SHE'S BACK!!! Well the last post I bragged on Johanna, our last puppy raised for Guide Dogs for the Blind. I was positive that she was guide dog material...but I guess I haven't figured that school out yet. In June (yes quite a while ago) we got a call from the school and they said they were "career changing" her for foraging! That is right ... A lab who likes to pick thinks up in her mouth! Come on people!!!! So we looked at all our routes to get her back to us....anyone else from Utah driving out that way, how much an airline ticket would cost and could they even fly her because of the heat that late in June or if we should try and make the trip (Scott wanted one day up and one day back...I personally hate that kind of trip and said I would rather drive it alone or with Amy and take a little more time...of course that bugged him too!) So Amy said she wanted to come and after Scott thought it through he decided he could get away too. We had a lot of fun until the last day when we drove straight through...ug.. A lot of car hours! Amy got be "the only child" which was some thing she used to ask for when she was a child. Johanna was at the Boring, Oregon campus near Portland. First day we left around noon and were by Boise about dinner time. We stopped for dinner with Lise, Mark and Alicia Hansen. So good to see them! Lise and I talked like old times and Scott and Amy had to drag me out of there because we wanted to see if we could find our old house in Nampa that we had lived in about 1978. This is where we lived when Katie was born and Scott was working for Carnation in the Processed Potato division...his first job right out of college. That night we went on to some place in Oregon where we found a hotel room with two king beds! Cool! Never had even asked for that before and we were just joking when we did! Some of our other high lights were the Nutty Narrows squirrel bridge, flying Toy plane off Lewis and Clark Memorial in Astoria, Washington, Tillamook Cheese plant again, walking on beach, hydro electric dams, kite surfers, Herman the Sturgeon, beautiful scenery, Multnomah falls and the 7 other falls, pizza outside with servers who bring large water bowls to dogs, now knowing there is NO gas stations in some parts of Oregon...plan accordingly and don't try to pump your own gas! Lots of adventures especially with "circling our food" and never being able to drive right to a restaurant.

Jo Jo Dog!!! Everyone once in a blue moon we've had a special puppy that has come into our lives (of the 13 raised to become guides for the blind) that you know you were more bonded too than many of the others. That would be Johanna! Born of Elena (pup number 11 whom we also loved) but yellow instead of black. She was flown to Utah in late February and we picked her up from SLC airport. She traveled with Isadora, another very white yellow lab puppy of the same age. At first when I saw them I was hoping that ours would be the white one. Johanna was more honey colored and smaller ... but oh how she started to take up a big spot in our hearts! We already had Nigella, a golden retriever pup who was about 7 months old at the time that we were raising. The two became fast friends curling up to sleep on each other all the time. Nigella was perfect with Johanna ... although it was a little time consuming I really enjoyed having the two pups together. It was so much fun to watch them interact with each other. Johanna (name picked by us ... after my grandmother...Louise Johanna Fellger Johnson) had a few little quirks but for the most part was one of the easiest pups we've raised. She LOVED to please. She was always, always happy to see you. So happy that she would jump up and run straight at you if called (we called it her bunny hop!). She would go full bore straight at your legs and you'd have to stop her with your hands. Her whole body was HAPPY!!! Well good things often come to an end and Johanna had to go back for the rest of her training or to become a breeder. We haven't heard yet which path she will take but we have already told our club leader that if for some reason they call and career change her we want her back! We miss her ALOT. We miss her happiness, her staring at you with her head in your lap like you were her idol, her tight little curled up ball when she slept by the bed, her running and jumping off the landing on the patio and so many other things that just made her wonderful. (Don't miss a few of her tricks though like an occassional counter surfing and eating of scrubbies or other un-edible stuff.) JoJo we hold a spot in our hearts for our little yellow lab. Happy trails always!

Amy shines.... This year Amy received the "Teacher of the Year Award" from her school. I tried to find the article online but for some reason I couldn't find it in the Herald Journal archives. But here is what the article said: The Logan City School District and The Logan Schools Foundation announce the following: Amy Nollner is the teacher of the year for Wilson Elementary. She teaches first grade. She is respectful and patient with her students. She handles all situations with care and puts the needs of the students first. Amy has continued her education and implements the skills and strategies she has learned. We are so proud to call her our daughter and know in our own hearts that she is a great teacher!!!

Gwendolyn's Blessing

Texas, warm weather, wonderful family ... what else can you ask for. We had a nice, but short trip to Grapevine, Texas for beautiful baby Gwendolyn Paige Dinkeldein's baby blessing. Warm weather to be outside and try and help Kate and John with a few projects...we put together a new "big girl bed" for Adelaide, helped with some landscaping, put in a new storm door, had good food, walked outside in the sunshine, went to Zumba, got lost on the way to our hotel, found out that hotel people lie about pools being open, ate Texas shaped waffles, ate OUTSIDE at a Mexican restaurant, got some Vitamin D from the sun, played Draw Something sitting across from each other on the couch, watched a movie .... crammed a lot into a little weekend, don't you think!

