Let's Play Ketchup

No not really Ketchup that you put on fries, I was just trying to be funny. Let's catch up on the time that we missed blogging.

We all went to Florida on Monday July 19th. We left pretty early in the morning and the trip went smoothly. I rode with the men in the back while the women sat up front. There were plenty of yummy smelling snacks near my nose that I wanted to test out but I was not allowed. I did good resisting the temptation of stealing food. We arrived down at our hotel probably about 6:30 or 7:00 that night. We went out to eat at Olive Garden that night, and it smelled sooo good. After that, we went back to the hotel and turned in early for the night.

The next day, we woke up early so mom could take the crew down to the school for puppy hugging and dog walking. I could not go to this event so I stayed behind with one of the guys in the hotel room. That was fine with me. Mom got to play with two litters of puppies, one of the litters containing the two puppies we were there to pick up. They had so much fun! Mom took lots of pictures of the puppies. The two puppies that we picked up were named Snap and CW. The mother of these pups' name is Tina and she is from the Charlotte group in North Carolina. Tina was around when mom had her first dog, Benjamin. After they got back from their trip to the guide dog school, we all decided to hit the beach! It was so nice out there. It was sunny and the waves were gentle. I was in my harness so of course I could not swim. I got to sit with mom on the beach while the others swam. After a little while, we all traded off and mom got to go swim. We went back to the hotel after a while and cleaned up then we took a trip to Red Lobster to eat that night. Mom and I had never been there before, but we really enjoyed it, mom with the food and me with getting to relax under the table. Another early night for us so we could leave around 8 in the morning.

Wednesday 21st: We got up early and packed everything up to head out of the hotel and to the guide dog school to pick up our group's new additions. We arrived at the Administrative Building to sign the papers for the pups and headed to the puppy kennel afterward. I was in my crate and stayed in the car with one of the men while mom and the new raisers went inside to get the babies. They checked the puppies and made sure we had the right ones and briefed us on anything that we needed to know about the pups. Snap was already showing signs of separation anxiety, so they gave us a couple of towels that had their littermates' scent on it, so she would feel a bit more comfortable. Mom let me get out of my kennel (crate) to meet Snap and CW and to busy before we got started on the long journey home. Now instead of there only being me in the kennel, there are three of us now, which means, I have babysitting duty all the way home (or at least to South Carolina where we are meeting our AC's husband who is picking up their puppy). Our AC and her husband actually got the chance to name, sponor, and are raising their own puppy named in honor our AC's father who worked for the Stanly News and Press hince the name Snap. We have to stop several more times on the trip going home than we did coming down so the puppies could busy, we could eat and stretch, and get gas. The trip went pretty somoothly, although, I did shoot mommy some pretty evil looks when she put me back in the kennel with the babies. There was a pretty good thunderstorm in SC, but we made it through and met with our AC's husband and gave him his puppy, then we headed home. I think we arrived at around 11:00 that night.

All in all, a great vacation from the everyday life at home. It's nice to get to go back to where my roots started every now and then. Mom says I have made the journey down to Florida more than any of her other dogs. What can I say, I like to ride with her.

We are supposed to be having an outing at our AC's house tomorrow evening. Let's hope it does not rain us out. *crossing toes*

Much love from,
Cameron