Milestones

Kaline and Juno at the grove in the Arizona Garden.

This past Tuesday, my boy Kaline had his first birthday! It's completely insane how fast this year has gone. And I keep wondering what he did with that adorable little fat puppy who used to have to jackrabbit up the stairs. (Still kicking myself for never getting a video of that.)

On our morning walk, Kaline's friend Kelsey, who works at the flower shop where the dogs get cookies, presented him with a rose. Then she held it for him while he gleefully ripped off all the leaves and petals!

For Kaline's birthday, we did our usual Tuesday things—walks and training—but then finished up with a big delicious bagel burger. I think he was a little shocked that the burger I was grilling was for him. Juno gets fed scraps and such (it's too late to retrain Mom) but the only leftovers Kaline gets are things like fruit, vegetables and rice. He was so delicate about eating it too! Juno was like that her first time, licking the bagel until I mimed chomping it and she got the idea. Eventually Kaline ripped chunks off, but they were little, gentlemanly chunks. It was very cute. (Not as cute: The diarrhea that ensued the next day. Perhaps we'll have to figure out a different birthday tradition for him.)

Last week was not a good one for me, being stuck in a pit of depression most of the time due to being off certain pills and to overreacting to various events. But, it led to another milestone for Kaline. The parents invited me to go see 42, the Jackie Robinson movie, and because I was in a fragile emotional state and Kaline is much more attuned to that and proactive about it, I firmly said that he was going to the movie.

It was his first movie in a theatre other than the Stanford. And he was perfect during the movie! Didn't get up once, barely moved around period! He was awesome. And the movie was great. Some kids are raised on the normal fairy tales, but I was raised on stories of Jackie Robinson and the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was my dad's hero growing up and was mine as well. It almost became a running joke in school, because I would do any American history or biography project on Jackie Robinson, always. The movie was quite good, although the ending was a little meh. It was amazing to see Ebbets Field recreated.

So yeah, doing well in a Real Movie Theatre™ was a huge deal, at least to me.

This was not a huge deal, but quite fun nonetheless.

In other fun news, Juno came along to a birthday dinner for my mom's best friend. Another member of our party arrived after I did, and even though she was sitting next to me, she didn't realize Juno was there until I happened to mention it. Win.

She also came to the Dutch Masters exhibit at the DeYoung and was awesome. We met Sonja and Chief, and also went with my friend Julie and her guide dog, Honda. The dogs were all fantastic. Juno did such great blocking. The exhibit was crowded with clumps of people, and every time I went to stare at a painting for an extended time, I'd motion to Juno to block behind me. After about the second one, the little movement from my right hand was all I needed, and she'd swing herself around in a most wonderful fashion. The rear end awareness exercises we used to do continue to pay dividends.

Chief and Juno at the DeYoung (Honda only holds dog toys).

 And my mom's friend, Dona, finished the travel-mat prototype! It's slightly narrower than our old one, but I absolutely love the fabric and colors! We already have some ideas for improvements and I'm super excited about it. Now I just have to hope people buy them, cause otherwise I'll look like kind of an ass. We're going to try it out at the doctor's office on Monday.

Kaline on the new mat. If you look closely, you can see the silhouettes of dogs (and a few cats) in some of the dots!

Outing to the San Jose Giants with GDB pups!

Yesterday Juno and I went to see the San Jose Giants (Single-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants) with my dad and my friend Julie, and her guide dog Honda. It was so much fun, not just because of the baseball, but because we got to tag along with the Mid-Peninsula Puppy Raiser Group for Guide Dogs for the Blind!

It's kind of a funny story, actually. I've been a huge fan of the YouTube show Growing Up Guide Pup, for a while. Then when I was out walking dogs several months ago, I ran into a guy walking three or four dogs of his own. And two of them looked so familiar ... Suddenly I realized that two of the dogs were Ricki and Eli from the show, and the guy walking them was Matt Chapman, one of the show's creators! It was so cool! I of course was all full of hero worship and probably couldn't really talk coherently, but Matt seemed quite pleased that I was such a big fan.

From that, and through Facebook, we were able to set up a fun dinner meetup with Amie and Matt (and of course their new puppy, Pilaf!). Juno was in her temporary retirement at the time, so we went to a restaurant with dog-friendly outdoor seating. It was great fun getting to talk to them, and especially get puppy-raising tips for Kaline.

We kept in touch on Facebook and they knew I definitely wanted to do more meetups, especially since Juno got her sight back. When I picked up a Brian Wilson gnome at the Giants game with Danny, it was a great excuse to get together—Matt really wanted one, and I find gnomes creepy, so I was glad to get it off my hands! And the baby Giants game was a perfect time to do the handoff. Not to mention a great opportunity to do an outing with Julie and Honda.

The group had reserved rows right at the top of the little stadium, one of which was in the shade. The majority of the puppies were up there, out of the heat. We went to the barbecue (one of the best barbecues you will ever taste, I highly recommend it!) so we ended up in one of the sunny rows. Luckily, Julie and I had brought a towel and mat respectively for our dogs to lie on, and kept them well cooled with water and ice cubes. And when we were able, we moved up to the shady row.

The puppies were absolutely amazing. They ranged in age from pretty little (I think the lone black Lab, Adidas, was about five months old) to about a year old, I think. Everyone but Adidas was a yellow Lab, my favorite! Pilaf was there, naturally, so we got to schmooze with Matt and Amie, who were very gleeful to meet Julie and Honda. The other puppies were Andretti, Skittle, Felicia, Mecca and Blake. They were so cute, and they all just chilled out under their raisers legs, some of them working on Nylabones, some just lying there. Gigante, the mascot, came by, and rather than being afraid, little Felicia enthusiastically licked his hands.

I hope my little guy can behave as well as these puppies when he's five months old! Bravo to all puppy raisers—they are fabulous, amazing people who provide a tremendous service. They put so much love and effort into these puppies, knowing that if all goes as planned, they'll have to give them up. I really hope I get to do more things with this group—they're such fun! Wish I had pictures, but with all the dogs staying in the shade behind legs, it wasn't exactly the best photo op. Oh well!