The Dog In The Blue Coat

No hip-dysplasia for Amos; WOO!

Amos Likes:

The dog park. The dog park supersedes everything else in life, even cheese in our Kong. 

Lindsey coming home from class.

Chewing on Reagan's neck fur until she looks like some kind of wet, motley lion.

Nibbling on the branches of the Christmas tree when he thinks we aren't watching him.

Bananas.. I have never seen a dog go so bonkers for a piece of fruit than Amos when he visits my parent's house and he gets a banana in the morning with the other dogs. 

Sitting. We can sit all day every day but dropping is not as fun so let's just continue to sit, shall we? You want me to stand? Nope. Still sitting..

Amos Dislikes:

Mom's decorative Santa's. Bringing these out to decorate the house for Christmas was a riot because Amos could not figure out why this gnome sized intruder was in the house and he needed to be gone, his gifts be damned!

When Mom was training Loti, a demonstration dog for Helping Paws, she had the best time screwing with people when they mistook Loti for a seeing eye dog. Rather than correct them, she'd sometimes just let people carry on thinking she was blind, decline their invites to help her, and go ahead and get in her car and drive away, all the while leaving them gawking as to how a blind woman could be operating a motor vehicle. 

It was hilarious. Mean, but hilarious.

Along that same thread, I have a small contingency of individuals around my work who are absolutely convinced that Amos is a drug dog. These people tend to be college aged and suddenly get extremely nervous and fidgety when we come strolling through.. In their haze of a little somethin'-somethin', they also whisper their fears to one another just a bit too loudly that Amos will catch a scent of their stash and they'll be done for.

I love Minnesota: this is news to no-one. I especially love Minnesota on Give to the Max Day, mostly because Minnesotans come out in force to donate to their favorite charities, and it exemplifies the "Minnesota Nice" that we're known for.

Minnesotans were REALLY nice this year... $102,000 worth of nice, to be exact.

Starting with a spectacularly early wake up call, Amos & I headed out downtown to do a bit for WCCO with Pam to encourage people to support Helping Paws. The bit lasted a total of probably.. 3 minutes but I came up with every worst case scenario and over-packed for the interview as though it was going to be the second coming of Jesus himself.

Two rolls of disposable pet bags, more treats than any one dog needs to sit still, a brush, lint rollers, you name it, and I probably had it shoved in a coat pocket somewhere. 

Characteristically, I didn't need any of that except the treats. Amos sat & looked cute like the Boss of Cuteness he is and only managed to drool on the microphone once, though to his credit the reporter gal shoved it in his nose, so what's he supposed to do?

While leaving the bit with WCCO, an extremely alive, awake, alert, and enthusiastic Kare11 reporter popped up and took some shots of Amos and a few soundbites about Helping Paws, as well. At this point, I couldn't feel my feet and I'm fairly certain my cheeks were frozen from the wind so I don't quite know how generous I was with information, but the word got out on not one but TWO stations about Helping Paws, so life was good.

After making his T.V. debut [TLC, Lifetime, and Netflix are all now bidding for the rights to a reality show about Amos, FYI], Steve took Amos to the training center to do some demonstrations while I logged a few hours at work, and unsurprisingly he and the rest of the crew knocked it out of the park there, too.

Later that evening, donors and people interested in fostering dogs were able to come and watch our combined class with the Big Dogs in the group ahead of us, and that was good fun. Everyone kept trying to see where Helping Paws stood on the leader board for donations, and we were not disappointed.. we ended the evening with $102,000 raised in 24 hours..!!!!

Overarching theme of the day? People are good: really, truly good. I'm in awe of the generosity that people extend towards this organization and these dogs, and it's humbling knowing there's that kind of network supporting us as we go through these next two years.

There's a whole barrage of reasons I've been silent on here the past couple of weeks, but rather than delving into those fun, personal details, I'll just let you pick your favorite excuse from the following and we'll go with that.

After months of negotiations, Penguin Books signed me to an exclusive contract and I had a month to write my debut novel. In lieu of having a life, I no longer need to worry about money [so many lol's here, guys, so many..]

President Obama appointed me the ambassador to Greece, and I've been spending the time sunning myself on the isles with zero cares as to the internet.

In a fit of puppy zoomies, Amos destroyed my laptop as he made his laps around the apartment.

I took a vow of silence.

In a string of bad luck completely related to Sony's own technological woes, North Korea hacked my laptop and found the content of this blog to be a threat to their livelihood [or something]..

Alright, guys, it's Minnesota's Give To The Max Day tomorrow which means if you live in the Twin Cities area, you're being encouraged from every which way to donate to a nonprofit of your choice. I'm going to add to that encouragement and also put in a plug for Helping Paws, Inc. From my barrage of posts and photos, it's obvious that I'm enamored with Amos, the service dog I'm lucky enough to train, but my awe goes far beyond him and is a reflection of the incredible work these dogs do for their Forever People. It costs more than $30,000 per pup to get these dogs ready for their lifetime of service, and Give To The Max Day is an imperative part of the fundraising that goes into getting these dogs where they need to be in their training. These dogs act as a bridge between the individuals they work with and the rest of us to negate the handicap that so often is the only thing others see in individuals living with a disability, or veterans diagnosed with PTSD. Should you choose to donate, consider adding Helping Paws onto that gift and know that in doing so you're actively joining our network of both pups and humans that are working so hard to close that divide.

Even if you live outside of Minnesota, in donating through Give To The Max Day, you're still making a tax-deductible contribution that benefits you as much as it does these dogs. 

If you're so interested, click the link below to schedule your donation ahead of time, or check back tomorrow for a chance to win one of 24 Golden Tickets that affords you an extra $1,000 to donate to the non-profit of your choosing!

Tonight I'll bring Amos with me to class and leave with a different dog.. for a week!

Part of the Helping Paws curriculum is ensuring that we as trainers can work with other dogs effectively, and that the dogs, too, are willing to work with other individuals besides their primary person. That being said, it's time for our class to give this a go and separate from our beloved pups for a week.

I'll be taking Arlo, Amos' darling brother, for the week while Amos goes home with Arlo's family, MT and her husband and two sons. I'm excited that Amos will get a chance to be with someone who has an actual home and children to be around. My apartment is fine, but a house will offer a whole new dynamic and I'm sure that MT's boys will give Amos a good run around while he's there.

Arlo, in turn, will get a taste of Uptown living, and I have a whole slew of outings planned for he and I to introduce him to a bunch of new elements and distractions. It'll be an extremely good experience for the pups, and even though I know that Amos is going into more than capable hands (seriously, MT is a second time trainer and Arlo is a saint.. She is SO good!), I'm still sad to see him go.. I imagine it's like a parent sending their kid off for their first sleepover, needlessly worrying about their child missing them to the point of tears when in all actuality it's a blast for the aforementioned little one.. Ah well.

So! For the next week you'll be getting updates about Arlo & I's adventures, but come Wednesday evening I'll be reunited with sweet Amos: The Moserboat, Monsieur Moser, Little Boy, my Little Love, The Boat.

Amos gets excited to see me when I come home from the second half of my work day, and it's just about the cutest thing I've ever seen: full body wiggles, lots of noise, tail wagging so hard you'd think it was powering a small turbine, etc etc.

However..

Amo's excitement at the prospect of having a piece of cheese put in his Kong trumps this. We're talking exorbitant squeaks/barks/grunts of excitement, full on drooling, and a complete inability to sit still. That being said, here is The Hierarchy of Excitement Inducing Things According to Amos' Preferences:

1) Cheese in our Kong

2) Sam

3) The dog park

4) Everyone else on the planet

5) Sticks

6) Belly rubs