much.

I also wonder if I’ll find places for all her stuff. I’m not too worried about that, but it pops into my head. Stupid things. I know I just worry too much. But you sorta think about those things when it’s getting closer to the end. I know I still have a week, but this week flew.

I also get scared about what Tim thinks of me. He’s so respectful to all of us, even though Margery’s doing things that i’m sure are making him go, “holy crap will you be able to handle a guide dog?” If it isn’t, I’d be wondering. He’s very observant, and knows I second guess myself. I wonder what else he thinks. I would love to see inside his mind.

Babs is starting to play funny business with me. When I get my leash, she rolls around on the ground and avoids me. Testing level 4. Silly girl. I’m just hoping that’s not a sign of something else. Ah, probably not.

God I’m still hungry. I had the usual bagel and tea and stuff and I’m still hungry. Is my stomach expanding or something?

I have an idea for Anka’s gift. Maybe mom and dad could get it when they’re down.

Anka’s getting vicious with her jokes. I think she’s just kidding, but Tim was going to order some chips and she said, “No chips. Look at your stomach, it’s on your legs. You shouldn’t have chips. You’re like my daughter.” So he jabbed her back because she started coughing. Oh it just kills me to hear her cough. Anyway, he said “stomach on my legs is better than hack hack hack.” Then we all started
laughing about shishkahooq again. Stupid commercial.

I can’t believe it’s Thursday. God I need to be in a better mood. The radio isn’t helping. Oh well.

I don’t know if Babs likes being groomed anymore. That makes me sad because every other dog seems to like it, what am I doing wrong? And I feel too embarrassed to ask instructor Tim to watch me do it. How hard is it to run a comb through a dog’s hair? Like hell how hard is that? Part of me wishes there were more newbs in the class…but then again, maybe they wouldn’t be brave enough to ask either. I should just swallow my pride and ask. People said to ask about whatever before you go home.

And I hope I’m not hurting her when I’m walking her on leash. Sometimes she overextends herself and I feel like I’m pulling on her. But I guess instructor Tim would tell me if he saw something wrong.

Is it normal for me to lose confidence in everything I’ve done so far? I’d love to know, but am a little nervous to ask. Maybe if I catch Sharon or something. I dunno. What the hell is with my mood? Maybe Amy’s blues are catching.

Oh, the plague of the newb. They’re all too afraid to show weakness, even though they’re probably showing it in actions instead of words. Just ask the frickin question. That shows more strength than you know.

Gotta remember to ask instructor Tim about how you cross at mid-block crossings, where there’s a pole in the middle of the sidewalk with a button. There must be a way to cross those even if there’s not a downcurb there. I don’t know. Gotta ask him because I cross those a bit. He better not say, “you just don’t do them.” I’ll be sad. I doubt it though.

I really hope it warms up to what they say it’s supposed to. That would be nice. I wish we could watch the news tonight while we eat dinner. I wanna find out what happens with the budget vote. I don’t wanna have to vote again. Arg! They’re all slime, I tell ya.

Ber it’s cold in here. I should take this one down and do obedience and grooming, provided she doesn’t find grooming torture. She must enjoy it, she stays still for me, except for sitting down whenever I go to comb her tail, but I know no dog likes her tail combed. I just worry when I’m combing her underbelly. I should just swallow my pride and get instructor Tim to watch me because I’m worried. I don’t wanna hurt her. I wish I could read her mind. Well I should get my butt in gear, then maybe I’ll cheer up.

Well I did. We went on a great walk, and Margery says Babs is likely just testing me with the leash thing. Silly girl. We went and did more traffic work, it wasn’t so bad as I thought and then we did a bit of off curb obstacles. Tim must work with some real nutjobs, because he thought he had to remind us what an off-curb obstacle was. And to think about safety when going around them. Well no shit sherlock. If there’s fense and construction up there, there’s no way in hell I’m stepping out into the street. Jesus Murphy.

Did I write about how Anka gave Tim the razz about having a big stomach? We have a couple options about how to get Anka’s stuff. We might get her some chocolate. That would be damn good. And there’s always the mug and coffee.

Oh, and instructor Tim says you can do midblock crossings at the pole thing. Rockin awesome cool.

It’s such a nice day out there. I might have to go out and sit on the patio and soak up the sun. Oh there’s Babs in her bed. Silly silly girl.

