Thank God it's Sunday..

... and the week is almost over. This week has been terrible and I can't wait for next week to start and hopefully be better. I won't go into details about everything though.

Ivy is doing good. She's been a bit intimidated, which I think might come from all the different camps she is doing because I have to work so much. But from now on I only work half days during the week, so she doesn't need to go to anyone else. I can take care of her myself. I'm so tired of working. I've developed breathing problems and it's making it so hard. I'm happy for school to start soon because then I'll have less physical work and way more time to spend with Ivy. I need more Ivy time.

I'm getting her back from her regular camper tomorrow morning and tomorrow night we will be joined by her GSD friend Rompers. We'll see how that goes. On Tuesday, another dog will come back to stay for a night. Three dogs in the house at once! We'll see if I have some stories on Wednesday.. haha

Ivy isn ow officially registered on campus with the disability resource center. She got her UGA tag and is allowed to come to class and everywhere else. We also met a guy in a wheelchair that was really nice and took the time to let Ivy get used to it. She barked once out of surprise but was then just loving on him, not caring about the wheelchair at all.

What a trooper puppy, the little monster. <3

On a sadder note.. the bf left for Mexico on Monday. It was horrible. I'm still pretty upset. He finally got a phone though so we'll be able to talk regularly at list. Hopefully he's gonna get internet soon, too, so I'll be able to see him on Skype.

I really miss him. :(

Anxious

I'm not feeling too good in the last few days. I don't know if there is really anything wrong with me or if I'm just so anxious about my bf leaving for Mexico. I know I'm gonna be really upset and I'm hoping that distracting me with studying and work/house work will help. Hopefully I can put all my energy into that instead of being upset.

He was supposed to leave tomorrow, so I wanted to go on a date with him tonight. He might not be here on time though. :( He is now planning to leave Monday, so tomorrow I hope he's going with me to see Quinn with the rest of the guide dog people and then have a date Sunday night. I hope.

Ivy is doing great. Everyone loves her. I made an Instagram for her and we're getting a few followers. Hopefully more soon. (laprincesita323)

This is an older picture. Not sure if I have shared this one already. But it doesn't matter. Her cuteness can never be shared enough. ;)

Lala Land

Ivy is doing great mostly. Her commands are getting better, she doesn't bite on stuff in the house anymore and the barking in the crate is slowly going away.

Other things are not going so well though. The bf is leaving for Mexico in the next week. It could be this weekend or it could be next week. It makes me so upset because I have no idea when or if I will see him again. Or course, I want to try to go to Mexico. But, you know, money. And I have no idea whether or not he will get a visa to come back here and I don't want him to come here otherwise. Way too dangerous. Visa or nothing. But that's hard to say. It makes me wanna cry when I think about him leaving. I am not looking forward to that day. And not knowing which one exactly it is isn't really helping either. Sad times right now.

Here's one of him with Ivy. I am so happy that I got this picture. The two most important things in my life right now.

Monster Update

Ivy is doing great! I went to two puppy meetings with her and she was wonderful. She demonstrated her commands well and some of her actions were even better than the ones from older puppies. I am very happy with her.

She is doing 'sit' very well and most of the time by now and we are getting the hang of down. For sit, she only needs to hear the command, but for down I still need to show her with a hand motion close to the ground. But instead of having my hand almost on the ground, I can by now have it about a foot above it and she still understands. Smart puppy. We're working on it. :)

I started teaching her the command 'door.' She hasn't figured it out yet, but I am doing it every day by saying the command as soon as she touched a door with her nose. I don't doubt that she'll catch up soon. We're also working on 'left' and 'right.'

I found somebody who is taking her every weekend when I'm at work. It looks like they like each other. :) I have to say it's nice to have a break from the puppy, but then again, I don't like not having her next to me when I read after work or laying at my feet when I do the dishes or laundry. It is definitely weird without her. I got used to having her around so quickly!

And even though the bf doesn't really want to admit to it, I'm pretty sure he likes her, too! ;)

Her monster collar is here! Hopefully I can put up a picture of her wearing it soon! I love it! :)

Here's another one for now. One of my favorites of her.

Giving Hope

I don't really enjoy talking to random people. It makes me uncomfortable. Unless it is about a topic that I love, such as anything related to animals. I don't mind when people ask my about Ivy and how it is to raise a guide dog. I love talking about my experience riding and caring for horses. And I love learning and teaching about veterinary medicine (the teeny bits I know at least).

And surprisingly, I am looking forward to client interaction later on once I'm a vet student/veterinarian. I want to help their animals, but I also want to help the owners. I want to teach the owners. I want to make them feel better when they are upset about the path their animals are taking, whether it's good or bad.

At work, I was talking to a couple about their horse that was hospitalized. He was getting ortho surgery done and they were very nervous about it. They chose to have the vet take their horse's eye out because he has been having trouble with it for a while. They (him more than her) had trouble with the thought of the horse only having one eye and wondered if it bothered him very much.

What many people seemed to overlook is the fact that most of the time it seems to bother humans much more when an animal loses a leg, an ear or an eye (or something similar). Animals always look like they just deal with it. It's a fact that they can't change and they learn to live with it. It takes humans much longer to get over it.

I told them about something I was told a few weeks prior by my bf who heard it from a horse show judge. She said that the rider that she enjoyed judging the most was a girl. A girl that was completely blind, riding a horse with only one eye. She used a headset with which her trainer told her where to go and when to jump. Yes, JUMP. This girl couldn't see at all and didn't let that stop her from this already dangerous hobby. She didn't let it stop her from having fun and enjoying life. And right there with her was this horse with one eye that didn't even hesitate at all to follow along.

The couple that had their horse in the hospital just stared at me for a minute, like they couldn't believe it. And then the lady smiled. She sat back and sighed. And she agreed that she probably took it way more to heart than she should, that she should just go with it right now and see how the horse felt and think more about its wellbeing than her own worries about having a horse with one eye. She thanked me and said that I made her feel much better with that story.

And that's what I love. I love helping them and hope I can do it many more times in the future. It was only a short little story, but it made that couple feel so much better about the procedure their horse had to go through.

Btw, the surgery went fine. I cleaned the horse's stall the next morning and having only one eye didn't seem to bother him at all. He just went with it. (: