KYRIAp4p

my blog has moved

2011-04-27T11:12:00.001-04:00

hi all! we have a new, exciting, dynamic website we are building and a lot of information people have been asking for is finally getting added and is accesible! it is still a work in progress, and always will be, but it's moving forward and we're very excited about it!

don't miss my blog posts, pictures, and videos of the new puppies that will be housed there. visit it and make sure to sign up for the email updates to stay informed about what's going on...that feature is going to be so great in the days ahead!

thanks everyeone!LOVE,K
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lakin

2011-04-18T07:21:00.002-04:00

well, here's yet another big announcement. we are officially beginning the opening of our sixth paws4prisons program. this time, it's different, though. this program is opening at Lakin correctional center, a west virginia department of corrections female facility. that's right, a state institution. isn't funny how life makes you eat crow and do things you said you never would sometimes?

lakin has a dedicated wing consisting of 22 cells and 44 inmate beds that is dedicated to dog programming. a different program has operated there in the past. this facility, with the dedicated housing wing, yards, etc. is set up like no other facility we have. we loved it at first sight! we have obviously had several meetings there, and last friday dad and i had our first presentation to the population and small group meeting with the inmates who had been in the dog program before. they asked lots of great questions and we stated to educate them on our philosophy, training styles, requirements, etc. in addition to the big "philosophical" change over that will have to occur in the inmates staying in or joining the program, our year-long academic program is also a very new (and scary!) concept to them. hey, i can relate, i'm not exactly having a party being back in school these days! due to the impending litter, we have not yet set a date to move dogs to lakin and officially start the program. but they have been left with two of our initial academic packages for self-study as we start to work on logistics over here.

speaking of the puppies, they are due one week from today! i'm holding a little contest on our facebook page. the person who posts the closest guess to the date and time of the first puppy's arrival will get to choose a name once the naming theme and name list are revealed! start guessing! in the meantime, we'll be busy trying to get everything ready for them...but are you ever really ready for the baby?!
LOVE,K
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O MY GOSH

2011-04-09T08:12:00.002-04:00

okay everyone, this is one of the most exciting things yet...probably THE most exciting...and i know that's saying a lot.

there is a full page in may's issue of O - Oprah Magazine dedicated to paws4vets and the IKEA life improvement sabbatical contest!!!!! it is soooooo cool!

please run out and pick one up if you can!

today we have the bi-annual recertification of the va chapter ops dogs. on tuesday, LILLY gets her xray so i can count those puppies. my gut says there are a lot, because she is already extra big, but maybe they're just really fat, we'll see!

LOVE,K
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today

2011-04-05T18:52:00.002-04:00

well, today, allison april, CLAIRE and i attended the loudoun county chamber of commerce 2011 valor awards. we were invited by lisa, mom of NORMAN, the one and only wonderful mastiff on the northern va paws4people ops team. we were guests at the telos table, and got to attend this wonderful event honoring many brave first responders who saved lives in our community this year.

april came as a purposeful challenge to herself to get through many aspects of this event, but i will let her tell you about that herself when she gets a chance to on her own blog. i took CLAIRE to be april's substitute service dog for the day, as BOURKE is still working on his public access training and wasn't around for me to take this time. i think CLAIRE did the trick though!

we had a lovely time and CLAIRE was a great educator and ambassador, as usual. but tomorrow it's time to conquer homework, for real....

LOVE,K
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wilmington 5k!

2011-04-05T08:18:00.002-04:00

well, this weekend we traveled down to wilmington for the 3rd annual paws4people wilmington 5k! the race and fun walk took place on campus at UNCW and was yet another huge success. with nearly 200 participants, all of our race tshirts were gone! we have a great time, lots of doggies came and had tons of fun, and angie, rachel, and their team put in more hard work than i can imagine making it better than ever. i already can't wait for next year, after our courses are in full swing, to have even more student and campus participation!

after some meetings last week, i have yet another huge announcement to make about a big, exciting expansion...although it is now official, dad is completing some more meetings this week to finalize plans and logistics, at which time i will announce it...i won't leave it hanging too long this time, i promise.

i can't believe it's tuesday, because of 4 days in wilmington it feels like monday, but it's better to be ahead than behind i guess. who needs monday anyways?! i'm in the third week of my master's classes online now, and i was one full week ahead on work in preparation for my trip this weekend...but now i'm not ahead anymore and that's stressing me out already! i much prefer to work ahead. today allison, april, CLAIRE, and i are attending an event which i will post about tonight, because i truly don't know what to expect so i'd rather tell you about it afterwards! then, i need to get busy and do a week or two's assignments so i can be ahead again, because this weekend is already booked, too!

lots to update you on in the coming days....consider the blog drought over! see you soon!

oh! and be sure to visit the paws4people facebook page to become a fan and see race pictures!!
LOVE,K
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action-packed tuesday

2011-03-23T08:43:00.003-04:00

well, yesterday was quite busy. i was asked to speak at my alma mater, loudoun valley high school, in a seminar about alumni making a difference i have a presentation on the beginnings of p4p right there in a special education classroom at valley, and all that p4p has grown to encompass today. the students were great, and it was wonderful to see a lot of my old teachers again! the students were particularly excited to hear that they could sign up to come socialize the new litter of puppies, so i think we'll be getting a lot of extra help with that!

....that's right, i said new puppies! yesterday we did the official ultrasound and LILLY is officially pregnant! i don't try for a reliable puppy count until it's xray time (3 more weeks) but we know there are at least 4 babies in there as that's what we saw in one stationary view on the u/s. LILLY wasn't too fond of the machine, though, so she decided to stand, so we could only get a shot of one side at a time...like i said, not a reliable count!

so, this litter will be due on april 25! here we go again!!

LOVE,K
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the really really really really big announcement

2011-03-20T17:06:00.003-04:00

here i am, having to apologize for a long time between posts again. as promised in the title, i do have a really big announcement to make. i could have made it during this last week, as it was official and the materials were complete; but to be honest i was actually on a real vacation without any dogs, which is just about as rare and unheard of as it sounds, so i honestly didn't want to think about it :)

nevertheless, here i am back to the grind and ready to tell you all about it. now, as you know, i am very superstitious, and i do not talk about things until they are very, absolutely final. cryptic mentions of meetings and maybes have been made here on my lovely blog many-a-time, and i'm sure you find them most annoying; however, i believe in my skewed thinking patterns that i have to mention things so that they will happen, however not mention too much so as to jinx it, so to speak. therefore, i leave you in the limbo of half-truths. well, many of those have never been revealed, and that is because a vast majority of those occasions for the past two years have been meetings, briefings, presentations, and so on all leading up to this one project that i am finally, actually, no cruel jokes, ready to reveal.

paws4people is beginning an Assistance Dog Training Program and Certificate Program at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. This planned 4-course progressive program will be offered through the School of Health and Applied Human Sciences as an add-on program for students pursuing degrees in any field who wish to add the practical and theoretical knowledge and experience of Assistance Dog training and untilization as it relates to people with disabilities. These students will have the opportunity to cater their experience with Assistance Dogs to their chosen field, for instance Recreation Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Education, Gerontology, etc. so that they may then apply this knowledge to their career field upon graduation. Students who complete the Certificate Program will also be eligible to receive a paws4people Assistance Dog to use in their line of work. The first course will be offered this Fall 2011, and will be re-offered along with the second course in Spring 2012.

This is a revolutionary, ground-breaking program opportunity not only for the hard-working paws4people family, but the Assistance Dog industry as a whole. Creating more highly educated and knowledgeable advocates for Assistance Dogs and the people they serve is crucial to the progression of these life-changing and often life-saving animals we are so passionate about.

We have created a page of our site to provide information and updates as they become available on this program. To see the information on the first course check out www.UNCW.paws4people.org and be sure to check back often for more news and info!

LOVE,K
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miss LANGLEY

2011-03-07T06:30:00.002-05:00

well, we got a little surprise last week. miss LANGLEY decided to get the inmates very worried with her tummy issue, and by the time she got through the vet, she was peppy with nothing abnormal, just a little digestive upset. well, dad decided to bring her home for the week, and showed up at 2200 with a huge puppy in his arms. my little LANGLEY, who had been the tiniest baby, is now 5 months old and about 30 lbs. that didn't stop me though, i still carried her around for about a day, just because i could [barely]. she is a very, very sweet girl, as ever. she integrated perfectly with all the dogs here and was just like a shorter version of everyone else hanging out...except she played a little more, laid down a little less, and is still in the "quiet means trouble" stage. it reminded me why taking puppies to the prison is a job perk :) but she was better than we could have expected.

thursday, we had 2 ITT sessions together in leesburg, with april and BOURKE and sonny and JAKE at panera and the outlet mall. both of the clients did wonderfully, but as usual i'd prefer to let them tell you about it, so keep an eye on april and sonny's blogs for their take on the day.

nevertheless, CLAIRE and LANGLEY joined us. they stayed in the car (the dog sanctuary on wheels) while we oversaw the ITT's, then dad and i went to starbucks will allison and took the girls in. this was LANGLEY's very first public outing ever...all eyes were on her. she was nosey and trying to smell everything inappropriate while we walked, but whenever i would stop i could easily refocus her into a perfect heel and sit, so we walked up to the counter one step at a time. she sat at attention while we ordered and then headed over to a table. she watched CLAIRE to the "go in" command under the table, looked up at me, and upon my command of "go in" she replicated her mom. there she laid for over an hour. she never relaxed or got to sleep, she stared at me most of the time. she only tried to stand up twice and was redirected so effortlessly i started to wish that we had 18 month-olds who were so cooperative ;) she never whined and was easily pleased with a froot loop every 5 or 10 minutes. we were so very proud of her! here is a picture of the baby, who looks pretty darn big, in starbucks

she went back to the prison yesterday, a roundtrip drive i got to do, in the snow no less! oh the joys of western md & north central wv! JACKIE and BIFF came back with me and are heading down with dad on his trip this week to stay at jesup and ft. stewart, respectively.

let another week begin!
LOVE,K
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early mornings

2011-02-28T07:10:00.002-05:00

well, we had a great weekend! on sunday, we met sonny & JAKE & family for church @ ft. belvoir. since it was JAKE's first time and he will be a regular, we were asked to give a short presentation about paws4vets to help the congregation understand more about what we do. well, in addition to doing this at the 1100 service, we were also asked to do this at the 0800 service...which meant a 0400 wake up call! no lazy sundays here! bless their hearts, sonny and his whole family were up and ready to attend both services with us as well! we had a wonderful time, and JAKE and CLAIRE both did excellent. CLAIRE also graced children's church and sunday schools with her presence, and acted very much like a princess. she just loves kids and had a great time! we met many wonderful people who now better understand all the unique components of paws4vets. it was a great opportunity.

JAKE and sonny are doing wonderful together. JAKE is so very dedicated to watching sonny's every move, and is readily figuring out how to assist sonny without any words needing to be spoken. he's truly and amazing dog and has found just the right place!

on friday, i was featured as the guest blogger on disability.gov, you can read my blog here. that was another exciting opportunity as well!

on to a busy monday with a very important meeting with someone you have all heard about for some time now....hopefully she and i will have something to tell you about it afterwards!
LOVE,K
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LILLY reel

2011-02-25T06:53:00.002-05:00

well, another week stuck behind the computer for the most part, so not too much excitement to report.

well, i guess that's never quite true. on monday, we took ROWAN to the airport and flew her out to her new adopting home on the west coast. she arrived and is doing well! also on monday, we took JAKE to live permanently with sonny! that team is really something to watch, let me tell you. JAKE has found just the right place. you can read sonny's updates to hear all about it!

also, LILLY went to meet her boyfriend, BEN (yes, for all of you detail-oriented followers, that was CLAIRE's baby daddy, too haha) and they bred successfully...well, as successfully as we can know about now. in a few weeks we will do the ultrasound and know for sure if the next litter is on its way. i can't wait! and i have some new plots and plans for this litter, just you wait and see!

have a fabulous weekend!!
LOVE,K
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sickness

2011-02-18T14:44:00.004-05:00

well, here i am being a lowsy blogger again! i suppose that's because nothing has happened in the last week nearly as exciting as going to fox news. that and i'm very very sick. that kind of sick where every time you answer your phone, people tell you how sick you must be. truly pitiful. i have conquered a large amount of computer work...i was up against some tight deadlines and, as usual, worked better under pressure. so, at least i can feel accomplished this week, even if not glamorous or exciting!

the only other thing i have to report is that my beloved alma mater, has featured me on the site again. just a little shout out, but somehow every time we can be linked with wvu it makes me just as excited as being on national news :) take a quick peek. and another!

enjoy your weekend!
LOVE,K
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FOX News!