Poor Margery’s watch is threatening to die. I might lend her my clock radio so she has something to check the time. It sucks having nothing to check the time.

We might have pie for dessert tonight. Mmm…pie! drool drool.

I’m starting to think like a dog. If I smell something down the street I think, hmmm if I were a dog, I would just be in sniff heaven. Better tell her to leave it. And sometimes, when I have to go to the bathroom, I wonder if she has to go too. She really does change your life.

This afternoon should be interesting. Wonder how long we’re walking for since we both get out together.

Margery scared instructor Tim I think today. She almost took her dog out into the middle of the street. Man alive that woman is going to get herself killed.

Apparently we’re all loud, we laugh so loud you can hear us through the whole building. Sharon calls me the birdy because I whistle and sing all the time. I must drive them all looloo. Well I should do a quick email check and then I might go out to the patio. Ooo sun on the patio!

Interesting. I’m called birdy in one place and Twinkle toes in another. That kind of makes me giggle.

Well this afternoon was the most amazing feeling in the whole world. That was the best. Oh it was my first real puppy walk because there was no instructor Tim leash.

Compare that to the Trixie days, where I got her on day 4 and started walking without the double leash in the afternoon of day 5.

I completely controled her myself and it went damn well! There was only one street I screwed up on but it wasn’t your conventional street crossing. We did perfectly. I wanted to run down to the end of the street just to see what was there. I felt like flying! It was awesome!

Margery and I both got out of the van and we both walked our dogs, and we had to keep one behind the other and switch positions so that the dogs took turns leading and following so one wouldn’t get lazy. I wanted to just sprint. But I had to slow down, and managed to slow her down, and felt in complete control. Her sniffing didn’t even bother me. I was able to bring her back under control.

The apprentices just watched and it was great. one funny thing happened. When we came back to the bus, she almost gallopped to it. Mark says, “Get on and ride!” We had a good laugh about that.

She’s the best damn dog in the whole world.

Well, she tried. Poor beast.

We walked for an hour and I didn’t even feel it. The poor dogs were puffing and panting. We gave them a bit of water just to cool them off a little, but not too much because they might bring it all back up. Then we brought her back and I fed her and she actually behaved herself rather well. She’s starting to realize that when mom says slow the hell down,
mom means it and if you keep bolting like a wild beast, you have to wait longer for the chow down. She’s starting to sit if I just say door. It’s great.

Student Tim, Sharon and I had a little confab about Margery. We think she’ll be on about as short a leash as the dog when she gets home. Instructor Tim will come see her and then either say she’s unsafe or tell her she can only take the dog to certain places. Poor Margery, has such trouble. Then Sharon and I had tea and that was cool. Ooo, have to remember to wash my mug.

Some of the dogs had a little play in the hall and the leashes got all hooked together. They managed to get them unhooked though.

I thought Anka was going to eat us alive just before dinner. We were sitting in the lounge watching the budget vote, and she came in and said, “come and eat or if you don’t come in two minutes, there will be no supper for anyone.” We all got up and looked like little kids. “Yes ma’am, yes.”

We still don’t know what Shish means in her language, whatever it is, she’s from Bosnia. When student Tim joked about wanting Chicken Shishkahooq or whatever, she erupted into laughter and said we were being silly, and said we must know what Shish is in her language.

Dinner was absolutely delicious, probably because I was so hungry from the walk, and then we had pudding for dessert.

Heehee I’m excited, tomorrow night we go to Timmy Ho’s. Then the next day, well, it’s a bit chaotic. We have a morning walk and then we come back and get our dogs weighed, and then people see/call their puppy walkers, sniff sniff, and the rest of us go out for walks, and what the hell is Saturday night? I can’t remember. Then Sunday is visitors’ day. Then Monday is the holiday but we do more work and then we go out for Chinese, on CGDB’s dime no less. Then Tuesday I know we’re going for a country walk in the afternoon, don’t know what’s going on in the morning and then we’re having a chat with the vet. Maybe I can corner her about Babs’ lump. Then we go out to Swiss Chalet because student Tim was craving it. Then we go on a night walk! Hee hee! A night walk! All together! Heehee! Don’t know what’s up with Wednesday, but Thursday we graduate and then Friday it’s all over. Yeesh! Oo I’m so excited to see mom and dad. Heehee. I think that’s about all for today.

