Another Amazing Tripawds Three Legged Dog Blog
Oreo met the mayor of La Follette, TN on Wednesday. Not much else going on. We’ve been battling a flea infestation since August, finally getting a handle on it thanks to Wondercide and All Natural Pet. Really, not much going on! This satellite dish limited Internet data business is for the birds…it has literally taken me 22 minutes to log on, write the blog, and download the photo. Sheesh…
I had planned to post pictures of the Christmas decorations at Lowe’s and make fun of them, but the people there are just SO nice to Oreo, and to me, that instead I took a picture of Oreo posing in front of one of the painted pumpkins. An employee did this on her own, just because she’s so sweet and loves her job so much.
We had a great day at the festival today, raising money for the Friends of Campbell County Animals. It got too hot by about one o’clock so we left and came home for a swim in the lake. Then a bath with her lovely citronella and geranium flea repellant soap from Wondercide. Now she’s clean, happy, and tired. Here she is posing with Jane at the entry gate.
We’re blessed to be able to volunteer at the La Follette, TN Habitat for Humanity ReStore. The other volunteers just loved Oreo, of course, and were so sweet and welcoming to both of us. Just one more reason why I love Tennessee!!
Yes, now that I’m finally recovered enough to talk about it, Oreo got out yesterday. It was my fault–I didn’t close my door tightly, and my landlord’s two German Shepherds wanted to come in and play. As I was yelling, “Out out out!” Oreo obeyed, much to my shock. After a second of petrification, I grabbed her leash and ran outside. She went running up to my landlord, who lunged for her but she kept juuuuuuuust out of reach. I could almost hear her saying, “Ha ha ha!” I was not laughing. I put on my best Academy performance with an upbeat and cheerful, “C’mere, Oreo! Come on!” <smile smile arms outstretched> She ran right up to me and sat and I just smothered her and grabbed her collar. While my landlord came over to help I put Oreo’s harness on her and finally got her safely attached again. Then she got a ball to chew as a reward for coming to me.
I was really not fit to drive after that but went to the farmer’s market a few towns over. There were four vendors, a little different than the city. Came home, worked, slept, and did some Oprah and Chopra meditation this morning, thanking my lucky stars I still have a dog (and cat; Buddy hid masterfully when the two shepherds were here yesterday). I won’t make that mistake again!!
We had the BEST TIME EVAH! yesterday at the Shriner’s charity football game at Dartmouth College. Everything was perfect from start to finish (and we even won!). 🙂
It started with finding the perfect parking spot. Then I picked up my complimentary ticket, and when the nice man found out that I was the coach’s sister, he escorted me to the gate, cut the line, and announced “person with a service dog” and the seas parted. I had told him she was ‘just’ a therapy dog in training, not covered under any laws, and he retorted, “She’s a service dog.” Got it. 😉
Naturally everyone loved her, and she almost got the gatekeeper’s french fries but I stopped her just in time.
A vendor inside the stadium asked what kind of therapy she would provide once her training is over and I said, “Just to be cute and cheer people up, really.” She took another look at her and said, “That will work.” 🙂
I found a nice spot to stand (after all that driving I didn’t want to sit) next to a nice man wearing a Shriner’s Board of Governor’s shirt. We chatted a bit, unusual for New England, and we had each other in stitches in no time. I told him I’d driven up from Tennessee, took me three days, and he deadpanned, “Three days? What’d ya WALK?” ba ha haaaaaaaaaaa! Adorable. He told me all about his German Shepherd, what a character; watches TV, barks at the commercials he doesn’t like. Too cute.
Then I met a kindred spirit, Lovely Lisa. Practically every other sentence out of our mouths was, “Me, too!” We’re vegan, we love the Oh She Glows website, we love ’80s music, we love animals. It was amazing. I hope she reads this and responds so we can share email addresses. Yes, I will try kale again (and she’s going to try the chocolate chip cookies, right?). 🙂
Next a nice lady came over who just lost her dog to (I think) cancer earlier this year. A beautiful, beautiful Akita named Tyler. I’m hoping that when the time is right she adopts a rescue pooch to fill the void in her heart.
A man came over and nearly enveloped Oreo in hugs, just like a little kid, and of course she loved it. I noticed he had Nashua High South (my old school) clothes on. I told him I was class of ’81 (he didn’t even blink, I’d better start wearing makeup again…). Turns out he’s the football team videographer, and my brother will be coaching there this year! He called his entourage over and one guy kept saying, “Oreo, Oreo, Oreo,” so of course he got no response. He finally said to me, “Is she deaf?” and I said, “No, she’s just ignoring you.” He was quite taken aback, ha ha ha! Sorry, mister…
Lastly Adam came over and asked how Oreo’s quality of life is on three legs. I looked at her and said, “Fabulous! She’s spoiled rotten!” and then seriously added that she doesn’t even miss her leg, and she’s a real inspiration. He agreed and mentioned that he’s writing a book on happiness and the resiliency of humans and animals. I said, “Oh, I’m a book editor.” Interesting. A handsome, Christian writer…single…loves dogs…hmmm….. 😉
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Oreo (and Buddy) are real troopers. We’re heading back up to New Hampshire to pick up the rest of my things, watch my brother coach a charity football game, and close out the apartment. Today was the longest leg – eight hours, ugh. We met a nice lady at a rest stop who mentioned her tripawd Shih tzu, Cooper. I whipped a Tripawds.com business card out of Oreo’s Therapy Dog In Training vest and handed it to her. Hopefully she’ll visit!
These two gorgeous girls are about six years younger than Oreo is and have endless energy, so I’m still quite protective of Oreo when they play together. She can’t go up on those rocks with them because that’s where I think she hurt her foot the other day (which is mended now, yay). They’re so cute when they come up to the cabin door and look in the windows as if to say, “Can Oreo come out and play?”
Yesterday I went in the water with her and she was quite concerned, swimming in circles around me, but didn’t try to herd me to shore. I got her back up the drive to the cabin by dangling her toy in front of her the whole way. Then I had to give her a shower, because I’m going to have to rename her Cremesicle since the red clay is tinging her coat orange, ha ha! Today we’re sitting in the meadow office working, and she’s happy as a clam (although she really wants to get back to that lake; maybe tomorrow morning).
Moving here was more costly than I had planned, what with the one-way U-haul rental, the new phone because AT&T doesn’t work out here, the Sprint Zing hotspot which doesn’t have unlimited data (three viewings of a YouTube video and I was at my limit), purchasing a satellite Dish for Internet, which still doesn’t have unlimited data (although the rate is reduced from 2am-6am…). I really am out in the woods here. Thank God my landlord set up this patio table within a 2-bar range of his unlimited data. The video above took over an hour to upload. When they finally run cable out here, I’ll be first in line!
Signed,
Spoiled City Girl, but worth it all because my dog is smiling
Here’s an oldie but goody I found. This was a few weeks after I adopted her (and before I found out the hard way that she can clear that fence without even touching it, and that her favorite game is ‘Chase Me Through The Woods’.)
I had to carry her away from the lake. She kept turning around to face the lake, laying down, and digging her paws into the ground. “Nooooooo, Mama…I want to swim some more!!!!”