2011-02-11T07:59:00.003-05:00

well, in case you haven't heard yet, WYATT and i got to be on FOX News! the big, cable one! my dad, WYATT and i made our way into the heart of dc. we made our way into the building and were taken to the green room. i got a nice hair and make-up touch-up, but WYATT was clearly already handsome enough as they said he didn't need anything! then, wendy from IKEA arrived with the sweetest gift basket for me! she stayed to help us along with the interview, it was such a help to have her there! soon enough we were taken into the studio and mic'd up, and WYATT got to sit in his own chair, as everyone quickly determined he was much too refined for the floor. he has a way of making himself a rock star, but if you've ever met him you already knew that! i was interviewed by kimberly guilfoyle, but i couldn't see her, i talked to a black screen and heard her in my ear. that was a little strange at first, but it went so quickly i forgot right away. WYATT stood up right on cue when kimberly asked about him, although he had no bug in his ear! below is a picture of us in the green room, and here is the link of the interview! it was so much fun, i hope we get to do more soon. thanks to IKEA!!

LOVE,K
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leaving SKYLAR

2011-02-07T09:46:00.002-05:00

well, yesterday was the day i left SKYLAR with annie for good. she wasn't sad to see me leave, but they never are! i think they will make a great team. annie is doing a great job learning to work with SKYLAR and SKYLAR already hates when annie leaves her sight (we are doing a modified form of umbilical cording to do what fits best for annie, as we would adjust with any client). annie has agreed to blog, so when she gets a chance to get started, you'll find her blog here. but, it's also been added to the friendfeed, so you will see her updates when you check in there, along with all of our other bloggers'. off to get some work done in the charlotte area today...more secrets, for the time-being!
LOVE,K
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SKYLAR's big day

2011-02-05T10:02:00.002-05:00

well, yesterday SKYLAR and i made the drive down the raleigh area. little did she know she was arriving at her new home. SKYLAR is not a fearful dog, not even tentative really, but she is very observant and slow to accept new things. she must do it in her own time. she is very analytical. so, i didn't know quite what to expect of her arriving in a whole new environment with a family of 7 people to meet and greet. but, as the dogs usually do, she far exceeded my expectations. she walked in with a gaping, panting smile and tail wagging low. she smelled, she went and sat in front of each person to be greeted, she was happy as could be. it was almost too easy. annie, SKYLAR's new handler, and i began working on the things SKYLAR needed, what her body language was telling annie, and what her new routines should be. after about 2 hours, i was ready to leave, without the slightest worry. she really outdid herself. so, with SKYLAR laying sprawled out with annie on her bed, i simply walked out for the night without the slighest care on SKYLAR's part. i'm now about to head over to see how the night went and work on teaching annie more of what SKYLAR knows, wants, and needs; but i think it will be pretty seamless. again, it seems as though the dog knew exactly what she wanted at the bump, and we were just smart enough to listen :)

LOVE,K
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BRINKLEY

2011-02-01T09:06:00.003-05:00

well, i promised to share the ups and downs.

yesterday, as the big IKEA announcement came and we were flooded with congratulatory emails and calls, there was a vast lack of celebration in our house. after 2 weeks of being sick, we found out that our BRINKLEY had cancer, that was spread much too far, and that we could not fix it or even keep her comfortable. so, in a matter of hours, we had to make the decision to do what was best for her. BRINKLEY was the only puppy we kept from our first litter, of RILEY and BRIELLE. she was unassuming, and i do not think she ever did a wrong thing in her life. she was quiet, indescribably overly-affectionate, and wanted nothing at all but to give and receive love. she has never been quite as happy though, since we lost BRIELLE 2 1/2 years ago. so, it brings me a lot of happiness to know they are together again.

i could go and and on about how wonderful she was, but it is never truly enough. so, we will carry on knowing we did what was best for her as she always did for us. i promise to bring better news next time i write.

LOVE,K
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WE WON.

2011-01-31T08:28:00.004-05:00

it is official, it's announced, i woke up this morning and i wasn't dreaming. i know this because there were still 6 dogs as excited as ever - but they were only excited for breakfast, playing in the snow, and having me taxi them all around to their work and vet appointments today - so i knew this was still real life....full of dogs and no time to stop and take it all in. but i will try, really, i will! i know, i know, you don't believe me. and you're probably right. i'm already too focused on what all we can start and finish and accomplish to realize how freaking exciting this is. but it'll soak in, i think.

what i really want to say is THANK YOU. the biggest thanks of all, of course, to God, for continuing to grant us the opportunities that keep making this all possible. as usual, saying thank you isn't enough. everyone who reads this, sees this, who puts in ridiculous hours to something p4p-related only to maaaybe get an occasional "thank you" on my blog, if i even remember to do that, i really do realize thank you isn't enough. but 2011 is shaping up differently, it really is. from this big, unbelievable reveal to projects and partnerships that i still supersticiously won't reveal, it's going to be something very different. thank you for sticking along for the ride, or for joining the ride, but most of all thank you for always keeping the faith and keeping your eyes on what is really important - the dogs and the people they are serving - even when i might get too overwhelmed to keep my eyes there myself. we all do this because of you, for you, and with you, and i am SO DARN EXCITED to use this IKEA prize to make that better than ever.

well, you know me, it'll be one heck of a year and probably nothing any of us anticipate right now. but i promise to keep you updated and maybe even give you a few laughs at my expense along the way.

so, on that note, i'm off to get started :)
LOVE,K
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smilebox!

2011-01-25T07:29:00.003-05:00

well, to say i have been boring lately is an understatement. dad and i have been working on some suuuuper long intricate documents for a new, exciting project...but of course, supersticious me will not reveal that until it's finalized. yesterday was pretty dynamic. we got some good news about 2 different upcomming projects...but, you know. COMING SOON! I PROMISE! haha, anyways, one thing i can actually tell you is that allison and rachael of our va chapter have put together yet another wonderful online newsletter to update all of our supporters about the goings-on in our biggest ops (operational...in other words, the dogs and handlers who make social therapy, educational assitance, and rehabilitative visits, rather than service dogs) chapter. please read it! you can make it full screen and save your eyes with the little square with arrows down in the bottom left. enjoy~

LOVE,K
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our puppies' daddy

2011-01-19T09:59:00.001-05:00

hey there! just wanted to post this video article about the kennel/breeder of our lst litter (and next litter's) daddy, BEN. they are great people with great dogs and we are so grateful they love to help us and tell everyone about us!

LOVE,K
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another plane trip

2011-01-19T09:12:00.002-05:00

well, another exciting week. after a nice long weekend, part of which i actually spent on a little getaway just for fun (with no dogs!), it was back to work in a very serious way. it was time to get MONKEE "MO" to her new home with trisha and ed in nebraska. nebraska, you say? yes, i know, not really in our realm of operations. but as a friend of buf's family, the midwest connection really isn't that random! MO will eventually have puppies, with our new nebraska crew will whelp, then we will transport them to one of our training locations.

well, it was MO's first time in the airport, and as i say, you can't really train for an airport. security, boarding, these are things you can't really replicate, you just have to jump in and do it. MO wasn't a fan of the fact that she couldn't get any of her own space in the crazy security line with people constantly inching closer to her in every direction. after her pat-down, though, she was happy as could be. with the re-design of dulles, and the fact that we cannot take escalators with a dog, we had to take about 10 different elevators to our gate. thankfully for MO, me, and our departure time, MO didn't mind the crazy elevators one bit! we were on time, but the flights weren't. after ice delay, we finally boarded, but got to sit on the runway for 2 hours due to mechanical problems. that turned our 3 hours layover in kansas city, where we were meeting trisha, into a 30 minute layover before my flights back started. talk about stress! we did a quick switch of MO, which was all she needed, as they'd met and fallen in love months ago, and i was racing off to another terminal, check-in, and security as i had to switch airlines. after a super long layover coupled with another delay coupled with delayed landing due to fog, i finally arrived home! on my way back, i got word from trisha that MO was home, too, and was happily smelling around and settling in. everyone was happy!

on one last note, i know everyone is curious, but i haven't heard anything about IKEA contest yet; and probably won't until the 31st with everyone else, i speculate. this waiting game is getting rough, but fingers crossed we have one! regardless of the outcome, thank you so much again for everyone's immense help and support. it never ceases to amaze me how many friends and supporters we have!
LOVE,K
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annie & contest

2011-01-10T08:25:00.002-05:00

hey all!

well, i promised i'd update you on annie's bump. i have been able to de-brief with the family and now feel like we have a plan so i can go public! annie bumped with TANNER, ROWAN, and SKYLAR. all three of these dogs have shown us they are too shy, analytical, or otherwise a little bit inappropriate for public access service work. therefore, bumping them with annie who needs a RAD dog and more of a social therapy capacity was the next step for them. TANNER was much too leary during both bump opportunities. ROWAN did not appreciate the setting at all, and resorted to fear barking, oh my! but, last but not least, SKYLAR came in and warmed up very quickly. before we knew it, she was belly-up next to annie making a new best friend. so, it was official for us.

after discussion with annie's mom, annie was very happy with this choice as well. so, the plan is to schedule time to go down and begin transfer training, likely sometime in february.

lastly, you probably know what i'm about to say....the ikea contest ends a week from today. we are still in first place, but the 4th place contender moved up to 2nd overnight, and so we can only hope they are not gaining on us too quickly. please, please spend this last week voting and asking your friends to help us, this opportunity is unlike any other for us!!!! PLEEEEEASE VOOOOOTE!

LOVE,K
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happy new year

2011-01-02T10:28:00.003-05:00

happy new year!!!!!

this year is looking very exciting for us, already! there are many, many new prospects that might play out just in the first quarter. you know how supersticious i am, so i won't be telling you about any of those yet.

the immediate things are to ask you to please KEEP VOTING so we can hopefully win the $100,000 and start this year out like never before! thank you for taking a few seconds each day to keep doing that!

also, we have a bump coming up on tuesday with annie, from NC. i will keep you updated on that! also, this week, Col. morrow will be continuing his ITT with JAKE up at hazelton. these two will soon graduate and become a team!

i'll try to keep you posted!!
LOVE,K
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back to blogging

2010-12-27T12:18:00.002-05:00

ok so, the puppies are gone, the holidays are over, and now i'm out of excuses for being a bad blogger. the blog police has been off-duty, but now i am back.

as i said, the puppies are now residing at the prisons - 5 @ hazelton sff, 1 @ hazelton camp, and 2 @ alderson. they are happy, learning, and growing. it was hard for me to let them go, and i miss them, but life is a lot easier these days! HOWEVER, we are already planning and time out the next breeding and litter, but i will leave that in suspense for now.

the most exciting thing that has happened in a very, very long time is in full swing now...the ikea life improvement project contest. we are currently in first place for $100,000! how can you help? register all of your email addresses, and use them to vote once each day. if you're busy, which i know we all are, just register them, then send me the addresses to kyria.p4p@gmail.com and we'll vote for you each day. we really, really need this great opportunity to start 2011 off right! the contest continues through jan 17! please help!

LOVE,K
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big puppies

2010-11-10T06:16:00.003-05:00

well, my cute little mole-rats are definitely no where to be found. we have real life miniature dogs here. in fact, so big, that we have had to add the extra level on to the whelping box to keep them in! they are learning things so quickly...and eating SO much! yesterday was their 6 week vet visit for their first vaccinations, and they LOVED it. it is so, so interesting to see the effects of the early neurological stimulation on this litter. i ramble on and on about it to anyone who will listen. it is AMAZING. but i'll save you all of that rambling for now. three of the puppies weighed 5.1 lbs and a few were 5.4 or 5.8 and then there was BENNING coming in at 6.3! oh my gosh, he really is his father (BEN's) namesake...I'm glad i chose the right one a few weeks ago ;) he indeed looks just like his daddy and seems as though he's going to get his size, as well.

we have determined that 6 of the puppies will move in to hazleton on december 6. the remaining 2 will move in to alderson on december 21...that is just a logistical decision. i'm certain to be just as happy AND sad as i am on a graduation day when they leave! but, i'm sooooo excited to watch these little babies grow and learn, they are going to be so amazing!!

what i'm really looking forward to right now, though, is my trip to visit hazelton on monday. why? well, i want to see all of the dogs...but especially WYATT! yaaaaaay! i'm a little worried though...i know how much he misses me and he just might accidentally follow me all the way home!