This School Board Needs Improvement

Here’s a message for the Massachusetts Board of Education: Wouldn’t you be better off spending your time and money fixing your under-performing schools than looking for a kinder word than under-performing? You know what they say about a rose by any other name? Well, it’s true. People can see through the bullshit, so spare them, and instead of quibbling over words, uh, actually fix the problems so you don’t have under-performing, or high needs, or priority 1 schools. Isn’t that what matters?

Ladies And Gentlemen Of the Jury?

I don’t know what it is, but there’s something really weird about two jurors screwing in a courthouse bathroom, especially since they’re jurors in the case of a child molester. I would think hearing that kind of evidence would turn people off sex. But because of these two wackos, the trial will be put on hold.

I can’t believe these two class acts were among the people chosen to be on the jury, especially given the way jury selection is so carefully done. The pool must have really sucked. I mean, these people weren’t exactly icons of discression in the sex department. Could they have been any better at hiding their true selves when it came to other things?

Any way you slice it, those are two citizens who were not very up-standing in either the literal or figurative sense.

Give Me All Your Money! No Really, It’s Ok, You Know Me.

I just had an interesting and highly illogical conversation with a nice woman from the March of Dimes who was going around our building to sign people up for something called the Dime Plan, a monthly donation scheme to benefit the physically disabled.

She told me that I didn’t have to part with any money today, but that if I was wanting to participate I would have to give out some basic information. Not being down with this idea for a number of reasons, I asked if there was a website where I could go to get more information and perhaps even sign up. What she said next was a line of reasoning I’d never heard before, and hopefully will never hear again.

“We like doing it this way rather than online because people know who they’re talking to and it makes them feel more comfortable.”

My response was something along the lines of “you’re kidding, right? That doesn’t make any sense, because I’ve never met you until right now and the only things I know about you are the ones you’re choosing to tell me.”

She didn’t understand this, so Carin and I politely explained to her how easy it is to misrepresent oneself by saying that you’re from someplace you aren’t and doing something you have no intention of actually doing. It took some work, but it finally clicked and we got our website.

This little conversation made me realize once again how gullible a lot of us are. For this woman to be able to say to us with a straight face that we should be fine with dishing out our life story because she’s standing right here so it must be legit tells me that this is far from the first time she’s used that line. It also tells me that it must work. to me this is insane, but who can argue with success? Ok, I guess in a way I just did, but whatever. What I’d really like to know is why it works. It has to be that we’re either spineless,
retarded
or both. whatever it is, we need to rise up as one and stop being it, and we need to do it yesterday. I know it sounds like a lofty goal, but if we could all make an effort to process what we’re hearing for a few seconds, we might be able to put an end to the barrage of solicitation we’re subjected to on a daily basis. It only works because we allow it to work, so quit allowing it to. It’s ok to say no. The physically disabled won’t haunt you at night. Hell, it’ll be hard enough for a lot of them to get up your front steps or reach high enough to tap on your bedroom window let alone give you a serious haunting. So sleep well and for God’s sake save your pennies. No wait, make that dimes.

I’d Like To Buy The World A Nail…

At long last, I have found the answer to a question that has been puzzling the world since…sometime last week. that question of course is how do you take a story about
the government trying to regulate a bunch of lunatics crucifying themselves
and make it even weirder? The answer is one of those things that’s so obvious that I never would have thought of it in a million years. Corporate sponsorships. Yes,
Coca Cola and a phone company
have both paid to get their names on the festival. Seriously. I couldn’t make this kind of shit up if I tried, it’s the real thing.

The Babs Journal: Day 10 (May 18, 2005)

Today is a strange day. It is the exact middle of the program. 9 days have passed and in 9 days I go home. Yikes! Time is flying. I’m slowly feeling more like I’m ready for this…although I still have twinges of nervousness. I’ll probably be happy after aftercare is over. I’m a little nervous about that, even though now I know that instructor Tim is doing my aftercare.

God damn yesterday was embarrassing, forgot to mention that somehow, when putting the harness on, I got it all backwards. He must think I’m a dope. There I was with the harness looking more like a wide-brimmed hat than a harness. Arg! Oh well, he says the newbs all do something along those lines.

