Decision at the mall today.

Today I was at our local mall while babysitting my neighbors. We headed to the food court so the boys could go to the bathroom and Mordecai could be taken outside to do the same. As we walked a little girl barreled away from her mom and was on a collision course with us screaming for the doggy. I gave Mordecai's leash a little tug and we veared around her. I gave him a Come command in a pleasant voice as I did it. The mom yelled at me across the food court and told me I could have been a little nicer. I turned around and told her that she could have controlled her child(which she didn't). She told me to go to hell as I walked out the door. She was lucky I didn't body block her kid like I have done to others. She really upset me! I had to breathe deeply outside for a few minutes. I told myself that letting my anxiety go sky high because of idiots is not good. I've decided that when people are being rude because they can't control their kids, dogs or parents around my service dog; I'm not going to respond to their idiotic comments. I need to just let it go and tell myself that I am more mature than they are. I don't need their idiocy raising my anxiety, I have enough anxiety already! I'm just going to let their comments blow away and let everyone else hear them. And besides watching all those people be rude shows me all the things I will never do around my future children.

From scared at the Madaket to unmoved with the steam train.

A couple years ago we took Mordecai for a ride on the Madaket on July 4th. The Madaket is owned by the Humboldt Bay Maritime Museum and operated by Humboldt Bay Harbor Cruise, she continues to be the oldest vessel in continuous service in the United States, boasts the smallest licensed bar in the state and is a California historic vessel. When the Madaket blew it's horn at the beginning and end of the trip, Mordecai nearly jumped out of his skin! It terrified him.
Yesterday we went to Dolbeer Donkey Days at Fort Humboldt State Park. Fort Humboldt is situated on a bluff overlooking Humboldt Bay. This remote military post was established in 1853 to assist in conflict resolution between Native Americans and gold-seekers and settlers who had begun flooding into the area after the discovery of gold in the northern mines. Dolbeer Donkey Days is a two day event in April featuring logging equipment in operation and logging skills competition. An old steam engine is fired up for rides. I went with my friend Richard to test Mordecai's mettle and feeling his oats for future train rides. As we stood in line, the train blew it's high pitched horn. Mordecai looked around slowly, looked at me then faced forward again. He didn't mind at all. We boarded the open car and Mordecai laid down on the blanket I put on the splintery wood floor. As the train made it's way to it's top speed of 10 mph, Mordecai and I enjoyed the short ride at Dolbeer Donkey Days.
In less than two years Mordecai has made so much progress. While he is an official Service Dog and not in training, there is always training and upkeep to be done. I'm so proud of him.

GSD=K9

Yesterday we heard a funny story from a friend of Mom's who is a bather at PetCo. She was working on a great big German Shepherd and some man said, "That's a good looking canine." She said, "Yup, he's a handsome German shepherd." The man then went into a tirad about how it was not a German shepherd but a canine. The bather tried to explain what canine means but the man was having none of it. She finally realized that this man though that since German shepherds are commonly used as police dogs and it says K-9 on the side of the police car, that this sort of dog is called a K-9. As in the name of the breed!

Dinner at Yen Ching

Tonight we went to Yen Ching for dinner. Yen Ching serves traditional dishes from the Hunan and Schezuan Provinces. They are small, friendly and super tasty. It is a family place. The waitress adores me! She brings out extra white rice so I can have some. She is one of the few people that Mom let's me socialize with while on duty. I'm allowed to talk to the people in her department at school but that's it. But this lady is sooo nice. I was unsure if I was allowed to visit with her so Robin gave her some treats and then I knew it was ok! She gave me a few treats and I licked her hand and nuzzled her leg. I am such an attention whore! We were the only customers there at the time so she knew that she could lavish affection on me without ignoring other people. After a couple minutes I went back to Mom and laid down on my mat. The waitress looked so happy. She rushed off to wash her hands so she could pour Mom more water. She gave me another quick pat before we left. As we left, she was just beaming at me. It was a good night out.

I joined Dogster Plus!

Well, it was difficult but I convinced Mom to join Dogster Plus. We can now have 10x as many pictures!. We put 3 new ones up today of me at work. And more will be coming! Beware, Mom might go nuts. And now we have more Zealies for sending littles gifts.

New patches!

Today I got new patches for my vest! Last May we retired my green vest with it's Ask to Pet Me patch. Boy was that patch a mistake. We got a new blue vest with a no petting patch. As time passed, Mom noticed that the patches that say Service Dog are quite hard to read, the patches being small and the letters being kind of puffy. So we went back to our friends at SitStay and bought new patches! The patches from my green vest went onto my rain coat and the pet me patch went into storage. So we have two small patches that say service dog and a large one that says Please Don't Pet Me I'm Working. These will go on my old green vest. We are waiting for some patches that we ordered from the Psychiatric Service Dog Society that will also go on my vest. The blue vest will become a spare. We also got a large blue and white patch that says I Am A Service Dog to put on my favorite blue coat. When we have all the new patches on, we will take pictures of me strutting my stuff!