LOVE,K
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big fall days

2010-11-01T09:39:00.002-04:00

well, it's been a great week here with the puppies. they are so aware of their surroundings now, and are very social. it is so rewarding to see the HUGE effects of the early neurological stimulation on their social interaction and stress/calming signals. it is so fascinating to observe these things in such tiny little babies. they eat very eagerly now, and need very little help with much of anything! they go outside often, and beginning to prefer going "better hurry" there now - which is increasingly helpful - and love romping in the grass!

on a semi-entertaining note, i am now hobbling around trying to keep up with them! i had a lovely weekend (ok, 28 hours!) away this weekend in annapolis. i went to the Navy homecoming football game, homecoming dance, and just enjoyed annapolis for the weekend! well, that was all well and good, until i sprained my foot!!! you know, the last 5 weeks of puppy life haven't been all too glamorous for me. much like the stories of new mommies, showering is about as "ready" as i get these days. so, a full day and night in heels really did me in. it wasn't until i was taking them off, balancing on one platform removing the other, that i tumbled right over and now have a very big, very colorful foot. i spontanseously laugh out loud at myself as i chase these guys around and attempt to corral them while i'm moving at about snail speed. so, life just got that much more interesting!

haha, nothing new for me, right?!

one last big HUGE thanks to all of our wonderful Northern VA volunteers, and their families, who took shifts of puppy watching this weekend so i could be away. you all are the best!!
LOVE,K
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alderson visit

2010-10-23T08:26:00.004-04:00

well, we had a very eventful day yesterday at FPC Alderson. there were many reasons for the visit, and all were very exciting!

first, STELLA's family (remember, the precious bloodhound?!) came to pick her up from her first block of training. STELLA is so smart and we really think we are going to have great success with her, she just needs to keep growing up, now. STELLA's little girl, hailey, and her mom lorie and dad larry made the long trip from wilmington to meet the inmates and pick up their other baby! we are so grateful they came to give the inmates the invaluable perspective of what STELLA's life mission is going to be. i also think they gained a lot of perspective about our program and had a great time interacting with the ladies!

also, one of our amazing rehabilitative assistance dog teams made a reappearance! ryan and SADIE, who graduated from alderson last year, came back to tell the inmates about their first year together. to say that ryan is a different person is an understatement. he and SADIE are truly flourishing together and it is so wonderful to see. the inmates were extremely grateful for this rare chance to see old friends that mean so much to them. and don't worry, ryan will be blogging about it soon!

the great mike hurley, of hurley labs, made the trip to visit the prison as well! the hurleys are the breeders who donated the great MONKEE, now nicknamed MO, who has been training at alderson for a few months now. MO is doing great, and i think mike really enjoyed his day, and we are so thankful for our ongoing relationship with these wonderful breeders and friends.

our other great breeder, laura of teufelshund great danes, made the long haul from new bern, nc to bring up 3 great danes! LUCY, LACEY, and ALICE have now entered training at alderson, and the inmate trainers were so excited for this big new change! the girls settled in with their trainers very quickly and all are very excited to start with these great dogs! thank you so much to laura for her efforts, and you will continue to hear a lot about her and from her soon :)

lastly, our guests who traveled the farthest to join us, trisha and ed made a trip to the east coast all the way from nebraska! friends of family of our great buf and SALLY, trisha and ed have huge hearts and very much want to be involved with paws4vets. they are interested in several aspects, and have hearts that fit in very well with the rest of the paws4people family! i think they may have even met a dog they kind of like ;) even though i left them at subway in alderson as our caravan pulled out to head up to the prison, they still stuck with me! i'm so thankful they made this huge trip to meet us and am so excited for our new relationship and the future they can bring to paws4vets!

thank you to all of the staff at fpca who also went above and beyond, as always, to make our visit so great. it was a huge day, lots of driving for me, and now i'm just enjoying a day with the puppies. they are so very cute and fun right now, i'm trying to soak it all in.

i hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!
LOVE,K
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puppies

2010-10-20T09:05:00.002-04:00

well, clearly i've been neglecting my blog. anything i have blogged has been on the puppy blog, but that has been too scarce, too. being a mom is just too busy for blogging! but that is silly, and i promise to blog more.

we have walking, talking, seeing, solid-food-eating, real life baby dogs here. no more scooting around and sleeping all the time. admittedly, they still sleep alot, but not enough! it's getting really interesting around here, the fun times are upon us...or something like that!
LOVE,K
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photos!

2010-09-30T16:26:00.001-04:00

more puppy photos courtesy of joan brady!

http://animoto.com/play/824Es0Hm7Cmk83a6l7HqUA?autostart=true#?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=one_click_share
LOVE,K
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sponsorships

2010-09-29T14:55:00.003-04:00

hi! i've been getting some questions about sponsorship for the puppies!

to see our full sponshorship ebrochure, click here.

however, those sponsorships are at levels which cover the entire life and training cycle of the dog, and have recognition lasting throughout the life of the dog in return. while we would love 8 guardian angels to bless us with these sponsorships, we want to make available ways for others to help us as well!

first of all, every donation helps towards the development, training, placement, and support of these puppies and all p4p dogs. nothing is too small! but i have been asked if there are smaller ways to choose a puppy to sponsor. there are! very soon, the puppy blog will debut with daily live feeds from the puppy cam where you can watch all of the happenings here!

on naming day, 10/10, the puppy profiles will debut on their blog. here, we will list those donors who have contributed substantially to supporting this overall litter, at $250 and above. donors who have contributed $500 and above will choose a specific puppy and be named on that puppy's profile as one of their birthday angel donors! anyone who is interested can email me directly @ kyria.p4p@gmail.com to be added to these donor lists.

thank you for all of your kind words & thoughts and any support you may be able to give to starting the lives of these priceless future assistance dogs!
LOVE,K
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new breeder/dogs/chapter

2010-09-29T07:05:00.003-04:00

we have some more exciting news brewing down around camp lejeune. as our WWADTP (wounded warrior assistance dog training program) gears up at the base (bootcamp and dogs on the ground will all happen in october) more exciting things are happening! we got one of those divinely-timed contact us emails from a great dane breeder in new bern, nc. well, timing is everything. laura was just looking to explain how unique her breeding program is and find an organization who sees the value in adding her dogs to their program. she was not even aware that our program was beginning at lejeune. why does that matter? well, not only her obvious proximity to the base; but she is a marine wife, a marine corps history buff, names all of her dogs marine names, and the usmc connections go on and on.

what makes her dogs so amazing? well, her obvious pedigrees and experience; but it gets even weirder. she does early neurological stimulation and uses the rule of 7's on her pups. without all of the jargon - she pre-trains her dogs and raises them with the same exact philosophy we use on our assistance dog litters. practically no "main stream" breeders do this. amazing. check her dogs out at www.devildogdanes.com!

well, laura is amazing. she doesn't just want to donate some dogs. she wants to have a chapter in jacksonville/new bern area, fundraise, have an ops dog team (certify dogs to make school/nursing home/hospital visits) etc. basically, she is heaven-sent to us. every candace, karen, and angie we can replicate is a dream come true! so, laura and teufelshund great danes, welcome to the paws4people family. we are so blessed and excited!

i learned a long time ago that there is no such thing as coincidence. so this is yet another opportunity to realize the wonderful opportunities we are all being given and the amazing path that i'm on. just another God moment to remind me to enjoy the ride!
LOVE,K
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puppy update

2010-09-29T05:39:00.002-04:00

the puppies are doing so well! they are all very round and still chugging down the food! yesterday we had a vet trip to remove dewclaws and check on mommy, and of course they were the hit of the day. they all checked out so well and weighed in wonderfully. already 3 over 1 lb! our wonderful joan brady is coming out again today with some props, we should get some amazing pictures! also, the puppy cam is coming soon - stay tuned!
LOVE,K
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puppies photos

2010-09-26T20:09:00.001-04:00

our wonderful, wonderful photographer joan brady came out first thing this morning to capture the new babies' first day! she put together a slide show for us so that everyone could see great pictures already! thank you to joan as always!! ENJOY!!

http://animoto.com/play/2CQ5oxeAqclLcj41rqNI0Q?utm_content=main_link
LOVE,K
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PUPPPIESSSS

2010-09-26T15:13:00.002-04:00

hi all!
the puppies are here! they surprised us a bit early, but we were almost ready - ready enough to be ready!

we have 5 boys and 3 girls, all weighing in great, eating well (one took a lot of coaxing) and CLAIRE is being a great mom!

here are some pics!

LOVE,K
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one week

2010-09-21T12:38:00.003-04:00

well, one week from now, give or take 12 hours or so, sweet CLAIRE will be having her puppies. we did the xray on friday and saw 8 little spines in there, and let me tell you she is just miserable. she seems to get visibly bigger everytime you look at her. she is very pitiful, and is doing her best to pout at all times. she rarely wants to go outside, or leave the bathroom floor for much of anything other than eating...and in the last day or so she hasn't been able to finish all of her food at meals...there's just no room in there!

well, i'd love to blog more about it; but the puppy basement is not yet complete and i have to go finish the painting so we can move on with the set up. no rest for the soon-to-be-veryyyy-weary!

LOVE,K
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another new addition

2010-09-10T08:21:00.003-04:00

well, summer is winding down and so is our time in a puppy-less house. our days are numbered! CLAIRE is in week 6 of pregnancy, and late next week we will xray her to count puppies. a few weeks ago, we were contacted by the wonderful Hurley's, of Hurley Labradors. talk about some beautiful dogs! they are amazing people with amazing dogs, and have asked to become part of placing their dogs in our program. so, we have a new addition, but it's not a baby!

MONKEE, a wonderful one year old chocolate girl, has come to join us, and will hopefully enter our breeding program. her pre-lim xrays yesterday looked great, so we are thinking that is a very viable and exciting plan for her! in her last 2 days here at our house with our pack, she's been so adorable and loveable, and already developed the nickname MO! see what a beauty she is?! we cannot express our gratitude enough to Hurley Labs and can't wait to keep working with them!

LOVE,K
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babies

2010-08-24T19:55:00.003-04:00

well, finally the news we've been hoping for. an ultrasound confirmed today that CLAIRE does indeed have babies in her belly! the due date is sept 28 so the clock is ticking on things to get done and trips to squeeze in before the big day!

LOVE,K
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OATLIE

2010-08-23T07:31:00.004-04:00

it is with great sadness that we need to share the news of the loss of OATLIE.

OATLIE Peyton was my 2nd/3rd dog. we got her and her littermate, BRIELLE (the mother of our first 2 litters, who passed away a while back)together. they were born in october and came home in december - a particularly snowy december - and hence vowed two things....never to get two puppies together again (two puppies seems so simple now) and never to have winter puppies (we have some fall/winter babies in CLAIRE's belly right now). needless to say, our perspective was so different back then, but the "original three" of paws4people - RILEY, OATLIE, and BRIELLE - were the catalyst of everything we are doing now. OATLIE was a wonderful educational assistance dog in her prime, and loved nothing more than playing ball endlessly with the students who needed to improve in physical therapy.

OATLIE was the last of these three to brighten our household. she was the very most beta of our pack, and without our watchful eye, even our kind and well-mannered pack would have stolen her food at every meal. she was often more like a cat than a dog. she did not like cuddle and attention, she just liked to be nearby everyone else's hustle and bustle. since i left for college, everytime i'd come home and even more since i've moved back, i distictly remember her being attached to me in particular - as attached as OATLIE could seem. i'd wake every morning to her laying in the same spot outside of my door; and during the day she'd move from room to room with me. never right by me, just in the same room. that was her way of loving.

so, when i awoke yesterday morning without her in her spot, i stopped for a moment but figured my mom must be eating breakfast, which would lure OATLIE to her favorite task of begging. but i found my mom on the couch, and OATLIE was under the kitchen table - a frequent spot for her, but not in an empty kitchen. at the age of 12, she had been a little slow and achy for some time now, and was recently skipping some meals, only to be ever-enthusiastic for the next one. but yesterday morning, OATLIE collapsed going outside in the morning and couldnt' get her feet back under her. we decided to take her in together when dad got off of work at 2; but laying with her all morning while she let me love on her so uncharacteristically i soon came to terms with the fact that she didn't want to wait that long. her belly was bloating quickly, and i knew there was trouble and pain there. we met at the vet early to say goodbye, which was as horrible as it ever is.

this morning as i woke without my unassuming pal waiting in her spot, i quickly turned my thoughts to her being able to play her ball easily and gracefully again. i know that she, RILEY, BRIELLE, and CORA are starting to build quite the paws4people retreat up there; and it must be one of the most beautiful places there.

we love you all and thank you for your support, in every way, everyday.
LOVE,K
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it's been a while

2010-08-12T07:47:00.003-04:00

so, i've been that bad blogger lately. hmm. it just kind of reflects everything going on lately -- too much!!

first, i had a great few days in atlanta. after many dog moves from wv to ga and back, i was dropped off in atl with CORINA to spend a few days with sammie & her family. CORINA sure is bonded with sammie's dad, matt, who is taking responsibility for her initial transfer training -- go dad! eventually, both amy and matt will be handlers, much like alex's and jack's families. we just always try to do what is best for the family dynamics. anyways, i digress. on the saturday that i was there, there was a wonderful cocktail party & silent auction fundraiser for us at the offices of Sutherland in downtown atlanta. thanks so much to all of the wonderful sponsors and the lovely kris and mindy for all of their hard work for a beautiful and very helpful fundraiser. i have really come to love being in atlanta over this last year and hope that our little vortex that's building there will only get stronger so that we can spend even more time there!

well, i flew back on a sunday with CORINA (which is no problem at all for her anymore, she's quite the frequent flyer) and mom picked me up at the airport at 1130. at 1400, i began dogsitting for a wonderful company here in northern va, for the love of the animals. the owner, marty, cares for animals in people's own homes while they are either at work or on vacation. well, marty got to have her first vacation in a very long time (we know that feeling here!) and so i went from helping her sporratically to taking on a week of fulltime - and overtime - dogsitting! talk about exciting and educational. BUT THAT'S NOT ALL! on monday morning, my parents left for vacation, which left me to craft a very creative schedule of caring for our 6 house dogs while making all of my sitting appointments. all but one night of that week, i also did overnights for dogsitting, so my little puppies were left in the unusual situation of sleeping alone! suffice it to say, i didn't get much actual computer work done, and was often making conference calls while walking multiple dogs down the street! i tell you, sometimes i think a paws4people reality show would be the next most entertaining thing. so if you know anyone in that business, let us know ;)

WELL, during that week, we also got some very bad news. ROWAN, the golden/lab mix at the prison, had run away from hazelton camp. this was a very, very difficult situation, being that dad and i could do absolutely nothing; and heidi could only do so much. you can only search for a dog so much. the good news was, although she would flee if anyone tried to catch her, she would be spotted staying around the prison property every day or so. we could only hope that she'd stick around and give herself up the hungrier she got. thankfully i can now report, after 8 very long an worrisome days, our favorite counselor christmas was able to take HAYDEN out to where ROWAN was sighted and let them play and coax them back together. she is back! this was a very tough lesson for all involved and many procedural changes will take place as a result. but, for now we are just thankful. and very thankful to mrs. folk & the rest of the wonderful bop personnel who have been so very caring and spent so much of their personal time helping us get her back!

lastly, that brings us to today. i found out yesterday some very, very exciting news. about a month ago, my beloved best friend/roommate/lifemate informed me that she had nominated me for glamour magazine's woman of the year contest. i thanked her for being sweet as ever, but pretty much forgot about it, as we send so many requests and grant applications that i'm used to never hearing back about anything. to my disbelief, a few short days later, before the contests was even closed, i was called for a phone interview. many phone interviews later, i received an email yesterday that i am one of the official 5 finalists. the contest now comes down to the (dreaded) voting system - so in light of another popularity contest, i am now begging you for some votes, yet again. if you can take a few minutes to vote with each of your email addresses, and to pass this along, i would so appreciate it. i would love to have the platform of a story in this huge magazine to give paws4people an even bigger voice. here is the link to my page.

thank you all so much!
LOVE,K
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we did it!!!!