It’s such a habit to hand the handle back to him…but this handle is mine, all mine! Heeheehee! It hangs on my door. Must remember to bring it every time. We take the bus today. I’m excited. Who knew a city bus could be so exciting? And yea, no socks were stolen or coin purses were abducted. Today I hope to give Sharon and student tim the money for instructor Tim’s present. I really really really really hope van driver Mike happens to have two 10’s or a 10 and two fives. I’m gonna need more money soon, although I’ve done well on the 60 I brought, considering 20 of it just went straight to the puppy picture.

I can hardly wait for Saturday, I get to call Babs’s puppy walkers and talk to them on the phone.

In case you’re wondering, puppy walker is Ottawa’s term for puppy raiser.

They’re not coming because they’re all the way from B.C. I’m so jealous of Margery, Amy’s puppy walkers are coming, and only hers. The rest of us have to settle for a phone call. I wanna ask them if Babs liked peanut butter, what toys she liked to play with, what her personality was like as a puppy. Oh I have a million questions. I wish I could shake their hands.

Why are my eyes tearing up? That was unexpected. Just sorta happened. That was messed. Wasn’t even feeling really sad, but as soon as I started writing about them, I got all teary-eyed. It must be hard to have to see their puppy off.

Oh Babs and that moo of hers. She’s so cute. I don’t need an alarm clock. She wakes me up right on time. I somehow didn’t have my alarm on…and suddenly I get lick lick licked. I think, not yet. Then I hear a dish banging next door and look at my watch and by jove it’s time to get up! Like clockwork. And I noticed that she’ll sit faster when there’s food to be had. Oh then I can say door and she’ll plop her butt down. Driven by food I tell ya.

duh! that is all.

I really hope my legs don’t hurt as bad today. Oo I feel good. I just helped Margery with the laundry machine. I’m so proud of myself. Never touched the dials in my life and got it to go. Man oh man. That poor woman has so much trouble. And that little stool works like a dream. It feels so good to help someone else. She has such a rough time. Last night she couldn’t tell the difference between a toony and a quarter. Um, wow. Poor woman. Don’t let me lose the feeling in my fingers.

I should probably drag puppy down to do obedience…so Amy’s not out there having a wizz. I know Margery likes to take her early. Then I’ll take this one out for a pee. I wonder when we have to start scooping? I wanna start soon because I wanna get good before I have to do it at home.

We should have at least been feeling the leash. At this point, I had no idea at what times she’ll pee, poop, nothing.

Well I’ll let ya know how the bus went.

Ooo the bus. Heehee. Well the bus was cool. On a low floor bus they can actually guide you up to a seat. On the old buses, they have to follow behind because there isn’t room for 2 to walk. Oh well, there are more and more of these low floor buses all the time. It was a pretty flawless bus trip. But this one missed a few curbs so we had to drag her back and make her stand at the curb. ooo can’t do that in Guelph or we’ll be pancakes! Especially at the first corner. Jeepers Twist in Margery’s words.

Oh boy oh boy. Margery’s laundry got into a bit of a mess. Student Tim didn’t check where he was putting his laundry and double washed Margery’s jammies. Woops. so then she comes back and finds someone else’s stuff in there, so just leaves it in the wash and puts her stuff in the dryer. I think it’s Sharon so I find her and ask her…and it isn’t her. But poor unsuspecting student Tim just boots it right down to the lounge to eat, so I don’t get to tell him until I’m at lunch.

Babs and Amy almost had a little fun. The lady who cleaned the runs didn’t shut the gate between the two dog runs…and well Amy was out there. All the way over to my run. She must have thought this was the biggest busy run of all time! Instructor Tim stopped me just in time. and Sharon and Tim almost swiched dogs again because of the dog run fiasco. I can just hear it all now. “What colour is my dog, Anka?” But Sharon knew her dog a little better and knew this wasn’t it. Man oh man.

I got Sharon all paid off for the instructor Tim gift. Then they just have to tell me how much I owe for the Anka gift and we’ll be all good. I almost fed the money to the dog. I felt something brush against my hand and I thought it was Sharon’s hand but then I realized it was Charity’s slimy mouth. Brings a whole new meaning to money hungry, doesn’t it?

Did I mention Willow tried to have a chomp on her leash again this morning? So we all started singing woe, here she comes. Watch out leash, she’ll chew you up, woe, here she comes, she’s a leash eater. God we’re corny.

