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Category Archives: Inga

Huntin’ season for trees

Posted on December 18, 2011 by Donna Black-Sword

Ma!  I like this one!

In the days when the Husband and I were oh so very new with this parenting gig, we thought it paramount to put our personal spin on the family Christmas traditions. You know, the warm and fuzzy memories of his suburban childhood mixed gently with my rustic farm livin’ upbringing. (Alternatively called “You’re Not Doing That Right.”) Then we would offer up these experiences for the kid’s memories. And someday when he has his own family, he will carry these traditions with him and tell his kids, when I was little, my rents . . .

It seemed like a wonderful idea, we thought.

So the first Christmas after the kid became self-aware, we donned him in his winter gear and rumbled off in the Ford pick-up for the local Christmas tree farm. Let’s go cut down our own tree! we exclaim, we’re gonna make you some memories today, son.

We park the truck and drag toddler boy out for his first ever tree hunt. Dang, we say, pulling on our gloves and stamping our feet, it’s flippin’ cold out here.

Fuzz-lined gloves are poised above our eyes in an attempt to see clearly out into the fields of evergreen. We discover our conifer of choice, the soft-needled white pine, is . . . where?  Holy cow, really?  Well, that’s gonna be a hike.  Maybe we should have packed a lunch.

But no matter, we’re actually in pretty good shape to get out there. Got our walking shoes on and dressed warmly enough.  We’ve got time and the attitude to do this.

We had an affectionate nickname for the kid at this phase in his young life. When my cuddle bunny melted into a hungry, thirsty, and tired toddler, he was referred to as Bio-Boy. And two-thirds of the way out to the north forty we found ourselves challenged with the insistent biological needs of a toddler. (Where’s the diaper bag? Ah, back in the truck. greeaat . . .) I scoop up my little adorable bio bundle and we trod on with a renewed sense of purpose to find the Perfect Tree for this year’s Christmas memories.

Husband says, how ’bout this one?  I dunno, the needles are a little yellow on the ends.  This one?  Don’t you think the trunk is too crooked?  He grips the handle of the hacksaw perhaps a wee too tight.  Right.  How’s this one look to you?  Are you kidding? Look at that big bare spot!  Alrighty. This one?  It’s not, well, piney enough.

Ok, look, says the Husband. You know what? I believe you. The Perfect Tree is out there. But, as luck would have it, it’s not actually at this particular tree farm. Please just pick a tree so I can hack the thing down and drag it back over the twenty acres we just walked.

Oh, but I can’t! I can’t choose from any of these inferior coniferous twig beings. I’m not often accused of having high standards, but these pines are just not the stuff of memory making. Sorry, my brave knights, I have failed you. And with hanging heads and lowered standards, we tromp back on numbing feet to the farm entrance. You know, I sigh with resignation, that tree lot at the grocery might have something nice.

We walk past the barn when we notice, well, there’s a barn. Has this been here the whole time? Huh. And through the open barn doors (snicker, sorry), there appears before us a gallery of evergreen, freshly cut and hanging in neat rows.  Firs, scotch pine, white pines – all green and straight and full and all piney smelling. They’re perfect, the whole lot of them!  I walk in to hug a beautiful tree, exclaiming too loudly, I love it! Toss that hacksaw aside, we’ve found our destiny tree!

I know what you’re thinking. You saw that photo of the kid at the top, didn’t you? In spite of my seasonal zealousness, the kid was way too young to really retain any memories of this ill-fated tree hunt of his toddler youth.  And that’s for the best, I think, as the parental dialog was getting a little salty out there on the tundra.

But now, my favorite kid has outgrown me and is off to college. And the Husband and I are left  behind to carry on the holiday traditions we started as a young family.  With a different flavor these days, though.  We no longer have the Ford S-10; we now rumble to the tree farm in extended cab GMC.  And instead of the kid, we take a dog.