2010-07-16T14:36:00.002-04:00

well, you all know the how ever-supersticious i am. so i waited a bit extra to say this, but now that we've received the official email i can truly say that WE DID IT! you all helped us by voting and getting votes and not bugging people until it was all said and done and paws4people will now be receiving a $20,000 grant from Chase!

i am so beyond thrilled and relieve that this will let us get through some more of this very down and hard year without so much stress and sleepless nights. thank you all so very much for all you did to help us get here and please know that i am going to be bugging you to help us do it again next time! :)

i spend the week in wilmington for some meetings in lejeune and in wilmington. i drove over to charlotte this morning in a dogless car, which was very strange and i had a few panic attacks when i'd look back and think i left them somewhere! tonight we have dinner with one of our new clients, annie, and her mom. tomorrow we have dog evals for new assistance dogs for the charlotte operations team. the evals are gretchen's (one of our associate trainers) clients who now have great dogs who want to volunteer. here's the kicker - there are 15 dogs to evaluate! oh my! we are just growing like a weed!

it's sure to be a fun and exciting and (as always) crazy busy weekend, and it will be very nice to see candace, paul, and karen for a change. i got to catch up with a lot of friends this week, and thanks to some puppies we might be getting from wilmington, my lovely friends down there will be seeing me again soon, too. i'm sure they're just beyond excited.

happy weekend!
LOVE,K
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updates

2010-07-09T15:07:00.002-04:00

hi there! well, the time in morgantown was more than successful! within 30 minutes of the bump, the family decided to leave with IVY. she really loved the boys and just accepted and clicked with everyone. they decided they loved her quickly and are willing to work with her quirks. we are soooo happy for IVY!!!! thanks so much to the nottingham family. i've already received an update that IVY spent the morning learning to swim in a lake and playing ball and had a great trip home!! pictures to come soon.

on other news, our ultrasound today showed no puppies in INZLIE's belly. this is a slight blow, since we'd planning optimistically, but to me in simply means we weren't meant to have these puppies right now. we're already working on our next plan, so we will let you know. also, the vet wants her back in 2 weeks to check once more, just to be sure that a singleton isn't hiding somewhere. her intestines did look (with a lot of teaching, pointing, and explaining to me what the heck the shadows were) like little balls of puppies, but when she followed their movement, they lead to tubular shadows so were just intestines. on to the next project! INZLIE has finally settled in a little here and is happy to be in a house just laying around!

LOVE,K
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meet TANNER

2010-07-06T19:10:00.003-04:00

hey all!
it's been an eventful week. i had my 23rd birthday over the holiday weekend, and it was great! jeremey got to come and we had a big family bbq so now i'm just officially old! monday my mom and i went to pick up TANNER, our newest puppy. he was donated by a wonderful breeder with beautiful dogs, and we thank her so much for her donation! here is her website. as you can see below, TANNER is not the usually breed of a p4p dog, but we are very excited to add this smart and quick little guy to our family. having him for 48 hours has shown me that he is verrrry sweet loveable and smart; and also that i'm totally not ready to have 10 of them in a month! oh man, am i ever going to be over-exercised and under-rested! fingers crossed!

speaking of the puppies, WYATT will be leaving me for a stay in hazelton tomorrow in the phase 1 of our doggie scale down here at the house to prepare for puppies. we're trying to keep things low maintenance, if that's possible. he will take INZLIE's spot there and i will bring her home with me to get her integrated to our pack in plenty of time. also, on friday, she has her ultrasound to find out if there are indeed babies in there, so that will tell us a lot of what is to come. please keep that in your prayers, we are really in need of this scale-up as we've been preparing for this in-house litter in a long time for 2 years now!

so, i venture back to my old homeland of morgantown for 24 hours or so tomorrow to drop off WYATT and TANNER and get INZLIE. also, a wonderful family from atlanta will be coming up to meet 2 of our dogs and hopefully will leave with one of them to do some social therapy work down the road. i will be sure to update on that too!

last but not least, you knew i had to do it...there are 5 days left in the facebook contest and we are DOING SO GREAT!!!!!! i am very, very cautiously excited [if you've read this much you know how supersticious i am!] please help us in the final push to keep the link posted on your facebook wall, send out some emails, and keep us in the top through the weekend.
thanks!!
LOVE,K

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catch up

2010-06-25T09:28:00.002-04:00

so, we have a lot going on here. lots of work being done around the office here. we had a bump this week for emilia & justin, our next two service dog clients. so far, i've only edited photos of emilia, so i will post those below. the bumps went great, MAYZIE bumped with emilia and both OLIVER and BIFF showed different positive reactions to justin, we put his name on both of them for now. it was wonderful! there is also some upcoming puppy news so watch for that!

lastly, if you have a facebook account, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE vote for us in the chase contest. we are doing so well it is so exciting, but there is a little over 2 weeks left and we cannot let the votes slow down. click the button over there ----->

PLEASE VOTE & MAKE ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS VOTE TOO!!

LOVE,K
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ft. stewart media day

2010-06-18T18:06:00.002-04:00

yesterday, many of us gathered @ ft stewart for paws4vets' first on-post media day. here are some of the stories/clips from the day at the PX!

The Coastal Source

WSAV TV

WTOC TV

LOVE,K
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rested up?

2010-06-15T08:28:00.003-04:00

well, it's been over a week without work travel for me...aside from a stop at alderson for a food drop before heading to jeremey's. regardless, it's been pretty nice...but office work is almost more tiring than traveling, i'm definitely more busy at home always playing catch up. dad headed down to atlanta for a presentation on sunday/monday and then over to ft stewart. tomorrow, WYATT and i will fly to meet him and have our army media day on thursday, more debut for the program within the military! that'll be good.

friday, i must fill you in because dad won't...he was a speaker at the mental health america national conference. he is so important these days :) his presentation, (don't quote me on this, but you'll get the gist) "assistance dogs as an adjunct therapeutic intervention for the treatments of PTSD, C-PTSD, and TBI" was very popular and very impressive! he made some wonderful contacts with interested folks there so God only knows what great things that might bring to us! i'm very proud of him, he is very academic these days :)

well, flying with a dog is basically like flying with a baby. i have to figure out a packing strategy so i'm prepared for everything, i can carry-on all of my luggage (no stupid extra fees), and still have enough hands for a dog. it's WY's first flight, but fingers crossed i don't think he'll care too much. he's one to curl up tiny even in the middle of a room, so fitting him in won't piss him off as much as it does some of the dogs (like stretch armstrong CORINA)! the part that gets me worked up is always security, because whether or not there is any tsa protocol for checking dogs, i can assure you none of the security people actually know it. sometimes they'll just pat down the dog, sometimes they make me make the dog totally naked...not even a collar! and wait for me one one side of the metal detector and call him through to the other. talk about stressful. we will see...sometimes the WY is the best dog in the whole world, and sometimes i'm certain he's determined to give me stories good enough to tell my children...so keep your fingers crossed for me and i'll let you know how it goes!LOVE,K
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the jack

2010-06-02T18:06:00.002-04:00

dad and i got to durham yesterday and went to visit jack's family. jack was happy to see us, which made me happy, he can give one heck of a greeting! susan, amanda, and ELLIE were also there to visit. we all had a nice time chatting and jack was his normal charming and hilarious self. he insisted on seeing WYATT, so we went out to the car & visited with him too. this morning, we headed to duke medical center to wait with lisa, eliot, and the rest of jack's family during surgery. a little after 3, the surgeon met with lisa and eliot and told them that jack had done very well and he was very pleased with the procedure. (to find out more about the procedure, visit jack's blog) so that was such good news! go jack! he'll be in the picu for 2 more days or so and then stay at duke for 7-10 days before being transferred back closer to home. CAYLIE is spending the night with us tonight to give lisa and eliot a chance to spend time in the picu with jack. we're all wishing him a super fast recovery.

here are a few pics we took last night...CAYLIE wouldn't stay still, so she's just blurry!

LOVE,K
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JAKE & INZLIE

2010-05-28T15:56:00.004-04:00

hi all, lots to report. first, i should have said this a while ago..but last week when we were at ft stewart we took a leap of faith & moved JAKE down for his public access training. JAKE is the littermate of both SOLOMON and LIA, two very accomplished p4p Service Dogs of late. however, JAKE had us thinking he was going to fall a bit short. when SOLLY & LIA were fixing to graduate last fall, JAKE was still inspiring trainers and onlookers alike to pull their hair out. but, little by little, he started to make us think hmm, is he actually smart in there. much of this is thanks to one of our most patient inmate trainers of all. however, a year late (just a little slow) JAKE is now every bit of SOLOMON. and i mean, when i was working him last week, i kept spitting out the wrong name, because he is THAT MUCH like SOLOMON. and, if he comes out of this next few months of p.a.t. with the soldiers as much like his brother, we'll all know from experience he'll be one hell of a Service Dog. also last week, jon pabich, USMC, came to ft stewart to bump. the candidates were WYATT and JAKE, and this bump was a little unusual. since both of these boys are so very close to ready to live with someone, and since jon was TDY (in english...some military term for being sent down by the marines instead of taking leave) to ft stewart to spend the whole week with us, we kind of did his bump and first week of public access training smushed together. after the second day, between personality assessments and just plain who-liked-who, JAKE was chosen as jon's dog. throughout all of this change and excitement, JAKE's first outings to the px on base and the food court (at high lunch hour, crazy) were easier than ANY and i mean ANY dog i have taken on a first week of outings, ever. (he handled the lunch crowd a lot better than the soldiers, haha.) he is going to be great. within just his first fieldtrip, he responded just as well to the soldiers handling (they were not quite confident and very new at this, it was their first week of p.a.t. too) just as well as he listened to me. he is going to be FABULOUS. was a great great surprise and what a reward for an extra year of patience. when jon's blog is up and running, i will post the link on the friendfeed.

last but not least, drum roll....INZLIE finally came in to heat. she is very late, and we've been torturing one of our favorite breeders because we've had a stud lined up for two months now. these puppies will be half-C's...their daddy will be COLT, CAMDEN, CAYLIE, CORINA, CLAIRE, and CAROLINE's brother! so, we're keeping 1/2 of our favorite line in them :) we are sooooo excited. fingers crossed the breeding goes according to plan and i will keep you updated!
LOVE,K
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NIKKI's video

2010-05-26T10:33:00.001-04:00

have you watched the awesome video sharon made about NIKKI? watch it now!

LOVE,K
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a lotttt of miles

2010-05-12T19:42:00.004-04:00

well, what to say. it's not that i've had nothing to blog about, it's that i've been unable to blog because i'm so overwhelmed. luckily, with my job, overwhelmed is always a good thing. last week, dad and i drove 2,450 miles in 6 days. i have still not recovered, and i'm not sure i will before we leave again for ft. stewart on monday. it really took a lot out. we dropped JAKE and CAROLINE off at ft. stewart, bringing their dog count up to 4. we then headed over to wilmington for some big business meetings which went very well. then, we headed back to ga to atlanta for amy (samantha's mom)'s wonderful wine & wag fundraiser. it was so fun! WYATT and CORINA attended and many, many people in the atlanta area are now more aware not only of p4p, but what these special dogs can do. thank you to amy and all of her fellow hostesses! it was such a success! then, we made it back home. i also got to see jeremey for a change, he's at benning for airborne school so he came over to atl for the fundraiser. we had about 5 free hours on saturday (gasp) so jeremey, dad and i got to visit my great aunt and uncle in atlanta. that was very nice! well, now we're back and i still have the big lug, WYATT. i must say, i will never be ready to let him go again. he and i are working through some of his residual issues and he's doing wonderfully. he is one of those dogs who always needs ot be stimulated, so he's got himself into a whole new "reading" project. when he's got it down, we'll make a video of it that i think will make your jaw drop.

on one last note, speaking of videos, one of our most devoted handlers, sharon, and her RAD NIKKI have put together a spectacular video describing NIKKI's work. here it is! LOVE,K
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recognition from national Army website!