A very sad day...

Monday, March 19th, 2012 was a very sad, sad day for us. We had watched our sweet dog Emma get more feeble and unsteady for the last year or so. I had hoped over and over again that she would just be released from her pain and go quietly in the night. It had become so hard for me to watch her struggle with just walking.

At first her back legs started to get very weak and she struggled to stand. She couldn't stand to eat without her legs sliding out from under her unless we made sure she was on a surface with some "grip" to it. She had started to eat very slow and sometimes unable to eat all of her food. We could tell she was starting to have some digestive problems too. She would get herself in a corner and didn't seem how to know how to get out of it and would stand there for a very long time.

But probably the worst part was when she would fall down the stairs to go outside. She was very protective of being picked up...I'm sure because it hurt her and she would yelp in pain if you tried to pick her up. For a couple of weeks before we watched as one of her front legs had started to swell and was very painful to touch. We had put her on glucosamine but even that didn't seem to be helping much. Her hearing was pretty much gone also as it seemed that the only thing she really heard anymore was her food getting put in her dish. I could step over her while doing the laundry and she wouldn't even wake up!

I know we had delayed this decision for a long time. I was holding on because I wanted a more natural transition for her. But it was not to be. I just couldn't watch her be in pain any longer. I wondered if I was being selfish? I think Scott was just waiting for me to be OK with it. I'm not sure that it is a decision that you can ever be "OK" with. So I had made some phone calls to our vet several times trying to come to grips with it and I cried most of the day.

But afterwards it was a peaceful feeling. I'm glad that she doesn't hurt anymore. I wish I could say that she was the "best dog ever" for the 16 years of her life, but she wasn't. She had a free spirit and like to roam which got really hard after she seemed to lose her hearing (Scott said it was selective hearing). She helped raise 12 guide dog puppies by keeping them as "low man on the totem pole". She always seemed like the Alpha dog up until the last couple of months of her life and when those puppies put their noses in her dish she let them know that they were in her territory!

Our little Canadian Golden mixed with who knows what puppy was not always obiedent or willing to please, but she was ours and we loved her. Miss you and love you Emma!

Pictures of Gwendolyn Paige Dinkeldein

New little grand daughter

January 17th was a very good day for little Gwendolyn Paige Dinkeldein to be born...problem was that the doctor had told us she probably wasn't going to be born until the following Monday! So I got on the very earliest flight out of SLC at some obscene time in the morning (remember we live two hours away from the airport and then add an hour before flight so we were looking at leaving home at around 3:30 am). I missed her birth by 5 minutes! 5 minutes people! And that was after a very fast, swerve drive from Dallas Love Field airport to the hospital!

Anyway she is beautiful and I got to spend 9 days with the little munchkin and her adorable sister Adelaide!

Nigella, the beautiful

As of today, Nigella has officially been classified as a "Breeder" for Guide Dogs for the Blind in San Rafael, California. She left us in October 2011 and it has taken this long for her to pass all the medical and temperment tests. She was probably one of the most beautiful of the 13 dogs we've raised to become guides, but not always the most obedient (after she left we found out that it wasn't Johanna that was chewing everything up!). Anywhere we took her we got comments on how beautiful she was. When we were walking, people would screech to a halt to talk to us. She had the softest coat and a very quiet demeanor. I used to say ... "Nigella was born old" because she was so laid back. We will think about possibly raising a "little Nigella" down the road as we get to choose from one of her litters.

Nigella was always so good with Johanna that both Scott and I know she will make a GREAT MOM!!!

I married an older (wiser) man!!! Scott hit the big "6 --- 0" this year. We had a quiet celebration ... just the two of us. He got a great present but it will be a while before he gets it. It is something he has wanted for a looonggg time. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Dr. Jeckle and Mr. Hyde.

January thaw....

We've been experiencing a reprieve from the frigid cold and have had temperatures in the upper thirties and even into the forties!!!! This is extremely warm for our part of the cold rocky mountains in January! So warm that my riding friend and I decided "Get those horses out!" Two days in a row we have been out in the foothills. And those same horses have shown us that they are raring' to go. Yesterday "Miss Maddie" refused to do anything but trotting and came home all lathered up (not such a good thing in cold weather). Today she was much calmer but she slipped in the mud and went all the way down, sending me over her right shoulder onto the ground and right in front of Sharidean's horse, Mr. Mator (the little red tow truck). This was a first for Miss Maddie and I. But as Sharidean said..."well at least you had a soft landing"...mud and dry winter grass. If only I would have had a video!