Not that we replaced the kid with a dog. It’s important to keep that clear, he keeps reminding me.

Gotcher holiday spirit right here, Micron says.

Yax, my love, I exclaim, put on your working cape and let’s go make us some Christmas memories!

The mighty Micron was our furry and festive tree hunter last Christmas (photo, right). Before we left for the tree farm, he pulled Yaxley aside to give him some pointers on how to get the job done.

Kid, he says, Pick the first one you see.

Great. Thanks a lot, Micron. Now, please turn off the TV and bring up the box of decorations from the basement, will you?

So it’s a gorgeous, sunny December afternoon. Perfect weather for tree shopping. And so we rumble off to the tree lot with Yaxley all jazzed and ready to hunt him some evergreen.


Sniff, snuffle, says Yaxley, here it is! Got one!

My job here is done.

Yaxley, this is indeed a lovely choice, I say, but since the tree is laying right here at the entrance, it probably already belongs to someone else. Let’s dig a little deeper into the lot, shall we?

Luck is ours and we find a beautiful white pine without any fuss or muss. I send the Husband to the other side to untie the thing from the post. Which end do you want, he asks. Which end do I want for what? You mean to carry? Don’t they have people for that?  Ugh, I get The Look. Alright, lemme have the top part. It looks lighter than that big thing on the other end.  You mean the trunk?  Yeah, that.

I’m watching it just like you said, Food Lady. 
What’s it supposed to be doing?

Yup, we untied it ourselves.

Next step is dragging this piney carcass into the house and the joyful joint effort of putting the thing in the tree stand, which is not as bad as wallpapering a room together.

Last Christmas Yaxley was a newborn pup, so we’re sensitive to these new experiences. While he’s trying to wrap his yellow noggin around the phenomena of an outdoor smelling thing planted into a big water bowl, Micron pulls him aside.


This is funny, Micron says. Watch the Food Lady when I drink from the big water bowl. heh heh.  Now you try it. See, she sounds just like the red squeaky ball, doesn’t she?

And then you put lights on it?

And so continues our holiday traditions.

This will be our fourth Christmas with a CCI puppy in our home.  In 2008, we celebrated the season with the lovely Inga. This gorgeous pup was five months old on her first Christmas.

Inga shares her wish list with Santa, while the jolly elf wishes she’d move that front paw from his, um, chestnuts.

We brought home the mighty Micron the week before Thanksgiving in 2009.  A ridiculously adorable puppy that looks like he smells like sugar cookies. As is turns out, it’s actually a scent reminiscent of mushroom soup, but that didn’t dampen  the warm welcome into our home.

All this puppy goodness was too much to keep under the radar, though. The mighty Micron has graced the Canine Companions for Independence holiday cards two years in a row. And his handsome puppy mug has been included in the 2011 and 2012 CCI Calendars. 

Just the way timing worked out, we enjoyed a second Christmas season with Micron in 2010.

And he continues to be the life of the party.

I didn’t bother to send this next photo in to CCI.

And now that this cuddlebug is a CCI college drop-out, we find ourselves blessed to have yet another Christmas with him.  Just proof that we must’ve done something good to get this kind of karma happening for us. 

More on that later. But now, I need to check on the tree. I think the cat just discovered it.

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Turns out, the girl’s a Steelers fan

Posted on February 5, 2011 by Donna Black-Sword
Inga says “Go Steelers!”

Who knew? But here she is, the lovely Inga, showing her support for her team this weekend. Her family shared this shot with me this morning and I’m so glad they did.

It’s pathetic, but true, that I’m not a big football fan. Nothing against the game, of course. I listen to the football chatter about the office and it seems to me that there’s as much drama in this game as a good soap opera.

I recall being stuck at an office dinner with some new hires on my team. By new hires, I mean people much younger than me. The topic went to fantasy football teams. And then the topic pulled up a chair and stayed there and ordered drinks. They finally exhausted their excitable chatter and paused to look at me like they forgot I was there; polite looks on their faces inviting me to join in. 