2010-04-30T14:52:00.001-04:00

well, i was thinking it was time for me to find something to write about....but the Army did it for me! please read this wonderful article about our paws4vets ground-breaking, first-of-it-kind-ever-anywhere program on the U.S. Army website.

LOVE,K
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5k and drivin drivin drivin

2010-04-21T16:31:00.002-04:00

well, this weekend was the long-awaited wilmington 5k. i must say, it exceeded everyone's expectations. it was fabulous, professional, well-done, organized, beautiful, everything and more. and, not to mention, a great fundraiser. wonderful thanks to angie, rachel, sean, susan, pam, sydney, candace, allison, my mom, katelyn, lisa, eliot, jack, karen, jason, and all the other p4p people who helped, traveled, supported, etc. also, buf and SALLY joined us in their first ambassador event since becoming an official team! buf stayed for a very long time and greeted many people and SALLY had quite the test with so many other very excited barking dogs. they got some homework to teach her to tolerate those fellow canines. since i made this an official order, i know buf is probably already working on it ;) he's good like that. he was very impressive as an ambassador this weekend, i know it was not 100% comfortable for him, but he did wonderfully and everyone was so grateful to meet him.

well, i cannot wait to see how big and wonderful the 5k is next year! angie said i can say that since i will be there to help!

now i'm in atlanta and tonight is sammie's birthday party, so i am off to the festivities.

LOVE,K
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ohhh the goings on

2010-04-11T08:49:00.003-04:00

well, i've been home for almost a week now, which is rather unheard of. i've been working on many odds & ends, lots of writing and editing for some new projects we're working on. nothing too exciting. i've been taking care of the tornado that is WYATT and loving every minute of it. he's just one of those special special dogs for me....for a lot of other people he's just too much! but 92% of what he does makes me smile & laugh hysterically, so it compensates for the 8% that pisses me off like crazy! he definitely has some behavior issues he developed in his last living situation, so we are working through those with some help from others. his personality is the same though, so i can't get enough of him. and, he's still perfect at anything related to public access, because it keeps his brain stimulated and it's the work he's learned to love, so that's all we can ask for. at some point soon, he'll be ready for us to find the right person for him again, but i don't think he's in too much of a hurry to leave me ;)

also this week i got to go see the buckles and SOLOMON for their contract signing and public access test. seeing as SOLOMON accompanied the girls to the white house easter egg roll last monday, a public access test at target was slightly melodramatic! he did great, melissa and the girls are great, and they even painted me pictures! i can't tell you how much i love adopting all of these kids :)

hope all is well and everyone is enjoying this sudden spring! i'm back to my travels soon so hopefully i'll have a little excitement to report shortly!

ONE WEEK UNTIL THE 5K!

LOVE,K
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moving forward

2010-04-02T08:31:00.001-04:00

update: susan i & the store owner met and have made ammends in the interest in moving forward as a team to further our goal of educating the public of the work & rights of service dogs. to see this interaction, go here.

thanks!

LOVE,K
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news

2010-03-31T15:11:00.002-04:00

hi all! i'm in a rush between meetings without much time to blog. want all to know that might not have seen it on other blogs: amanda and her family were kicked out of a store, cursed at, and forcibly removed due to having their fully certified Service Dog, ELLIE, with them. the story was covered twice by a wilmington news station, and is now picked up at abcnews.com. to be fair and tell both sides of the story, the store owner has - 2 days later - "apologized" although he says he's still not sure he's done anything wrong. see his "apology" here.

please share the abc news story with everyone you know....spread education and awareness about service dogs, the work they do, the people they help, and OUR RIGHTS!

LOVE,K
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small updates

2010-03-22T14:20:00.002-04:00

hey all! no time to write, i'm busy transfer training LILLY to candace's class (it's going great)! check her blog to find out details. also, i wanted you to read a great article on paul and LIA. take care, check back soon!

LOVE,K
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on post

2010-03-17T18:34:00.002-04:00

hellllo all. to say i'm tired, worn out, emotionally drained, and anything else would be an understatement. we have been at ft. stewart, ga since last monday initiating our paws4vetsWTB program. to learn more about this program's mission and read blog from our soliders, go to their new blog - paws4vetsWTB-FtStewart. since we've been here, buf has arrived to spend another week working with SALLY, and jeff came to visit the soldiers as part of his client process. today, our program soldiers went to visit our inmate trainers at jesup, and we took PUMPKIN and DEJA who have been training at jesup to move them on post as the first two dogs in training in the WTB program. it was an emotional day for these inmate trainers, as it was their first time letting dogs go. all-in-all, it's been an exciting, very new, very different, and very interesting process working in this new venue. i was quite lost my first time staying on base without my faithful army escort (jeremey!) but i'm kind of holding my own around there now...he'd be surprised (if i ever saw him!).

tomorrow, after one more training day here and getting the dogs settled, i head to charlotte with the LILLY to finally start her transfer to candace. not only is LILLY now ready, but LANIE is finally prepared, too and candace is more than ready..and paul, well, he'll just catch up! no actually, i think he's more excited than he will let on but i know he is going to love her!

alright, guess you're all caught up, more later!

LOVE,K
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dog anatomy 101

2010-03-07T09:58:00.003-05:00

ok, so, i have WYATT here with me. if that sounds weird to you, it should...check The paws4vets Advocate blog for an update. moving on...i do not claim to be any sort of expert on dog health...ask the key people i call to question and whine too every time such a topic comes up! however, WYATT taught me something interesting last night, and i think it could come in handy for all you dog people out there to have in your brain in the future, too. last sunday, a week ago, heidi received a call from brandon stating that WYATT had eaten his collar. those of you who follow our stories know that WYATT will eat a leash or collar or anything long whole, like a snake, whenever he can find one behind your back. heidi instructed brandon to make WYATT vomit, which you do by forcing them to swallow small amounts of hydrogen peroxide at a time in a few minute increments until it works. for whatever reason, brandon did not get WYATT to vomit that night. we hoped he would then pass the collar. being that the buckle and metal loop were not ingested, we did not worry too much. upon getting WYATT back yesterday, knowing the collar had not passed, dad and i decided to give the throwing up one good go before we took him for an ultrasound to ensure it wasn't creating intestinal blockage. well, after one turkey-baster full (this, we have found after a great deal of practice, is the easiest way to administer the unpleasant liquid) and not two full minutes of waiting, up came the entire piece of collar. i was soooo relieved! what's amazing to me is that after 6 days, 12 meals, and "normal digestion" by all accounts, the leash remained intact in his stomach like he ate it an hour ago! so strange. i've attached a picture as proof because i think it is fascinating.

ok, well tomorrow i leave for another trip for a month. this will include bootcamp at the ft. stewart program (i know, i need to update you all on what the heck that is), transfer training LILLY to candace, back to check on dogs at ft. stewart, back to finish training candace, some meetings in wilmington, and actually seeing jeremey for the first time in 2 months. so, it will be quite a month. what i haven't figured out yet is just how to pack for that....wish me luck!

note: i should give a disclaimer that i was fully in doubt that the collar could possibly still be in his stomach, but dad insisted he'd throw it up. here i am, on the record, in an attempt to end the harassment, dad was right! :)

LOVE,K
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ramada saga

2010-03-05T17:39:00.004-05:00

hi all! i have a good story to report, a victory for the books. some of you may follow jack's p4p blog, as it's one of the blogs whose updates list on the paws4people friend feed. (this is where you can see all the most recent p4p updates in one place...very handy!) well, jack's family had a very unfortunate run-in with some very ignorant staff at a ramada inn during their holiday travels. eliot handled it perfectly, defending his rights exactly correctly, and standing up not only for jack and CAYLIE but for the disability community as a whole. however, the family was still not treated properly. to read the original saga, please see eliot's blog here. when his complaint failed to be met with what i felt was a satisfactory response, i took it upon myself to represent our client with whatever force and influence the collective reputation of paws4people has to offer. to view the package i sent to wyndham hotels worldwide, please go here. well, yesterday, i received a rather prompt and rather satisfactory response from ramada international. to read this response, please go here. the lesson learned here is that despite the fact this may seem like a small fight being fought in vain; and despite the ridiculous amount of time it takes to fight something like this in my non-existant free-time for a seemingly small result; it is not just about jack at ramada, and jack's family knows this. it is about that fact that maybe, just maybe, this letter will lead to some changes in policy or education of management. maybe, just maybe, the next time a person with a disability goes to stay at a ramada in our region, their own voice will be enough to gain them the rights they deserve. maybe this letter won't accomplish all of that, but education happens one day and one person at a time. maybe change won't come until our 100th enfuriating, needless, time-wasting run-in is followed with our 100th correct, salient, and demanding letter...but i promise you, i will write as many as i have to. i guess that's part of having a fun, outside-the-box job where i get to work with puppies and the greatest people on earth. well, i guess i can handle all of the writing...i knew college would come in handy for something.

LOVE,K
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new babies

2010-03-02T07:32:00.003-05:00

so, as those of you who are fans of p4p of facebook have probably seen, we have 2 new baby puppies. ROWAN, whose mom is a golden and dad is a black lab, came to us from a friend of karen's in charlotte. HAYDEN, a brown newfie puppy, came to us from a friend in va. thank you for these wonderful bundles! the funniest part is that these girls are only days apart in age, but have about a 20 lb weight difference. i attempted to get side-by-side pics of the girls to show just how different their sizes are, but being puppies, they succeeded in making this impossible. the pics i did manage to get i'll post below. the closest size comparison pic is fuzzy, but serves it purpose in showing the difference!

also, official paws4people logo'd clothing is now available! find the order form at the link at the top of my blog. also there, find the order form for the custom p4p necklaces! and info on the infamous 5k...it's gona be fun. in fact, i'm going down to the treadmill now to attempt to be somewhat ready by the time it comes!

LOVE,K
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lots!...& the 5k

2010-02-24T21:54:00.004-05:00

well, after being on the road for nearly a month, i have lots & lots that i'm behind on blogging about. in my "free" time at home next week, i promise to get caught up...but in the meantime, here's what you really need to know:

the wilmington, nc chapter is hard at work on their 2nd 5k. this event is already gaining great sponsorships & is going to be huge for us! so, if you live around wilmington, or want to leverage this great, philanthropic, giving, selfless excuse for a spring beach trip...we aim to please! please visit the site & register to run, walk, or contact us about sponsorships. we appreciate it all! jack, CAYLIE, paul & LIA will be attending as masters of ceremony, along with many other clients and dogs, i'm sure. we can't wait! (please, don't ask me yet if candace has talked me into participating again, i can't even think of it right now)

here's the site: p4p wilmington 5k

that's the big update for now...i will keep a link to the 5k & the necklace orders on my blog, and put them up on the other p4p blogs when i can!

LOVE,K
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necklace!

2010-02-23T21:32:00.002-05:00

hey all...instead of re-creating the wheel, let me just post angie's email that explains it all!

Hi everyone,

paws4people™ Wilmington Chapter is proud to announce an exciting new opportunity for you to help with raising funds for our wonderful organization as well as show your love for your pets.

One of our members, Rachel Ripley-Moffitt has worked hard to bring us a "one of a kind" creation, designed by Jess L.C. jewelry, specifically for paws4people™. The creation is called the "soul mate necklace". The necklace is shown on a specially designed card as well. The actual necklace is only the 2 interlocking circles. You may choose either two-toned (gold and silver) or all silver. The designer will donate proceeds from her sales to our organization.

Please share the word with your friends and family about these great necklaces!!! Click here for the order form , which you will need to download and print out, with instructions on how to place your order.

LOVE,K
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down south

2010-02-13T07:34:00.002-05:00

hi all!

it's been far too long since i've found time to write. i've been on the road for all but 2 nights since getting back from vacation, and sometimes days on end slip away from me. paul and LIA are continuing to do really well. we have been down in southern ga opening a new program which we are so so so so excited about. i will explain it in a new post when i have time to do it justice here in a few days. but right now, i am staying in atlanta with samantha's family and CORINA. we are just spending time, letting CORINA do her thing and get comfortable being here. she is still many many months away from being ready to graduate, especially with some special skills to work on like balance assistance that samantha needs. but it is nice to let her come and interact and figure out her job. samantha loves to read to her, so that's what we did last night. the happy, antsy dog completely changes when she lays next to samantha, which is just something you cannot train. this week we are going to do things like visit samantha's school and just get CORINA out and about in the world more. she is doing very well at everything, except being patient while you eat a whole meal or have a whole meeting, she just gets bored of laying there with no attention! she is coming along so well and is having a fantastic trip out from the prison, she's really impressing us. i'll keep you posted!