I almost lost my reflective sleeve. I was carrying it under my coat and went through a door, and boom! Down she went! We may have to shorten it a bit because if not, it may be all rumply bumply.

I messed up my harness handle a bit when I was putting it back together last night. But instructor Tim fixed it pretty fast. He scared me today. I said, “I made a booboo.” He said, “What? AT this stage? No!” It sounded like we weren’t supposed to make mistakes anymore. But my only booboo was I dropped the sleeve. I’m happy my booboos have just been mild.

I guess Margery had a rough time with Amy. Amy was out of sorts. I wonder if mine will do that ever.

Ask the parking meter you kissed when you got home if she ever gets out of sorts.

Poor thing, instructor Tim thinks she might have a bit of the blues. He doesn’t know.

We will learn that there are a lot of things instructor Tim doesn’t know. He wasn’t aware that willow had a leash-chewing issue, he didn’t think Babs would resist me reaching into her mouth and he certainly didn’t expect her to clamp down harder, I don’t know. I really don’t know who was most responsible for training our dogs. I think he said an instructor named Jane trained Charity, and he said he did most of the training for Babs, but I don’t know.

Babs was barking this morning out in the busy run…arg had to tell her to be quiet. and I guess after I left, she did it again and tried to climb the door. Crazy puppy.

Man the time is passing slowly now that I don’t have a book to read. She’s flopped out on the floor…maybe I’ll pet her for a while. Yeah I’ve been speedy today…did her groomming and obedience already, aren’t I the quick whip?

So this afternoon we play with cars. Holy crap tomorrow’s Thursday. Wonder if Sharon needs any more Dove Soup. Hahahahaha. Oh poor Anka.

Man everybody’s got their cute little thing they do. Margery always says “jeepers twist”, “my land” and “damn sam”. She wacked her head off the van top. Ouch! I felt that from my seat. Bang! Just hard as you could go. And all she said was, “damn sam!” Student Tim has this funny laugh. There’s always a slight pause, and then he just laughs all out. Sharon has this high voice and says all her th’s like d’s. So it makes me laugh when I hear her say, “get off de bed.” And we say bedbug just so she’ll say it because we think it sounds so cute. And instructor Tim always says “this here”. I expect him to be in a western movie. He always says, “there are two exits from this here room”. “This here door leads to”…”we’ll go down this here street.” But he has no accent whatsoever. And that’s what makes it funny. And Anka. When you finish one glass of something, you feel like the cup is bottomless, because quick as a wink, there she is filling it again. She seems tired these days. I worry about her. Her doctor is making her get blood tests done, don’t know why. Really hope she’s ok.

Our driver’s very patient. Don’t know who’s driving us this afternoon. Maybe it will be Peter. Guess it was last Wednesday that we had our very first walk. Holy wow. It is Wednesday today? Right? Yeah that’s right. In the words of Margery, Jeepers Twist. I think the transition is starting to happen in my head. I’m starting to not think of my cane. There were moments where I’d still think of myself walking with the cane. And I had to say consciously, “no, with my dog. Dog!” And sometimes i’d go to leave and think, “Where’s my cane?” It’s starting to change. The apprehension is starting to go…although the curb-missing makes me a little twitchy. But we’ll get it going. At least my legs didn’t hurt so much today. I should ask him if yesterday’s walk was up a steep incline or something. I feel like an old woman. But I think Margery is finding this a hell of a lot more draining than I am. She looks so tired in the mornings and sounds so haggard when she talks to Amy. Maybe I should go pet Babs and then we’ll go down and sneak an email check. Heehee. and then maybe it’ll be time to take her out for a poop. And then off we go again.

Well today was an interesting day. I headed out for the van..and it wasn’t there. So Margery and I waited close to the building. Then the dude who drives pulled up and we thought it was Peter. So we called him Peter the whole time. Turns out it was Marol or however ya spell it. But it sure wasn’t Peter.