So, I say, anyone scrapbook?

I’ve since decided it’s not helpful to my career to hang with the new hires.

But hey, I’m paying attention to keep in touch. For example, this morning listening to NPR (not an old people station, so you can stop thinking that), it was mentioned that both the Steelers and the Packers are named after the trades in their respective cities. Ironically, trades that no longer exist in those areas.  So what if we updated some of the football teams to names like the Seattle Baristas or the New York Hedge Fund Managers.  Yeah, it’s NPR humor, but I laughed.

And just because I’m clueless about football, doesn’t mean everyone else in the house is. The kid is all over it. Pretty big fan, it seems.

So Inga’s a Steelers fan, huh?  Well, she certainly wasn’t raised that way.


Micron & Jager say “Go Pats”



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Inga on the job: an update

Posted on January 23, 2011 by Donna Black-Sword

Kiss the sky

As volunteer puppy raisers for Canine Companions for Independence, we are well aware of the high standards the organization has for the dogs they place. For many of us, it’s the very reason we choose CCI over other service dog organization. And while we do everything we can to ensure these fuzzies know all their basic commands and are solid in public, we know there is a chance that the dog may be released from the program.

And it may be that the dog has exhibited the most minor of behaviors, such as a hesitation around unfamiliar objects. Something we would tend to overlook in a pet, but is not acceptable for a service dog. A sobering fact is that less than 50% of the pups in training will graduate the program.

The rest?  Well, they may find another career, such as search and rescue, or change someone’s life as a loving family pet. A highly-trained, intelligent, healthy pet that is.

We hear, So that pup you’re raising, do you think he/she will make it? That’s a hard one. My answer?  I sure hope so.

When Inga, our first CCI pup, graduated as a skilled companion dog, we were jazzed beyond description. That she was placed with a young boy, her favorite kind of person, was perfect. Divine, in the purest sense of the word.

Also, as puppy raisers, we understand when it’s time to say good-bye. When we hand the leash over at graduation, our journey with this dog is done. Our dog, who is not our dog, has moved on to where they belong.

Working girl

On a very personal note, we are especially blessed that Inga’s family keeps us updated on their new life with her. We hear magic words like, she brings so much joy to our family.  It’s been a few months now that Joseph and Inga have been a team and they’re now hitting some milestones with her; birthday celebrations, family vacations and such.

Inga went on her first airplane ride, rode in taxis and stayed in hotels. Each experience was new to her as we didn’t expose her to these as her puppy raisers. But this dog is a professional now and she handled everything as a skilled companion dog should. A nod to her solid nature and the stellar training she received at CCI, as well as credit to her young handler, Joseph. He knows the dos and don’ts of traveling with his companion – how to work as a team.

Time for some R and R

Not a first for Inga, though, was a trip to the beach. We had traveled by RV to Myrtle Beach for her first experience snorting sand when she was a pup. We hear she is still true to her water dog nature. Inga enjoyed the seashore and ocean vacation time with her family.
For a fuzzy memory, here’s a couple of puppy photos from our beach trip during the summer of ’09. 
Thanks to Inga’s handler, Joseph, and his family for permitting me to share this update on her working life.



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Working for kibble

Posted on November 6, 2010 by Donna Black-Sword

It’s not hard to make Micron a happy dog. He is, by nature, a glass half full kinda guy. He finds most things in life are pretty good (naps, belly rubs, fresh bowl of water) and other events are wonderful (car ride, getting attention from the Starbucks girls), and then he has his ecstasy moments (I gotcher smelly sneaker!). 

But what is true euphoria for a dog? Anyone lucky enough to have a food motivated dog knows. Both these dogs know when mealtime is around here. We keep things on a tight schedule, because honestly, I really like to keep the #2’s on schedule too, if you know what I mean. So when 7:00 rolls around, there’s some serious restlessness in the household. After the bowl is licked to a shine, Micron will run to the nearest person to give his thanksgiving for the nouvelle cuisine. “Food Lady!” he says, “You’ve outdone yourself again. That was the best bowl yet!” His tail wags so hard that the tip is touching his sides.

It probably doesn’t need mentioning that this dog is really, really easy to train.

But hey, everything comes with a price, doesn’t it? This pup has to work for his daily kibble. In addition to his service dog training, he is an ambassador for CCI. We make the occasional public appearances and work at CCI booths to raise awareness of this amazing human services organization. Let’s look at a couple of our fall outings.

Aullwood Apple Fest



Micron and Bullet.
They’re not exactly manning the booth, 
but dogging the booth doesn’t sound right, either.

 One of my very favorite local events, the Apple Fest at Aullwood Audubon Center & Farm. I love being outdoors on a beautiful fall day with the smell of wood smoke in the air. Apple butter is cooking in kettles and apple pie is baking in the dutch ovens over an open fire. Puppy raisers Jerry and Jerri manage the CCI booth at this annual event. This year they brought their 17th pup, Bullet. Seventeenth puppy. These guys are pros in the CCI puppy raising business –my heroes and mentors.

Also working the booth for crowd control was pup in training, Karsen, and COC Fergo, the big sweetie.



Babe magnet, Bullet


We get a lot of traffic at the CCI booth over the two-day fest. Really, it is essentially non-stop. It’s a great opportunity to allow the dogs to learn calm greetings and talk to folk about the work that CCI does. We answer questions while the pups work on their fan base.


A firm handshake and good eye contact.
I was especially looking forward to this as it would be Micron’s first contact with farm animals. I learned from experience that the goats are not a really great first step as far as livestock goes (sorry, Inga).  A goat will stare a little too long before they go all freak out on you. So we started with just walking around to get exposed to some novel smells.




Hi sheep thing. Nice to smell you.

 

First we met a gentle, old sheep, which went really well. A sniff, sniff and we moved on. Next was the barn.



Hogs, mini whinnies, an alpaca, and a couple of calves. Nothing we can’t handle. It’s all good. We can check farm animals off the New Experiences list for CCI.

I just got my head around that sheep thing
and now there’s this?



Apple butter a’cookin’.



Aullwood Farm is a good family visit anytime, really. It’s an educational farm for kids to learn about livestock and agriculture. For folk within driving distance of the Dayton area, check out the farm and the adjoining nature center and gardens. Always time well spent.

Micron poses in the herb garden



Jungle Jim’s Fall Festival


Micron and Julie

We spent a chilly afternoon at the Jungle Jim’s International Market. Definitely hoodie weather, but much better than sweating it out on a hot summer day. Micron met up with pups in training Owen and Julie for an afternoon Meet and Greet. Julie is nearly five months old and quite the crowd draw. Owen is 18 months and will be matriculating at the November 12 CCI graduation ceremony in Dublin.

Julie was adorable, Owen was professional and Micron was, well, you can see from the photos. Micron was his usual self.



What is Owen thinking?  Probably don’t wanna know.

  

Julie and her adorable head tilt



I’m one of those unfortunate people who turns into an idiot when a camera is in my hands. All manner of squeaks, clicks and meows come from me in an attempt to get a dog to lift their ears and look at the lens.

I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t get the occasional reward, such as that puppy head tilt of Julie’s. Just look at that adorable mug. She brought back some wonderful memories of Inga as a pup (sniff).
Long time puppy raisers Steve and Bonnie facilitated the CCI booth for this event. Jungle Jim’s is an eclectic shopping experience, sorta like an amusement park in a grocery. We decided to try out some shopping after working the CCI booth. It was our first time at the place and we found we needed a map to find our way around the international marketplace. Micron did a wonderful job exploring with us, but we knew it was time to put a cap on things when he dropped onto the floor in England and fell asleep. It was a long afternoon, the poor fella.