LOVE,K
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paul & LIA

2010-02-04T07:54:00.002-05:00

hi all!

i hope those of you in the midst of all of this snow aren't too cold...and those of you not in the midst of it are thankful! ugh! i am now in wilmington/lejeune to transfer LIA to paul permanently! how exciting! they did great together, and the public access test was flawlessssss!!!! LIA did get a little stressed a few times in the new environment of the base...mainly with seagulls and some out of control kids...but even when stressed she's a good girl for paul. we worked some more on tactics to desensitize her to the new things and refocus her when she hones in on something. paul is a whole new person to me, and he's really ready for this, i'm so so so excited for this team!

also, kelli cooley, a jacksonville-based trainer and marine wife, has been teaming up with us down here as our "local trainer" for dogs placed here. she helped me with the public access test yesterday, and will meet up with paul over the next few weeks to keep him moving forward, give him tips and feedback, etc. i so appreciate her help and look forward to working with her!

also, we have some verrrry exciting meetings next week....i will update you on those when the information becomes public ;)

stay warm!

LOVE,K
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updates from the caribbean

2010-01-22T12:32:00.003-05:00

hi all! i know you know i'm on vacation, but i hope none of you are crazy enough to think i could ever stop working. those receiving my hundreds of emails and demands for assistance will vouch for me! i wanted to give two updates before the news gets too old:

first, our wonderful photographer has editted all of the pictures from graduation. here is the link for the pictures, without inmates. inmate pictures will be posted on official paws4prisons sites in the future.

also, alex's mom, alex, and CAMDEN just finished their umbilical cording. it is a very strenuous process, but i know they found it rewarding. how do i know? well, it just so happened that alex's mom, kathy, is wonderful a videoing the goings-on of her two boys...and she has kindly posted her latest video on our YouTube channel. i think you'll see just what we mean by bonding!

hope you're having fun in the cold! ok, that was mean...but i don't get vacation often, give me a break!

LOVE,K
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wilmington & SOLLY update

2010-01-15T07:56:00.004-05:00

hi all! it's been a while, i've been on the road the whole time....SURPRISE! well, we took a trip to wilmington to meet with some commanders @ camp lejeune about two of our next clients, paul and buf. paul and is a marine, and buf is a navy corpsman. paul has been traveling abck and foth to morgantown to learn how to work with LIA, and to use LIA to enhance his medical treatment team's effectiveness (dog=huge motivation, as we al know) since september. he will be getting LIA permanently @ lejeune the first week in feb. buf, however, is another story....his command was preventing him from getting his dog for many "reasons." however, after our meeting, it now looks as though all will proceed. dad has been blogging extensively about this very unusal and frustrating journey with the navy....please visit his blog The paws4vets Advocate.

also while in wilmington, we got to see amanda and ELLIE. amanda has grown so much! she's so tall! her skills are becoming so advanced, too...from walking to talking...for which her mom, susan, grants much credit to ELLIE's involvement in her daily therapies. her big sister, katie, is also growing right before our eyes. it is always so nice to get to catch up with "old" clients and dogs! we also had a few other administrative meetings in wilmington, and got to attend the montly meeting for the wilmington chapter, meeting many of the RAD's and EAD's there and many great new volunteers!...dogs, dogs, everywhere!

i also talked to melissa yesterday, and SOLOMON has done great at school with erin this week. he has been going half-days with melissa. she said he has been a little hyped, as to be expected in a room full of such young and energized kids, but each day gets better. he's also starting to get over the novelty of their cat, but i'm expecting that to take a bit long before he gives up on playing games with the cat! nevertheless, they are doing great!

well, today i am busy trying to sort through my college boxed in the garage to find summer clothes...because i'm off to the beach! yes, a real live vacation, i can't even believe it. i am joining my grandparents and mom on their annual two week trip to the dominican republic as the conclusion to my graduation celebration! unfortunately, dad is staying behind to keep up with work and care for our pack of dogs...but since he has to stay home for the most part with both of us gone, hopefully he'll at least get a little rest, too. dont' worry, i'll have internet by the pool so my many, many projects won't fall too far behind.

one last note...please be thinking of jack as he and his family are continuing the long process of trying to find out what to do to control his seizures. you can read more about where they are in the process at his blogs: Jack of Our Hearts, and Jack's p4p blog.

alright, i'm off to get my tan!

LOVE,K
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erin & SOLOMON update

2010-01-05T06:59:00.003-05:00

hi all! i have fallen in to the popular trap i like to call bloglessitis. i am the official p4p blog police, so i really must not do that again. i did get a little time off for the new year to visit jeremey and his family at their new home, and i had no cell phone or internet service there...this sent me into extreme blackberry anxiety for the first day or so, but after that it was really pretty nice. anyways, back to real life now.

yesterday, dad and i traveled a bit to spend the day with erin and SOLOMON at their therapy to check in on SOLOMON's progress and to see if we could help get SOLOMON to do anything new the therapists could think of. when we met them, i had prepared melissa that SOLOMON might get very excited when he saw dad and i...this is a trend among the dogs we place...and as flattering as it is, we have to ignore their behavior when we reunite until they calm down. when we walked in the therapy room, SOLOMON did not get quite as hyper as i expected. he did sit up from his sleep upon hearing my voice and do his happiest SOLOMON face. for those of you who haven't met or worked with the SOLLY, this is when he sits as tall as he can, sticks his nose in the air, pushes his ears all the way flat, squints his eyes, and wiggles his whole body as much as he can without breaking his stay. it is hilarious and warmed my heart, i missed him a little. after he quit putting on his sly little show, he laid back on melissa's feet and dad and i went up to greet him. i was so impressed with his self control and dedication to melissa despite our appearance (can you say "umbilical cord training works like a charm" anyone?)...but this was only the beginning of his show.

well, as soon as we showed up, one of the therapists working with erin immediately showed us how open-minded she was. she began asking what things SOLOMON could do right away...can he help with this? can he sit like this? can he brace her like this? (side note: it was like meeting the next sharon!) i cannot say how wonderful it is to meet a creative, forward-thinking, PT, OT, or speech path with our clients, because with the dogs, the only limits are our creativity...and sometimes the medcial professionals do not want to be very out-of-the-box...so this was GREAT! anyways, i digress, what's new...

so, trying to remember all the things we did with SOLOMON yesterday in just a short hour or so: he tugged the criss-crossing, velcro straps of her leg braces and took the braces out from under her legs and took them to melissa (how he figured out which ways to tug the criss-crossing straps i do not know, but he figured it out in about 2 seconds)...he untied erin's shoes for her (but he couldn't quite undo the double-knot, so we helped with that!)...he braced her standing with he balance harness...he helped her get from sitting to standing by laying then standing to give her leverage with the balance harness...he braced her walking with the balance harness...he walked beside her walker perfectly...he braced a rolling scooter so it wouldn't slip as erin transferred on and off of it...he is learning how to position himself to help her transfer independently into and out of her chair...and, a new one for me! he is learning how to right her chair if she accidentally flips backwards (as karen and i experienced plenty trying to go up inclines or over bumps in our chairs this summer!) erin's chair will catch itself at about a 45 degree angle with her laying backwards, but then she needs assistance to get back on her wheels. we practiced this with an empty chair, and SOLOMON figured out his best shortcut to righting the chair after understanding what melissa wanted, which took about 5 tries. this week, they will work on it until he does it with erin in the chair. it was great!!

sorry for being so wordy, but even this does not do justice to our experiences. by the end of their few days at therapy, SOLOMON will not only be doing these things, but will do them effortlessly i am sure. he figures things out so quickly and solves problems so well, and he is so desperate for melissa's approval because the umbilical cord training has worked like magic with him...he is a very very loyal and strongly-bonded dog. IT WAS ONE OF THE BEST DAYS I HAVE HAD IN A VERY, VERY LONG TIME. of course i didn't have my video camera, but melissa is going to work on documenting these things for me so i can put together a video for everyone. less than 2 weeks in, SOLOMON looks like he's been teamed with their family for over a year. anyone and everyone who has had their training hands on or around SOLOMON (especially karen) should be very proud...this is a job not well done, but flawlessly done.

stay warm everyone!

LOVE,K
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calendar!

2009-12-25T15:11:00.003-05:00

hi all! just in time for the new year, jack's brother and sister have made us a fabulous calendar! i am so grateful, as it took a lot of time to put together. it features our 08 & 09 graduate teams. i am planning to keep this wonderful, handy, fundraiser going as an annual tradition. please consider purchasing one, or a few as gifts like i just did! p4p gets a very generous percentage of proceeds, so it's a great fundraiser for us. please also let your friends and family know about it, everyone can use a calendar, especially one this sweet! here is the link to preview & buy!

also, SOLOMON is settling in to the home and hearts of the buckles family. he's doing great so far!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

LOVE,K
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SOLLY's last day

2009-12-22T19:20:00.003-05:00

well, it's SOLOMON's last day with us. tomorrow starts his umbilical cord process with erin. it's so exciting! it's always so bittersweet when the dogs leave; but SOLOMON is so ready. how ready you ask...well, he's just so easy for me to communicate with, i quickly had him doing a bunch of things around the kitchen the other day, just for fun. so, today i made dad video us (with my fabulous flip video camera, highly suggest it) doing some things. these are the kinds of things that will help erin so much in being able to do things without asking anyone for help--anyone other than SOLOMON! go to our YouTube Channel to see him. we'll let you know how the process goes, and i'm sure melissa will keep you up-to-date on their blog too!

LOVE,K
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updates

2009-12-15T11:22:00.003-05:00

hello all!

well, it's official....I GRADUATED!!!! no more complaining about classes, at least for a while. thanks to everyone for sticking with me my past few years...i know i wasn't always a peach! i still have exams this week, it's backwards because of the holidays. then friday, i have to move all of my crap home...and let me tell you, i've acquired A LOT of stuff! we all know moving is never fun, but after that i might catch a little break just in time for Christmas!

just a few reminders....voting for the chase facebook challenge is closed now, tomorrow we will find out if we were one of the top 100...nervous!!!!! if so, i'll be bugging you all to vote again in january, so we can win A LOT of money!

also, SOLOMON and BRADIE's photo contest goes on for a few more days. click their names to vote. you can vote for both of them once a day. please vote...if either/both get in the top 10 i'll win some money to purchase dog supplies with, and that is alllllways a need, yaknow!

lastly, here is the link to a wv newscast profile piece about me. my biggest disclaimer: i never said that i'm only in this for the short term (last blurb of the piece) but you know, things always get a little jumbled in these media things. all-in-all, it was a nice piece for SOLOMON, p4p, and myself! enjoy!

LOVE,K
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another photo

2009-12-10T15:00:00.001-05:00

well, i also decided to capture BRADIE LYNN! here is her link: VOTE! you can vote for each pic once a day!

LOVE,K
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SOLOMON

2009-12-10T14:41:00.003-05:00

hey! i took a little break from real life today to dress SOLOMON up for a photo contest. he really hated wearing a jingle bell necklace and couldn't figure out why it made so much noise everytime he moved! please vote for him!
VOTE!

LOVE,K
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reminders

2009-12-08T07:23:00.002-05:00

hi all!
today is my last of 3 capstone presentations...they're kind of like exit interviews/presentations on the topic of your major in front of representatives from your department. because of my nontraditional major, i'm soooo lucky and had to do 3! well, needless to say my senioritis (which i've had for the last 3 years) is allowing me to procrastinate. so i'm off to work on that until this afternoon.

just wanted to remind everyone to please subscribe to our friendfeed to stay in the ever-growing paws4people loop. to do so, go here. i know you can view it wihtout joinging, but we'd love for everyone to take the minute to join so that we can build up our page. that way, you'll get our messages and info all the time without missing a thing!

lastly, voting on facebook for our chance to win $25,000 end on friday. please vote by clicking on the cute little button on the top of my blog. also, please send out the invite to your friends for the next few days. we have a huge chance of being among the winners, which would be the best start of a paws4people new year yet! PLEASE HELP!

thank you all, have a good week. if it's anything like it is here, stay warm!

LOVE,K
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jack made the front page

2009-12-01T08:03:00.001-05:00

a must-read!
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/408/story/1083920.html

LOVE,K
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silly SALLY

2009-11-30T21:23:00.002-05:00

hey all!

i spent my next-to-last crazy college monday doing lots of things, and toting SALLY along with me. my disability studies professor asked me to do a demo....and i made a video, ALREADY! i'm so proud. please watch it here!

so anyways, i'm way too tired to try to think of anything else to write now. please visit the paws4people friendfeed and subscribe to it. all of our blogs and youtube are linked there so you can see what has been updated without going to all of the blogs separately. it's really cool...not to mention it took me a small fortune of time to set up...so join!!! to see that, go here
ok that's all!

LOVE,K
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samantha & ....