Now was the time to play with cars. At every road crossing, Sue would drive in front of us with her car and when Tim tapped me on the shoulder, I was to urge the dog forward, and gently encourage…and praise the dog for waiting when I said to go. My dog was an angel. Tried to go crooked, but that’s about it. Would not move if there was a car. Then we came back and Sue said that we were all doing well, congratulated us and told us to remember we’ve only had the dogs for a week. Only a week, and we’ve progressed this much. Of course she had to remind us that our dogs have limitations and we still have to be smart. Duh. But ya have to say it or we’ll have some nimrod crossing the street willie nillie saying, “oh my dog’ll stop, I don’t have to think.” Sue’s really nice.

We came back and fed, etc. and Tim helped me put the reflective sleeve on the harness so we can be seen bettter at night. We were afraid it would be too big because we had to make the harness tighter for my little woof, but it seems to be fitting. Then student Tim started giggling about some commercial we all hear while waiting our turns for our walks. It’s for this farmboy grocery store. And this kebab or however ya spell it. These salmon shish kebabs and chicken shishkehooq or something. Don’t ask, it’s a radio commercial. So he starts saying that he’s going to say to Anka, “it’s my birthday next week, can we have chicken shishkahooq?” Just to see what she’d do. He did it, but we were all laughing too hard for her to take us seriously. Plus, she knew when his birthday was, I guess it’s in our files, so knew he was pulling some kind of prank.

Anka keeps calling Sharon cheesecake because every dinner, she asks, “Are we having cheesecake for dessert?” So every dessert she serves, she says, “cheesecake” when she gives Sharon hers.

We don’t know what Anka lives on. It looks like she doesn’t eat anything…just smokes and drinks coffee. She and Sue Hawkins too. Very strange.

After dinner, we watch Margery get all lost while looking for the bathroom, or Mrs. Minnifer as she calls it. So Tim and Sharon and I all just get talking and laughing and then I slip to the bathroom, come back, and then Sharon has Charity loose. Charity who’s real name apparently was Varity but they had to change it because they had another Varity. Anyway so we’re all petting Charity. Then just as I go to get Babs for a poop, Tim and Sharon both decide to be bad and let their dogs loose. So Sharon puts Charitty’s play collar on with bells and the race is on. I try to come through the mayhem with Babs, and she breaks
free! Now all 3 dogs end up in tim’s room, having a grand old time. We finally get things back in order and Babs and I go to the room where her run is, laughing so hard. Now she’s exhausted, she’s had a chew of her bone and she’s snoring like a baby.

So tomorrow morning we do more playing with cars, only the playing will be made more natural. Then tomorrow afternoon we try our first tandom work! Ooo! That means two of us with woofs. Two woofs without instructor Tim holding a leash! ooo!

Check the day number on this. It’s day 10 of training, and this first walk without an instructor holding onto a leash didn’t happen until day 11! We have less than half to go, because there’s a day of rest in there, and one of those days we’ll be heading home, and just now we’ve been given some freedom?

And then tomorrow night is a hangout night again and then Friday night we go out for dessert and coffee at Timmy Ho’s. And then we come back and do doggy store shopping. Sniffle sniffle, I don’t get to talk to my puppy walkers until Monday! Sniffle sniffle whine! Oh well, it’ll be worth the wait.

Still no word about the lump! I just want to hear, yes, or no! please! Pronto! move! come on! hop up! Ok enough. Not really much else going on. Should probably go send this off and come back here. Babs is exhausted, chewed on her bone and now snores. Can’t remember if I already said that.

The Babs Journal: Day 9 (May 17, 2005)

Wow, I’m up early. It’s 7:15 and I’m all done.

I found out Babs likes socks. I’ve been leaving my socks out by my shoes…and well one of my socks ran away, to her bed, and inherited some dog slime. I had to go find it and bring it back. At least she didn’t chew a hole in it. That’s really funny…and the whole time I’m looking for the sock she stole, she’s just rolling around all innocent and stuff.

It seems today was the day all the dogs, well most of them, revealed hidden tallents. Amy stole Margery’s whole coin purse…and that thing doesn’t look easy to steal, and Willow revealed that she likes to chew leather, specifically her leash! Chewed it so badly that he needs a new one! I think this morning instructor Tim speaks to upper management about the vet thing with Babs’s lump on her
chest. Really worried about what the news will be. I’m so attached to
her that I couldn’t get another dog if it was that bad, but I’m afraid of
how much it will all cost…and what it is. God I should stop thinking about
it. It can’t be that serious because I press on it and she doesn’t
flinch so it can’t be that sore.

