The adventures of SD Juno and SDIT Kaline (and their human, Colt).

20 September 2012

I am getting the car!

Yesterday was a nightmare, mostly, but it ended with me (and Dad as co-signer) getting approved for a car loan. So yay.

I was super proud of Kaline in the morning. He is on antihistamines which also have steroids in them, so he is having a harder time holding it in the morning. Well before we normally get up, he whined loud enough to wake me up. When I let him out of his crate, he absolutely booked it downstairs. Normally, going downstairs first thing in the morning involves a lot of checking rooms to see where the other family members are, then stretching eleventy billion times as he makes his way down. Nope, he was on a mission. I opened the door to the patio and he zoomed out to his favorite plant and peed for like fifteen minutes. I was so impressed that he actually knows it is not good to pee inside, which is very different from knowing it's good to pee outside. Yay for the baby.

We tired him out with numerous pack walks, which was good because the afternoon was all Juno. We went to lunch with the parents, where I was massively bummed because the goalposts got moved on me getting health insurance. I'm on COBRA now, which sucks the big one because it is super expensive yet rather useless, so far. I was told that if I had no treatment for my fibromyalgia for six months, I would be able to look for non-COBRA insurance. It has been six months. I checked in, and was told I needed to be treatment and symptom free for six months. Well, that's not happening, clearly. Gaaaah.

After lunch, we headed to Chase, where both my parents have accounts and we thought getting a loan would be easy. Not so fast. I had applied online the night before, hoping to expedite the process, and got rejected by the computer program in about two seconds. Which apparently made it impossible for any actual human beings at the bank to help me in any way. You almost have to laugh—they reject you in less than a minute, using a computer; then they send you a paper letter by snail mail in 3-5 business days to tell you why. And of course, you can't do anything further with the bank until you receive said letter, and they can't tell you anything about said letter over the phone because that would be EEEEEVIL. I got so upset during this futile process that Juno had to do a lap-up to calm everything down.

Following that rejection, we went to Stanford Credit Union. Thanks to Dad being my co-signer, we got pre-approval for the loan. The whole thing took forever, but it did not involve any frustrating arguing with the equivalent of inanimate objects, so that was awesome. Also, Juno got to do handicap buttons without having to watch Kaline fumble about with them. Oh man, there was this lady in line who was so confused why she couldn't screw around with Juno. (See the Service Dog patch? See the Do Not Distract?!) Then she started yammering about her Bichon and how expensive they are, and how she got hers for free. Lemme tell you, lady, just because a dog is expensive does not mean it's well bred or worth it. See: ALL DESIGNER DOGS.

I was so exhausted from all this crap that I almost didn't go to Kristin's send-off dinner, but I'm glad I went. It was at a really nice place called the Village Pub and Juno was perfect. They were so nice to us—I showed up super underdressed, because basically all I own are jeans and t-shirts and hoodies, with my dog, of course, and we got welcomed so warmly. Well, Juno got welcomed—I'm just her sidekick! After a little bit of scootching around under the table, Juno got into what I think of as perfect Guide Dog Position, lying between my feet and partly under my chair, facing the same direction as me. Lovely. Dinner was amazing and many hilarious and wildly inappropriate dog stories were shared.
Kristin at the Village Pub.

Today we got to do daycare for Rocky the Golden Retriever-Poodle mix and had a really productive time at training. Anne was there and really worked me and Kaline. He's graduating now from heeling with a treat basically in his mouth to not having the treat there—I'm always afraid to bump him up to the next level, but he did great. I just have to really work hard on not turning into him, because it pushes him back. We also worked on his recall; he has now started to come in, bash his nose into my crotch, then sit. What a lovely gentlemanly habit, don't you think? Gotta nip that in the bud.

At the end of training, we had all fifteen dogs who were not Kaline out on down stays in two lines, facing each other. It was so cool. We have a couple dogs who have really come a long way, who were recently way too nervous and anxious to do this kind of thing successfully. It was so gratifying to see them succeed!
All the dogs! (See that black lump on a rug in the top right corner? Kaline.)

I had a nap with Kaline on my legs, and then went to dinner with Mom and Juno. We ended up at a pub where I usually go to watch the Dutch national football team. It was really loud (not too crowded, just bad music) and fire engines kept going by. Juno slept through all of it, was a total star. I wonder how Kaline would have done in that environment.

Tomorrow we're getting the car checked out by the mechanics at the Shell Station, who know my beloved little Honda like nobody else, so we really trust them. One of the guys just got a new Doberman puppy (he already has a two-year-old cropped black and rust male). I'm trying to convince him to keep his new red girl natural, for her ears at least. He got her from a BYB (makes me want to tear my hair out, but he's got her now, so there's no point) and she's only 7 weeks old. Still, I can't wait to see pictures!
Night night, doggies.

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