2009-11-25T06:22:00.005-05:00

hi all!

it's one of those times to thank the powers that be, because we've yet another unquestionable, amazing, dog bump. yesterday morning at samantha's house, CORINA came in first. now, i should tell you the funniest part...since her mom amy had a favorite (CORINA) so we wanted to attempt to keep her from telling them apart. little did we know that she had studied them more carefully than we could have expected from any student! she told them apart verrrry well when they were side-by-side, and had only a little trouble when they were one at a time. well, CORINA showed a great deal of interest during her first try. she made a very interesting pattern between samantha, amy, samantha, amy, matt, samatha, and so on. several times she left dad and i out of her rounds completely, a very good early sign. then CAROLINE got a turn...and no matter how long we waited, she ignored everyone! it was like CORINA had gone back to the car and told her she better not even try, because she didn't! when CORINA cam back in, she was even more attentive of samantha; and the deal was sealed when she got in bed with sammie and would have laid there all day! SUCCESS!

we're off to tape a radio show this morning (a first!) then we're making the long haul back to va.

please remember to keep voting and spreading the vote on facebook.

also, there is a spotlight article on wvu that i am reluctantly posting b/c i hate when articles are all about me....http://wvutoday.wvu.edu/n/2009/11/24/wvu-senior-moonlights-as-a-non-profit-executive
have a happy thanksgiving!

LOVE,K
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atlanta

2009-11-23T21:27:00.002-05:00

so, we are here in atlanta with CORINA and CAROLINE to visit our newest client, samantha. during our first dog bump with samantha, both of these girls showed interesting, albeit very different promise as far as bonding. we're hoping (and expecting) that some time in samantha's own house with one-on-one dog time will show us exactly what we need to see--which dog chooses samantha. tomorrow is a big day, lots of meeting and the all important bump. we've already removed the girls' collars since amy (samantha's mom) already has her theory. we don't want any favortism! amy peeked at the dogs in the car tonight and thinks she has it pegged who's who even without collar...and let me tell you with these two sisters, sometimes even heidi and i couldn't do that!

i'll report back on how it goes tomorrow! PLEASE KEEP THE WORD SPREADING TO VOTE ON FACEBOOK!

LOVE,K
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help us on facebook!

2009-11-21T07:25:00.003-05:00

there is a new fundraising campaign going on on facebook through chase bank. you can only vote once per round, but the top 100 charities this round get $25,000!!!!! i'm sure we have the fans to do it!!

if you have a facebook, please go here:
http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/charities/595805

and vote for us! please also message/email/blog your friends to do the same. LET'S DO IT!!

LOVE,K
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youtube & tlc

2009-11-15T18:00:00.001-05:00

hi all!

i've finally made a youtube channel for p4p and uploaded the grad video. it is blurry, sorry, that's what happens with youtube compresses things....stupid i know. anyways, it's there!
http://www.youtube.com/user/p4pfoundation

also, please watch tlc at 9 tonight for a show starring erin & her family. SOLOMON was there for filming, so hopefully he will make an appearance, too!

LOVE,K
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IT'S THE GRADUATION

2009-11-15T16:54:00.002-05:00

well, the chaos is behind us. i'm so proud to say that we had a beautiful, wonderful graduation of 8 assistance dogs yesterday with the best company around. everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, as i sincerely hope they did. i want to thank evvvveryone who helped so much with all of the planning and execution. congrats to all of our clients, we love you! thank you to everyone who made long trips to join us. and mostly thank you to everyone for putting up with me the last few months during my planning. before we know it it will be time to do it all again!

i know everyone is anxious for photos, and we had two very wonderful photographers there (& two other wonderful p4p photographers too!) we have to sign some media releases for these wonderful people who so generously donated their awesome talents so that they can include our photos in their work....so if you get emails asking you to complete those please do it!! i can't distribute photos until you do!! but just as soon as i can i will have photos for everyone everywhere!!

thank you all again!!!!!!!!

LOVE,K
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zombie

2009-11-09T07:20:00.002-05:00

so, this is what it feels like to live life without having a clue what's going on! the last two weeks have been amazingly stressful and crazy, and productive. with graduation looming over me (and i mean that in the best possible way, if only i had a clone) the last two weeks have literally flown by with no help from me. i must say, though, the pressure has definitely benefitted my school work. with a combined grad & school to-do list spanning over three pages, i can't afford a day--make that an hour--without crossing something off of the list. consequently, in addition to hectic negotiations with the prison and planning with the program inmates, communication with out out of town guests, and the absolutely unforeseen difficulties of completing details for the off-site reception, i have also finished two capstone (senior portfolio) projects, four papers, and three exams. when we were planning graduation (somehow, it was about four months ago already) i didn't quite bother to compare my school schedule to the graduation time. i mean really, when do i pay attention to school anyways! they might not have been the most convenient things to attempt simultaneously, but when has school ever been convenient?!

anyways, the clock is now ticking faster than ever down to the guests beginning to arrive on friday. i'm very stressed, nervous, and excited!! for the last two weeks i've forgotten i even have a blog, and i'm sure i will again until at least sunday. but i will be sure to tell you all about it as soon as i can!!

LOVE,K
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100th post

2009-10-27T08:32:00.002-04:00

well, as someone who never wanted to blog and just accepted it as a work assignment, i didn't think i'd ever make 100 posts! not did i ever think that - when i remembered/had time - i would actually love blogging! i appreciate you all wanting to stay up-to-date on my crazy weird life, and all of the wonderful goings-on with p4p.

this weekend, i made the pilgrimage home in an effort to concentrate solely on completing (well, starting and completing) my honors portfolio....the last step in being able to graduate from the honors college here. well, a few focused (usually, i don't actually continuously focus on school work) hours and 10 papers later, it was done! so what was i to do with the rest of my weekend? well, thankfully for me, katey requested to keep both WYATT and BRADIE for the weekend, not willing to part with either. unable to make a dogless trip, i decided to take home the baby BOURKEster. he was so good! it seems as though his intestinal meds are working because he back to eating happily, back to a great weight, and back to learning and running around! he has come so far in his learning since the last time i had him for a weekend, which is to be expected with the hard work of hte inmate trainers. he is so very smart, and he's really showing it! he had a great time wrestling with SOLOMON all weekend, as none of the other dogs really had an interest in playing. he laid on the otomon with his bone the whole time i did school work. he did want to wake up a little earlier than i did each morning, but for a puppy, i'm ok with that being the sole complaint. my mom and grandparents finally got to meet him and - of course - couldn't get over his quiet nature and dashing good looks!

hope you all had a great weekend too!

LOVE,K
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not much

2009-10-20T19:34:00.002-04:00

hey all,

not much to report here. i've been a boring blogger for a reason lately. i'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that that reason is SCHOOOOOL. i have 3 capstone projects...which as basically exit portfolios paired with powerpoint presentations. blaaaah. and of course none of them are the same! therefore, i've been sidelined to being the dog-transport to and from the vet, and the supply buyer, and other than that i'm stuck in front of books or my computer. also, the graduation planning has kicked into full gear with paperwork being due and starting the process of getting guests cleared into the prison, food and decor for the reception, so on and so on. i can't wait for november 14! i will update you if anything exciting happens!

LOVE,K
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charlotte

2009-10-12T21:23:00.004-04:00

well, this weekend i got to have a short little getaway to nc. i got to spend some quality time with jeremey, candance, and paul, which was very nice...but, as always, this was a working vacation. i'm not complaining, at this rate, i'll take any chance to kill two birds with one stone. saturday we visited jack's funraiser, a multi-vendor event at their church, which was very nice and did very well for us! we thank everyone involved, again, for their time, effort, and help. there's nothing like seeing a community come together for one of "my kids." (no, their parents are not aware that by signing the dog custody contract on graduation day they are also signing their children over to me, it's a secret!) anyways, we also squeezed in a meeting with out great new embroidery company to get things rolling on that front. anyways, i'm back to the grind now. CAYLIE is at my house now for a few days due to some dog shuffle logistics you don't even want me to try to explain, but you'll see below how she lounges around here....you know, lisa said she wanted a princess...and we always deliver on our clients' requests : )

LOVE,K
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updated pictures

2009-10-04T21:38:00.005-04:00

finally got a picture of LIA...couldn't find one during my last photo update.

WYATT riding with my usual cargo....from the fated pumpkin spice entry a week ago.

OLIVER & his namesake!

BOURKE kissing up at school!

OLIVER waiting to get his cast removed!

LOVE,K
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oliver and OLIVER

2009-10-02T11:30:00.002-04:00

well, tuesday OLIVER and BOURKE had vet appointments, so i kept them for the day and took them to start back visits at cheat lake elementary. i got the idea for the name oliver from a student in that class last year (named oliver) so i knew he would be so excited to meet the puppy. the class were sooooo happy to have puppies, even though they look so big to me! the boys were sooo good too, you'd think they were 2 years old already. they sat through some temper tantrums, ear and tail pulls, and many, many hugs...they were just so good!

perhaps the best news of all is that OLIVER got his cast off...much to the inmates' relief. i snapped a cute picture of him with it on before they cut it, thankfully! it was so cute on, but he'll be much happier now! i'll post some pics here in a bit when i get motivated to break out the camera cord....

LOVE,K
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pumpkin spice for my day

2009-09-24T19:31:00.002-04:00

so, i had quite the day tuesday, but have failed to blog of it yet due to drowning in school work. actually, i am only blogging now in a desperate attempt to escape studying....but this time tomorrow two exams will be over and i will be home, or at least almost home, for a weekend free of homework because I FINISHED IT ALL TODAY!

so, about tuesday. well, heidi had her usual day of back to back to back classes at the prisons, so i set off in the morning to gather this months' supplies. i took WYATT with me as his trainer is leaving the prison soon and hasn't seen him for a while, and i knew she'd want to say bye. my first stop was walmart, and the few things i had to pick up there went easily. next was petco, where i severely underestimated my task: 300 lbs of food. ok, two carts, i can handle this, one at a time. well, by the second one i'd broken a sweat and was not so chipper anymore. by the time i finally pushed and pulled my way to the check out, i was ready to get this all over with. no such luck. the cashier was unfamiliar with the 200# program (where you save a huge % by buying 200# at a time) and had to get another girl. she felt like arguing with me saying "we don't do that, you just get every 10th bag free" and i sweetly explained otherwise. i even helped by telling them where to find it in the computer (i've bought a few bags of dog food in my time) which i don't think they appreciated; but i wasn't leaving without my discount. well, it just so happened that the skies opened to an extreme downpour....so i loaded 300 lbs of food in the pouring rain.

well, you might imagine that by now, i was severely un-chipper, knowing i still had 2 more loading/unloadings left at the prison. i decided that i was going to starbucks to get a pumpkin spice latte; because, in case you aren't lucky enough to know, you cannot not smile sipping a pumpkin spice latte! in the pouring rain at the drive-thru window, the goofy WYATT decided to poke his head out the window to greet the baristas. one guy in the back making a drink said "aww he looks like my friend brandon's dog Wyatt" and i said "IT IS WYATT!" we proceeded to have a conversation (which i'm sure the people behind me didn't appreciate nearly as much as i did) in which he told me how good WYATT is at brandon's on the weekends, and how happy he makes brandon and what a great team they are.

well, for the rest of the day, despite loading my food onto a cart, onto the scanner, back onto the cart, and pushing it into the unit....i had a smile on my face. sometimes it's so nice when God intervenes and reminds me how great what we're all doing is, and what it's all about. even the heavy, ridiculous, quick-disappearing dog food!

WYATT's off to spend another 5 days with brandon starting tomorrow. this shared custody makes me happy and sad at the same time; but every time i take WYATT back over the brandon's and see him wiggle and wag and frolic running up to his new house, i'm not sad at all : )

LOVE,K
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pics

2009-09-22T14:40:00.005-04:00

hi! i've been receiving some requests for pictures of dogs so here are some i've found lately--

LOVE,K
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baby BOURKE time

2009-09-20T09:26:00.004-04:00

so, we had some BOURKEY time this weekend. he was feeling a little sick to his tummy, so i brought him home to continue his bland diet and basically give them a break for the messy-ness of a sick and miserable puppy at the prison. well, maybe all he really wanted was a little vaca, cuz he's been more than fine since he got here : ) bringing equal amounts of mischief and adroable-ness to my weekend, i can't say i'm not glad i stole him, regardless! he has decided that since BRADIE can lay on the couches, so can he...so we have been working on the fact that since he is a puppy, he must wait for an invite. he invites himself by resting his chin on the recliner, and no sooner do i say "jump on" than he hops up and curls up in a ball....he's definitely claimed his spot in the house. he keeps me on my toes though, as he seems to think that it's appropriate to put his paws on the counter/table, just to look around. he's yet to steal anything from up there...but i'm sure getting a work out getting up and down off the couch to make him stop standing on 2 feet on the table! he is, if nothing else, very stubborn. but i am definitely in love. he just might be the world's most photographed puppy, so here are just a few, more to come....

LOVE,K
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schooool

2009-09-14T16:58:00.002-04:00

so, yet again i've been a delinquent blogger. i really don't have much to report, though. other than a few vet visits last week...and the always exciting act of juggling multiple puppies on a lone vet journey, i haven't had much doggie time. really, school has been engulfing my life. WYATT has been spending the weekends with brandon, the next step in their transition process. so, without a lot of WYATT time, my funny story count seems to decrease dramatically. like i said, my life has been all class all the time...and that is definitely something worth complaining about. i thought i was going to drown in the act of writing papers yesterday, but thankfully i came out of it alive...and sick. happily enough, i do not have the flu....yet....just a virus. great, virus = no anitbiotics = stay sick longer. grrrrr. that will not stop me from yet another vet adventure this week......will these dogs ever all get their shots? i think i need a doggie bus so i can just do it all at once! hopefully, that will be the most eventful time of my week, but you never know around here....

