Dreaming of warmer times!

Okay everyone - who's super cold out there? I know I am, but I'm guessing most of you would disagree :) Yeah... it's a freezing 30 degrees out here in TN! Yep - you're probably all laughing at me saying how that isn't even considered cold. Well, I'm from WI so you'd think I'd be used to these kind of temperatures. I moved from WI to TN 4 years ago and that's how long it took me to loose my ability to tolerate below 30 degree temperatures! The girls, however, love these temperatures!

Now - onto the topic of this post! Dreaming of warmer times!

Here's a little video of Nari during her very first time at the beach:



Prior to this she was calmly laying on Aaron's lap:

Then she all of a sudden got up and starting digging like a mad doggie! The hole ended up big enough for her to fit inside. Did you notice Starbuck eating something in the sand at the end of that video? Yeah... she's kind of addicted to eating things. 

I'll post more pictures of our San Diego adventure in the next few weeks. We moved out to San Diego this summer for work and we all loved escaping the hot, humid TN summers, did some hiking and went to the dog beach. 

Beach Babes!

I probably haven't mentioned this - but this summer we all packed up and headed to San Diego for work for a couple of months! The girls LOVED it because the summer weather was cooler and way less humid than what we see in TN.

Here are some pictures from our summer adventure! The girls at their very first doggie beach. Nari was quite the digging machine!

Laughing at yourself

Sometimes people don't believe me when I say I am clumsy. Well, here's proof.

What do you do when you're out of position on course? You land on a jump!



I hope everyone is more graceful than me! Have a great week :)

The life of a therapy dog!

Not only is Starbuck my very first dog - but she's also my very first therapy dog.

Starbuck passed her therapy dog exam when she was a year old. She was born for this job. When she was a tiny pup she would cry if she spotted a person across the street who didn't come over to pet her.

About a year ago, while she was visiting a retirement home, a women found out she was terminally ill. She had the staff find Starbuck to help her deal with this awful news. We visited her every week until she passed away. That was a really hard time for me. For months Starbuck would stop at her door and try to go in to visit.

Although there are tough times, it is great to see how happy the residents are to see us. What I find amazing is that when we visit with residents who are suffering from dementia, they seem to all remember Starbuck - to the point that they place Starbuck as being around when they were much younger. They think that she was either their dog or a neighbor's dog. There have been patients who will cry and never speak coherently, but they will smile and actually talk when they visit with Starbuck!

It just amazes me to see how much of an impact one tiny dog can make to so many people. Recently she visited the library at UT during finals week to give the students a stress-free study break. She had hundreds of students visit her, most of which took their picture with her.

Here are some pictures from her visit;

Anyone else have a therapy dog?