  

It was a bit chilly out.
Julie provides a hand warming service.

Micron Dog and Jungle Dog.
Maybe just me, but I prefer food with less personality.
And self awareness.
Do they ever get to be “dogs”?
Questions we get as puppy raisers from concerned dog lovers. Is it all work for these dogs?  Do they have to wear their capes all the time? Don’t they ever get to be “dogs?”
Of course they do, people. We undress these fuzzies, give the Release command and stand back. But you know, it helps to have a visual sometimes. The Gold Rush Champions chapter of CCI put together an excellent video that will relieve some of those working dog worries. Talk about time well spent – if you’re a dog lover, you won’t be asking for these four minutes back. 
Check out the video at:
 Do service dogs get to play?.

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There’s a word for that

Posted on August 22, 2010 by Donna Black-Sword
Cool Beans
Gnarly monarch butterfly at CCI graduation
I’m a child of the 70’s. An era of great music and horrifically bad fashion. Anyone else out there remember sporting those one piece pantsuits and trying not to fall off your platform shoes?  How about making your bell bottoms even bell bottomier by cutting into the seam and adding a triangle of bandanna fabric so when you walked between classes at school it sounded like a huge pillow fight with all those jeans smacking into each other?
Remember laying on the sidewalk in front of your house and yelling for your mom to come out and save you because your bell bottoms got jammed into your bike chain – again. 
To all you young folk out there trying to bring back 70’s retro fashion. I’m asking nicely . . . please don’t. Really.
Of course, we had our own slang back in the day as well. We expanded Cool into Cool Beans. (I can’t explain why or how this one came about; or even why I still hear it said today.) Other ways to describe something wonderful was Boss, Funkadelic and, my favorite, That’s gnarly, Dude.
In today’s culture, I hear the word Awesome thrown around as if it means the same as Cool Beans, and frankly, it bugs me. Even worse, some folk will use Awesome as sarcasm. As in . . .  Dude, did you know your cat just threw up something kinda orange colored on your sofa?  Response: awesome.
That ain’t right. Something awesome is, well, awe inspiring. Not just pretty good, but instead is the apex of wonderful. It stops you in your tracks. Maybe it causes you to pause and reflect on what is happening right in front of you. It is something divine.
If we misuse Awesome, then we’re left with a diluted word and no way to explain the things that change lives.
Now this is Awesome
Something wonderful has happened. Our first CCI puppy, Inga IV, has graduated as Skilled Companion for a young boy. Ok, to be painfully honest about this, I’m pretty jazzed that I didn’t totally screw up in raising this dog. ‘Tis true. This admission alone speaks a volume about the professional training staff at CCI.
Inga IV
Inga and I spent nearly a year and a half together working on the basics; obedience, socialization and such. Her success was top of mind for that entire time. But while all this was going on, there was the knowledge that less than 50% of CCI pups in training actually make it to become assistance dogs. That thought follows a puppy raiser like a cloud of gnats; hard to swat away. You can do everything right, but what it really comes down to is if the dog wants to do the job.
Because CCI’s values are so high, because they will not place a dog with someone unless it is absolutely the right thing to do, many of the pups are released from the service dog program. When I titled this blog Raising a Super Dog, it was because that’s exactly what these dogs are. Not just really smart pets, but a level higher. Confident, healthy, compassionate and intuitive dogs with an unshakable work ethic.
So what happens to the pups that don’t make it as a service dog? They become Change of Career dogs. COC’s in CCI-speak. These dogs may move into another service field such as Search and Rescue or Therapy Dog jobs. Or they may become really wonderful & loving pets. 
The work that CCI does is amazing. I would even call it awesome. Because making a profound impact to a person’s life, especially in a way that provides independence that wasn’t there before, is nothing less than awesome.
And I honestly can’t think of another word to describe it.
Yellow Cape (turn-in) Cookie
Blue Cape (graduation) Cookie

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