Our Neighborhood

Our street is off of a small busy street and we like to walk along the busy street with our Seeing Eye pups. The noise from the traffic and the sirens from the First Aid Squad and Fire Department make for good experiences for our Seeing Eye pups.

Besides Ava, our current Seeing Eye puppy, we also have Trinity -- a little terrier/whippet mix that belonged to my parents -- it seems that somehow Trinity became a permanent addition to our household. Trinity doesn't usually come on walks with us because she can be a nightmare! She is sweet in the house and loves people but becomes Mr. Hyde when she sees another dog. We will take her on walks with us during off hours and only on our local busy street, not through the neighborhood -- we don't want our neighbors to hate us!

Ava loves walking along our busy street. She stops at the hair salon and the travel agent so that everyone can tell her what a cute little puppy she is. It didn't take her very long to realize that walking on our busy street is a good thing. Unfortunately she hasn't learned that on Sunday mornings, nobody is around. She still goes up to the doors and looks inside waiting for someone to come out and pet her or give her a little cookie. We have to drag her away!

We have two new happenings right here in our neighborhood! The bank on our corner -- literally 5 houses down the street -- now has a Farmer's Market in their parking lot on Sunday mornings. It's only been a few weeks and we've already started the tradition of going to the Farmer's Market for fresh fruits and vegetables before continuing on our walk.

The other new happening is Classic Car Night which is the last Tuesday of the month. We took Ava for a walk to the first Classic Car Night and we made the local free paper! There we are (in the picture above) little tiny people in the white oval in the above picture.

It's Good to be Good at Your Job

Apparently our little studpuppy is very good at his job. We received a card from him a few weeks ago about his ladyfiend, Zena...not quite the warrior princess but exotic all the same.

Harley's Note to Us:
Hello again!
Here is my sixth litter. Zena and I had six. There are three boys and three girls.
My handler is starting to introduce me to clicker training. I really like it because I get lots of treats! The first trick I learned with the clicker was "paw." I learned it really fast because I am so smart!
Miss you!
Love, Harley

And then today we received another card from Harley announcing his seventh litter! He really is a busy busy boy! It looks like there might be a little chocolate puppy in this litter.

Harley's Note to Us:

Hello!

Here is litter number seven. This one has six puppies. There are two boys and four girls.This is my favorite litter so far because Bridget is my best friend. When we were room mates people would always catch us spooning. I can't wait until she is done taking care of our pups so we can be together again.

Miss you! Love, Harley

We miss Harley a lot and we are really hoping that after he is done doing his "manly duty" for the Seeing Eye that he will come back to us.

Four Legged Cousins

Each one of our Seeing Eye puppies has spent time with their four-legged cousins. Their Auntie Lee has a menagerie of animals that has included at various times dogs, rabbits, birds, fish and horses.
Gusto was our first Seeing Eye pup and the first time we brought him to meet his cousins, Aiden & Bentley, he was a little scared of these big jumping golden retrievers. But he quickly learned they were fun to play with...well, at least Bentley was. Aiden was not that fond of Gusto.


Our second Seeing Eye pup, Harley, actually got to meet Blue -- one of Lee's horses. We never brought Gusto around to meet Blue because we knew he was afraid of horses -- he let out scared barks at the Edison Mounted Police and at a horse drawn wagon in Vermont. Harley didn't mind Blue at all. He also got along very well with Aiden and Bentley -- he played with sticks with Bentley and fetched tennis balls with Aiden.



One of my favorite puppy pictures of Anita is one taken with Aiden and Bentley at Christmas. The 3 dogs were sitting nicely waiting for a cookie from Grandma -- well at least Aiden & Bentley knew what they were sitting for. Anita was just sitting nicely because they were--she was too young to know what the word cookie meant. She is so adorable and tiny sitting behind her two big cousins.
When she was older, we took her to the barn to meet Blue and Red. Blue didn't really care for her so we kept her away from his huge Clydesdale feet, but she had a nice time sharing a carrot with Red who didn't mind her at all.



Ava is still too young to meet the horses -- she'll be 15 weeks old on August 6th and have all the necessary shots by then and after that she can go anywhere. But for now she'll have to settle for the bunnies. All of our pups have met the bunnies and amazingly, they are all well behaved with them. It always makes me nervous to see a bounding pup/dog trying to play with the bunnies but for the most part, it is simply curiosity.

Lee took these pictures of Bentley and Aiden -- they are my favorite pictures of her dogs... Bentley laughing and Aiden hard at work.