See Spot Read

Last night we took Princess Dog and 100% Dog out to work at a boys and girls center. See Spot Read is a program that lets kids read to dogs. It's much less intimidating and much more fun for them then it would be to read to old people. The girls mauled 100% and I as we were walking in the door then they all fled to maul Princess and Ward. I was impressed with how well behaved everyone was. I now have Green Eggs and Ham memorized -- it seems to be a favorite.















The kids on the couch are waiting their turn. The Maltese on the left is Happy, and she stole the show with her gorgeous long coat (Happy's mom has a lot of work in that!) and her roll over tricks. I'm in the pink sweater reading to a boy who likes to scare his friends in the dark, but only kids, he would never scare an adult.



















Princess dog seems non-plussed as Ward reads to a boy who has the sniffles and is just leaning to read. Good thing Ward has daddy credentials.

















Here I am with bad hair showing a boy each word as I read to him. 100% Dog is camouflaged on my lap. He wasn't completely thrilled. 100% that is, not the young boy. This was his first reading therapy job and he usually likes to be more active.

Photos are all courtesy of Cindy Golden, Happy's mom.

The Legend of 100% Long Little Doggie

You stay here, Lucky. I'm going after the sidewinders who stole my cows.


















Pardon my intrusion, ma'am, but have you seen 36 head of longhorn cattle pass your way? They went missing while me and the boys were fixing the brakes on the Silverado.















Excuse me, partner, have . . . my, but you're a tall one, ain't ya? Mind if I climb on your head and see if I can situate my longhorns?
















To be continued . . .

Wednesday Night with Sylvie

I thought you might like to see one of our Therapy Dog classes with Sylvie's K9 Solutions

Here's 100% dog (complete with therapy class bandanna) in rapt attention to his handler. . . er, his daddy.








Here's my other favorite, Gracie, the Pembroke Corgi. My friend at Yasashiikuma raises Cardigan Corgis and says you can tell the difference between the types by the 'broke' part on the Pembroke'. Wanna see where?















Walk and sit your dog. Walk and sit your dog . . .

100% Dog needs a little help. Hope the teacher isn't looking.







Gracie shows him how it's done.








Holding the dog correctly for some loving.

Do you wanna pet my dog?








Sure do!








Stranger test!
100% lets Syvlie cuddle him and passes with flying bandannas. This is a test? Piece of cake for 100P.






Gracie keeps all four paws on the ground for this exercise.







The 'don't be startled by humans with junk' exercise.
Pardon my walker


















It's just an umbrella, silly!














So where was Princess Dog during all this? On my lap, of course.

She has the option to join the class, but complains about old back surgeries whenever she'd rather just lounge around.

Weekly Wrapup

From the Toronto Star: A investigative report turned up complaints against a moving company that held customer's goods for ransom until they got $1500 above the original estimate. They were clearly breaking the law, but felt they could get away with it because the police said it was a matter for the courts, the courts denied jurisdiction, and the attorney general referred it back to the courts. A sidebar says if it happens to you, contact the Ministry of Consumer Services. Yeah. Call the government. That'll speed things up.

From Morrisville: See that big, red "Sold" sign by the vacant lot next to Morrisville Square? The seller had advertised the property zoned as Office and industrial, but approved for high density residential. Morrisville's zoning map has no high density res' indications there. Was it just a sales ploy? I hope so, and I wrote to the Planning Director to find out.

Michale Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma warns about industrialized organic foods. I hoped he was just being an alarmist, but last week's recall of ground beef delivered to Whole Foods from Coleman Natural Beef shook me up. I bought ground beef from Whole Foods during the recall period. When I checked the label, I found I had fortunately chosen the local grass fed stuff. In July Full Circle dairy got a letter from the FDA for an infraction discovered five months earlier, which actually happened seven months before that (or a year ago).

From the homefront: The dogs are doing a great job in Pet Therapy training, and Poochy Boy started on Cosequin to relieve arthritis. Cosequin is supposed to work gradually, but Poochy has come alive during our morning exercise time.

Weekly Wrapup

There is NOTHING NEW going on. That's pretty much summer for you.


Signs have gone up on Morrisville-Carpenter Road, just like promised.
















100PercentDog has started Therapy Dog Training (or we have, since most of the classes are to train us.)







And the new McDonald's at Davis Drive is open.

Another slow news day in Morrisville.