But then I learned Babs didn’t let me know when she hurt.

Anyway, maybe I should start the journey to the breakfast table. then we all have to scoot like crazy people to take our dogs to busy, we all get in the big van and we get our I.d’s done. me and my woof. Together in a passport picture.

Sometimes we have the funniest conversations at the breakfast table. Student Tim says that there was a student in the class he was in the first time that swore that a dog got named Goodscrew. We just laugh and say “come, goodscrew” and all fall over laughing at how funny that would sound. And there was this other guy who always would repeat things that student Tim rides with on the handi-transit in Winnipeg. Apparently one day he just kept saying, “clean it Bill.” and singing about sugardaddies. So now all we have to say is “Clean it Bill!” and we all start laughing.

There was a reason I opened this. Oh yeah, we finally put our own harnesses on the dogs. We’ve been using his harness because it was nice and soft and stuff, but today we get the pictures taken and then we put the reflective sleeves on the harnesses and from now on we bring our own harnesses to the walks. Wow, heehee. One step closer to Babs being my guide woof!

And that was weird too. Why wouldn’t we want to work in our own harnesses for as long as possible before we went home?

Today we get our pictures taken, then we do a short walk, come back for lunch, and then in the afternoon we go out again and then we have dinner and then we go out to a pub. Should be interesting. Got my money…money to pay instructor Tim back for the battery and then money for my photo. Don’t know if we’ll get a colour picture or black and white. It’s just an ID. but should I go colour? I dunno. Later.

Oh boy. What a day. Went out in the morning with our own harnesses, and got our pictures done. We got on this bench so you and the dog sat together. Then you put your arm around the dog and they snapped the picture so your head and the dog’s head are both in the picture. That was the cutest thing. We had to take two of Babs because she tried to look away. Camera shy I see.

Then we sit in the van, and one by one we all go on this walk. It goes well, pretty flawlessly…except my legs hurt like a mo fo and I don’t know why. I had to keep focused on the dog to just keep going so I didn’t feel the pain as much. I don’t know why. That was kinda weird. But the walk ended in a really neat way. At the end of the walk, he let me keep the handle! heehee! I have a complete harness now. Complete with handle! Wow! Coolness right there.

So we come back for lunch, and then I groom her. Then I read for a while and take her out to busy and then we go on our afternoon walk, suburban walks…in the places with no sidewalks so you have to walk in the street. Eek that was scary. You have to keep checking to make sure you are actually close to the side curb. Then we came back and did the usual routine and ate supper.

At supper, I found out that this dude who my parents know who has a dog actually called to say hi to me. That’s way cool!

Then after supper, instructor Tim took us out to a little pub place. That was fun. But we had to keep our dogs in check because they all wanted to lick the floor, especially mine! And who shows up to sit with us? Scary Jane! I don’t know, but tonight she seemed extra scary. In my head I kept hearing her saying, “off ya go! Off ya go! Chop chop!” like she used to say when she was my instructor. Gave me the chills. Man she’s busy, she has 2 retired dogs and one career change dog, that’s the flowery way of saying they didn’t make it.

At least at GDB, career change does mean they may do a different career. It didn’t seem that way in Ottawa.

Tomorrow should be really interesting. We get to ride the bus in the morning, and then the afternoon, we get to play with cars as Sharon says..so they drive at you and you see what the dog does, or something. Something along those lines. And guess who’s apprenticing for this school to be a trainer? Ben Francis. That name ring any bells to anyone? Bryan Francis? Yup. He used to work for Ottawa, and now he’s gone to San Rafael, and now his son is apprenticing here!

So yeah that’s tomorrow. My poor thing is flopped out on her bed…and I didn’t get to her obedience. Well crap. I meant to, but ran out of time. Oh well, I guess I’ll just do it tomorrow.

I’m still waiting for news about the lump. Student Tim said something really scary. What if they say I cannot finish training with her? What then? What if I have to wait for another dog? Oh it will break my heart in two. But this is coming from student Tim, who appears to be the eternal pessimist. Cross your fingers, please?

Well, he was right. What if? It would have been better to leave training than to have what happened happen.

Well I should probably get going, must run down and check email. It’s late and I don’t want to be at the computer long. My poor beast is dead to the world. I don’t want to drag her down there. Poor thing.