|
 February 13, 2006
Tomorrow
is my Breeze's 7th birthday. It seems like just
yesterday I got her... A lot has happened in my life
since then! I am in my final year of college now and
will get my bachelor's degree in sociology (with
concentrations in culture studies and reconciliation) in
May. Another happening in my life is that I'm married
now. It was a beautiful wedding and my beautiful Golden
Ilsa was the ring bearer. Ilsa was the 9th pup I raised
for The Seeing Eye who didn't make the program because
of bad hips and car sickness issues. She's an angel of a
dog though and I've always told her she'd be in my
wedding... so it was nice to fulfill that commitment. I
think my in-laws thought I was crazy. :-)
Since I've been in college my pups have stayed with my
parents. I am about 6 hours from them. When Mark and I
graduate in May and move to which ever city we end up in
for graduate school (most likely Pittsburgh or Boston -
I plan on entering a PhD program to study race and
economic stratification and my husband is going to get
his Master's degree in mechanical engineering) we will
hopefully find a large-dog friendly apartment... in
which case we'll probably bring Ivy to live with us.
She's nearly eleven years old now but I think she would
be the one to adjust best to the change, especially
apartment living. We already have two stray cats my
husband took in this summer, a mouse, and a fish... but
it's still not complete without a dog.
Karma, our German Shepherd, passed away in September. It
happened really fast. She was eleven years old. Ivy is
still going strong at 10 years old, Breeze is as
energetic as ever, Ilsa is my sweet girl who I miss
dearly and look forward to having her live with me
eventually, and Blaze, the puppy my mom and I rescued
back in 2002, is quite the bouncy girl even at 3½-
years-old.
I really enjoyed reading through some of the past
entries on the webpage you did on me. It was a nice walk
down memory lane. Thank you for your dedication to
Golden Retrievers and your commitment to education.
Back to Diary
September
16, 2002
Here is a new letter from Vicki,
college
girl, shown with her four girls:
 Hello! You must have thought I fell off the face of the
earth. My life has taken me to some funny places over the past year! I'm now at Geneva
College in Beaver Falls, PA where I am majoring in Psychology and Youth Ministry. Beaver
Falls is six hours away from my home and my puppies. :-( It is a great school though
and I am having a wonderful time, but unfortunately, I can only have pet fish (I have
two!).
Now for a quick update on my dogs. Ilsa went back to The Seeing Eye in January. Four days
after she left (she left on a Friday and I got "the call" on a Monday) I found
out that she was being released due to car sickness issues and hip dysplasia. I must say
that I was quite ecstatic. I wanted my baby girl back. Ilsa is one of my heart dogs. I
can't quite explain why, but she is. Needless to say, Ilsa was quite happy to be home. I
call home each week and talk to her on the phone. She's a mommy's girl through and though
and she gets depressed if I don't call. I'll be going home to see them all on October
18th.
Hildie went back to The Seeing Eye in June (they let her stay longer so that she could
walk with me in my high school graduation). From what I hear, she is still doing well in
training. She turned into a great dog. Though 100% lab, I know she thought she was a
Golden! Ivy is still the grandma of the house. She spends her days sleeping, going for
early morning walks with my dad, and sunbathing. Ivy loves to lay in the sun. She's a
funny dog. Breeze is still the same old priss. She is definitely the princess. She has my
dad wrapped around her dainty little paw. And, Karma is 8 1/2 years old now. She spends
her days lounged on the couch.
The newest addition to our "pack" was acquired in March. She'll be a year old in
October. My mom and I went on a mission trip to West Virginia about 6 months ago, working
with the poor in the Appalachia area. There are stray dogs everywhere. They called them
"sooners" because they'll sooner be roadkill than anything else. :-( So my
mom and I brought two puppies home with us. :-D I don't think my dad will ever let
the two of us go on a trip by ourselves again. The one puppy was about six weeks old and
had been scavenging for food for at least two weeks. He looked like an Alaskan Malamute
mix. That puppy had some attitude, nothing scared him. I kept him about five weeks while I
work ed on some training, got him his shots, etc. I than found another home for him.
The other dog, "Blaze", was actually a dog that had been hanging around the home
of one of the people I was working with. He liked her a lot but couldn't afford to feed
her so he asked if we could take her. She was a five month old Lab/Walker (a coonhound
type dog) mix. She's now almost a year old. Blaze loves being an inside dog and she
quickly attached herself to my family. And even though she had never lived inside before,
she never has had an accident. My dad didn't want us to keep her though, even though she
loved us so much. He said we had to try and find a home for her. Well, I think G-d must
have wanted us to keep Blaze because I found three different homes for her and none of
them worked out. So my dad finally gave in and said we could keep her. She's an awesome
dog. She now has my dad wrapped around her paw, though Breeze is still his favorite.
So, if you were counting, we have five permanent dogs now -- Karma, Ivy, Breeze, Ilsa, and
Blaze. I'm fortunate enough to have a great family that doesn't mind caring for my babies
while I'm gone at school! I was also gone for most of the summer. I spent nine weeks in
Kenya telling people about Jesus. It was an awesome trip. I trained some Masai's dogs while I was there and in
return they gave me a puppy (shown here) who I had to leave behind. :-( She was
about eight weeks old. Her name was Sunny. The Masai didn't know you could train dogs but
by the time I left the bush (we were in the middle of the Rift Valley in a tiny area known
as Ewauso) I had their one dog (who I named Persy - short for Perseverance!) trained to
sit, stay, come, down, and to shake hands. The natives got a kick out of the
"shake" command.I need to head to class now. Love, Vicki
P.S. - I forgot to tell you that Echo graduated as a guide in December 2001. She's now
working in the New England area.
A Family Portrait
Back to Diary
|
|
