the recap

well...class is done & paper is turned in...so, where to begin with the trip. i guess i'll try to take it day by day

wednesday CAMDEN and i drove down to concord. he rested in the kennel while dad and i went to dinner with jack, lisa, eliot, karen, jason, and fiona (at on the border, yay!). we had a wonderful and entertaining meal with jack...how could it not be?! he makes me laugh allll the time, it's so wonderful to be with him! it was so nice to see everyone also!

thursday morning dad and i took CAMDEN for his second visit to see alex. this time went even better than before. CAMDEN was much calmer and more attentive to alex. he played retrieving with kathy with alex's blankie and took his socks off very gently and took them to kathy as well. it was so sweet. he would bring the blankie back to me, and i would hand it to alex. alex would laugh and laugh and flail that blankie around and CAMDEN would be so excited to get it back, but he would be so gentle waiting for a still moment to grab a little corner and pull it very gently out of alex's grip. it showed such a great deal of attentiveness and impulse control for such a young little boy dog. he'd then proudly prance the blankie back to kathy to play again. he also licked some peanut butter off of alex's hand. this was soooooo exciting for him he could barely stand it but when given the "eat" command he licked ever so gently as hard as it was for him! his sixth sense definitely kicked in with alex, it was so interesting to watch. there was a very special few minutes when alex and CAMDEN were laying side-by-side and CAMDEN laid his head onto alex's leg. this was a very big step, because previously alex's kicking was the biggest concern for CAMDEN. suddenly, he had totally accepted alex and all of his movements. it was so fascinating to watch, because alex's legs stayed still for a minute or so, which is longer than i had seen before. even when CAMDEN did get two swift kicks to the head, he kept his chin on alex's leg and looked up at kathy for reassurance rather than me. it was so so so so cool.

so, i would like to officially announce that CAMDEN is now being targeted for alex and his family!! : ) we are all very excited about this development. as with all of our teams in-progress, there are no guarantees until graduation day really, but we now have common goals and will work CAMDEN in this direction. he is so so wonderful, it was so fun to have him this weekend as he discovered alex and the rest of the world. he is so very much like COLT it is eery, but we couldn't ask for a better dog to copy than our COLTY, so we are all very very happy!

phew, so the rest of thursday we traveled to topsail and settled in at candace's family's beach house where we stayed.

friday was the big day of big meetings in wilmington. as nothing is finalized yet, i'll stick to our superstitious tradition of not revealing anything until it is finalized...but i will say that it was a very successful day and it looks as though we will have yet another (very very huge) project starting in the near future if all continues as planned!

saturday was.....sit down for this one....a down day for the gang. i am serious. terry was on this trip and we STILL got a day with no meetings ; ) i kid i kid, no one loves him more than i do, but this was a true rarity. we laid on the beach in the beautiful weather, took CAMDEN to the beach, and (begrudgingly) worked on my paper. ohhhh CAMDEN at the beach was hilarrrrious let me tell you, he thought the waves were liquid monsters and when i could finally get him into the water, he had to jump over every crest like it was a wall! it was even funnier because this is exactly what COLT did on his first beach trip.

sunday morning was the see spot run 5k in wilmington. you will all be glad to know that i did end up participating with my personal trainer/coach candace. i "ran" super super fast no one could catch me and i embarrassed all the other participants with my record breaking time. or something like that. a full day later, i can now it was fun. memories get better with time ;) i do thank my dear friend for talking me into it and helping me through it though, it does feel like quite the accomplishment in hindsight. the whole 5k/walk/silent auction went very well. there was a very good turn-out with some press coverage and we think it will become a very successful annual event. thanks to angie, sydney, the ivancevich's, and everyone else in wilmington and at uncw who made everything turn out so well.

as a final side note, it was awesome to see amanda and ELLIE as well. amanda is growing and coming out of her shell and doing so so well. she walked all morning on sunday i'd never seen her so active! ELLIE is great as always, katie had her all day at the 5k and she listened to every command on the first give, even from her secondary handler. it was so good to see the whole family unit working so well as a team.

well, as if that's not enough, that's all i can think to report now. i'm sure i'll come up with some forgotten things soon! ohh...and CAMDEN went to panera and sign language tonight and was just perfect. he'll go back "home" to the prison tomorrow where i will have to retell all of this to the inmates ohhh gosh!

LOVE,K
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