LOVE,K
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bad blogger

2009-09-06T15:13:00.003-04:00

so, i've been a bad bad blogger again. believe it or not, it was a ridiculous week, i know you're really surprised. a paws4vets client, paul, was up all week to bond and work with LIA, his perspective dog. he just returned home this weekend, but when he blogs about his week in wv you can read it here. from my interactions with them, paul and LIA had a great week together and came a long way in their growing relationship!

also, another paws4vets client jennifer, went to work with dogs at the prison with heidi. you can read her blog here.

finally, our next paws4people client samantha and her family arrived from atlanta on thursday. we went out to dinner with them and my heart was quickly stolen by yet another one of "my kids." in case you're behind on the clients, you can read about samantha here. samantha (and her parents!) are wonderful, not that you'd be surprised to hear that. i think they had a really great time at the prison, and samantha made sure to make friends with all of our inmates. she is just the cutest thing!! we did the dog bumps with CORINA and CAROLINE. i'm not going to say anything now, as we have a conference call planned with the family to all be on the same page, but the dog interactions were very nice : )

last to report, WYATT spent the weekend with at his future home with our paws4vets client, brandon. you can read brandon's description of his exciting weekend with WYATT (i don't think there's such a thing as uneventful time with WYATT!) here. you know, i really think i can get used to the fact that everyone has their own blogs now! so be sure to go read them.....happy long weekend!

LOVE,K
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media

2009-08-29T11:00:00.002-04:00

another article on NIKKI, jack and CAYLIE, and alex and CAMDEN : ) thank you candace!

click here

LOVE,K
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BOURKE

2009-08-27T08:02:00.002-04:00

so, i've been holding out on all of you. as suspersticious as i am, i wanted a few days to cuddle before i revealed that i got a new puppy. BOURKE (you say it like burke) is my brand new boy. i say "my," not "our," well...because he's mine! for several months now, i have been researching english creme golden retrievers. i had already decided i want a boy, and what i wanted to name him, because all of my own dogs have "B" names. i just hadn't found anywhere i was quite happy with getting him from. and i don't know quite enough to get into the whole international thing yet. so imagine my surprise when we received a general contact us email from a woman in the wv area where we operate, asking how she could help. when i replied to find her interests, she revealed that she had one puppy left from an english creme litter that she was interested in donating. she knows of grace and COLT, and they served as such wonderful ambassadors that she so valued our program to make such an offer. well, you know how i feel, and this was just all too good not to be fated. so, after many conversations with beth, i went out to meet the dogs on tuesday. BOURKE's mother, DARBY, is from canada and his father, ELVIS, is from france. their newest family member, and tiny beautiful puppy HATTIE, is from serbia. how exciting!

well, as if i need to tell you, he is wonderfulllllll. spunky, smart, cuddly, loving, and to say handesome would be an understatment. i love him already. why do i need another dog? well, i don't, but i wanted one. actually, he will have a very important job. he will serve as my own demo dog to help me with publicity, press, fundraising, and education when i move on to my next projects after college. plus, i think BRADIE should have another dog to live with once we are out of this environment where i have dogs in and out. dogs just shouldn't be alone. BRADIE is very maternal with BOURKE, cleaning and checking on him. this is unusual for her with any dogs outside of our pack at home, so it was wonderful for me to see. BOURKE will spend a while in the prison to aid me in fast-tracking his training, and so he gets plenty of attention all day everyday while i'm desperately trying to finish up this crazy semester.

well, that's the update for now. pretty good, huh? please visit http://goldenconnoisseurkennel.com/ to see BOURKE's wonderful parents and the amazing people who blessed us with him. here are just a few pictures : )

LOVE,K
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updates

2009-08-23T13:46:00.002-04:00

ok, well now i am officially moved back into wv. it was weird unpacking this time, because we were kind of packing and unpacking at the same time. as i moved everything it, we also cleaned everything out b/c we're only here until december :( so we were trying to get rid of all of the stuff we've been hoarding for the past 2 years. i really feel like it would have been faster to just totally move into a new apartment! anyways, i feel all ready for life and school now, so i can move on, finally!

well, friday i got OLIVER & MAYZIE all moved into the prison. i think everyone was quite pleased with them : ) i also took WYATT out with me because next week he will start is transfer training process to his client.

but back to erin & SOLOMON on thursday, as promised....it was an extra special visit because the buckles were being filmed for another documentary, this time as one of 3 families being filmed with formerly conjoined twins. thanks to melissa, SOLOMON was included! it was very excited. we arrived and i got mic'd up and then (tried) to proceed normally. at first, SOLOMON was very hyped and distracted because the cat, ninja, decided to venture very close this visit. they had 2 face-offs before ninja finally retreated to taylor's room where we shut him in so we could proceed! next, erin, jade, and taylor all cuddled with a slowly relaxing SOLLY on erin's brand new huge comfy bed! after this, erin was hungry and needed a break, so SOLOMON did a very wonderful go in and took a nap of his own while she ate. after this, i knew he was relaxed and figured it was as good a time as any to try some commands. with me commanding, and erin repeating after me, we had him stay under the table while we left. then, he did a come and brought his leash. it took him a few tries to realize it wanted him to give the leash to erin, not me...but when he finally figured it out it was magic, because it just clicked with him then that i meant for him to answer to erin. then, with the other two girls running around and playing with balloons and all of the cameras and chaos, SOLOMON proved his greatness. he listened to every quiet word she said, things like sit, shake, wave, down, roll, stay, come, visit, paws, bring it here, give, kiss, speak...right down to her dropping froot loops right onto this paws and looking to her for the eat command with a camera literally in his nose! we were floored, it was one of those magical times you feel like the rest of the world doesn't exist and you get that total affirmation you couldn't have even asked for.

as if that wasn't enough, we then ventured to erin's school for some practice. it's not back to school there yet, so there were only staff present. while the crew got set up, SOLOMON read some of his cards for me to get him back into work. then, we did a lap around the school walking next to erin's chair, with me on his other side. but the time we were on the last leg, i could drop back behind him and he would walk with her several yards before noticing i'd disappeared, it was great. he did a few more commands for erin, then we did 2 trial fire alarms. he didn't react one bit for the first one while we were in the classroom, and this was just not dramatic enough for camera! so, we took him out into the hall and sat him right under the flashing light siren box thingy. that time, he stared up at that thing for the first 10 seconds, then proceeded to do commands for me as if it were silent. he can be such a good boy! i am so grateful to his inmate trainers and karen for getting him to this point, but we all know he is just naturally a great boy too.

friday as i headed back with the puppies, dad and SOLOMON met the buckles in dc at the canadaian embassy. very classy! a girl from canada who advocates for conjoined twins found erin and SOLOMON's story online and raised $3,750 canadian dollars for her fundraising campaign! the embassy agreed to host the event and SOLOMON was flawless again. two days in a row! not bad for a 16 month-old boy lab, you know!

anyways, i will be SURE to let you know when the big debut airdate of the documentary is, too, but it will be later in fall. now, time to prepare for my last first day of classes ever. i'm not sure exactly how i feel about that.....

LOVE,K
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jack's article

2009-08-20T17:32:00.002-04:00

here is an online version of another nc article on jack!

LOVE,K
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oops...

2009-08-20T17:11:00.001-04:00

well, to say the least we had a WONDERFUL DAY! however, i am exhausted--as usual. i should have blogged all of the details eariler, but i managed to sneak in a nap instead. now it's time to go to the last family dinner before i leave for school & celebrate my mom & grandpa's birthdays. tomorrow morning starts at 0500 again...dr appt, pack up car & puppies, get them to the prison, and get all my stuff back in to morgantown. i promise i will fully detail today's events once i get settled in tomorrow, as well as finally reveal the puppy names.

those of you who have met them better not tell!!

LOVE,K
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pics

2009-08-19T14:14:00.003-04:00

LOVE,K
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puppppies

2009-08-19T07:36:00.002-04:00

well, the puppies are wonderful! first, just so you're not disappointed, i'm still not revealing names. i like to have a big reveal for the inmate trainers and i know my blog info often makes it to them by way of their families. no such luck! no one will know until friday!

they are beyond precious, though, if i do say so myself. they have been sooo good, too. they did get a little carsick on the way home....ok, a lot of carsick....so although marie (the breeder) gave them to us smelling wonderful and just bathed (the cleanest puppies i've even picked up) they got their second bath last night. unavoidable. they seemed to like it though. they stuck their noses under the faucets and licked water while i scrubbed.

they slept really well. they woke up and cried once (i'll admit, i didn't hear them...terry let them out) and then went back to sleep the rest of the night. this morning, they're romping and playing in the basement as i type. they are happy as clams, and so am i! today we go to the vet. katey and her little brother are helping me with some extra hands so dad can use the day to work. also, i met heidi halfway yesterday before picking up puppies to trade out CAYLIE for SOLOMON. (he has some pretty exciting apprearances the next few days, wait til you hear). so, both of the puppies and SOLOMON go for some shots today. i hope it's rather uneventful, but i'm sure that's a little wishful.

i have taken a few pics but knowing katey, we'll get a lot of good ones today. i just got a macbook (!) so idk about uploading my pics yet, but it should be easy when i get just a minute to do it. promise i'll do it tonight. i mean, i try to promise i will ; )

LOVE,K
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another trip

2009-08-17T06:51:00.002-04:00

so, one more whirlwind trip is almost over. the drive down to jesup, ga was way too long to be fun. but, i met our new program inmates down there and gave them their first lecture. we also met with our new core group of volunteers down there and they set some very high goals...they are on their way to being the next huge chapter! i think things are really going to take off down there!

jack and CAYLIE's visit was so great on saturday. they practiced walking with the balance harness which jack wasn't so keen on at first. by the time we'd taken two laps around the house, though, he was smiling and forgetting to ask his mom to help him. CAYLIE did really great with the harness, too. she still needs to figure out exactly what he wants as far as when she should move ahead of him, but with me there to help guide her she was very responsive. we were all very happy with that progress! CAYLIE was very loving with jack, as always. he gave her a few treats and learned to tell her "down," "leave it," and "eat" which he thought was just about the coolest thing ever.

yesterday we had a fundraiser for jack here at candace's. jack's mom sold her handmade jewelry and another friend of candace's brought purses and luggage and such with embroidery and monogramming. soooo many people came through and it was a wonderful party with a wonderful turnout!

this morning jack and CAYLIE are going to paul (candace's husband's) work to thank them for doing a denim day which raised a great amount for jack. i think everyone there will be touched to finally meet them. then we'll head back up to va just in time to pick up puppies tomorrow! i'll tell you allllll about them!

LOVE,K
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thank gosh for monday

2009-08-10T08:33:00.002-04:00

well, to say it was a whirlwind weekend would be putting it lightly. first, on friday, i finally made it back to wv! allison and i headed up the road with EBONY and 250 lbs of food. we packed the food so EBONY had sooo much room and a fluffy bed; but she decided to sleep on top of the food, wedged between the bags and the roof, the whole way. it was hilarious. we had a wonderful visit with our next paws4vets client, brandon, at both the sff and the camp. it was so nice to see all our program inmates again and the long lost heidi! then, we made the trek all the way home...oh, did i mention with CAMDEN, CAYLIE, INZLIE, and CLAIRE in the car!

well, then we were home with 11 dogs. i know it seems unbelievable, but with what we're used to around here this isn't too big of a deal. except, little did i know that'd i'd just brought home the 3 biggest princesses and an even bigger prince. these dogs, who are used to being walked around the manicured lawns at the prison, refused to go out in the back yard! when i'd finally push them out, they'd huddle together and refuse to step off of the patio. oh my gosh! so i had to leash them one at a time and walk around forevvver until they decided to go. therefore, the usual 5 or 10 minute dog-letting-out process turned into 30 minutes every few hours.

finally, i decided i'd had enough and let allllll the dogs out (forced out the 4) and went out to do yard work. eventually, one very cautious step at a time, they all came off of the patio and learned that playing in the big yard is fun! thank gosh! so the 2nd half of the weekend they finally went out on their own! oh, and let me tell you, the feeding routine was a little drawn out too! however, all of the dogs...new and old and mine and yours...all had a very fun weekend and were pretty well behaved, too.

well, this morning we got up at 4 to get the dogs ready and car packed for dad's trip to alderson. this means that CLAIRE, INZLIE, and to my sadness my silly SALLY, are joining the ranks of the women at alderson! they left equipped with their toys, notes, and instructions from their previous trainers : ) i told SALLY she was going to see karen and she didn't seem sad to leave me at all! CAMDEN also went, and he will leave with karen after their 2 days there to finish his public access & refinement and eventually begin his transfer training process in charlotte. CAYLIE will stay here to go on our trip to jesup, ga and to charlotte this week, where she'll get to see jack!

ahhhh another graduation is speeding towards us! i don't know if i can handle it.

anyways, mom comes home from vacation today so i really need to get up and get this place cleaned up a bit so she doesn't have a heart attack from the aftermath of the 11 dog weekend! then, it's beginning to pack for the trip.

LOVE,K
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housesitting

2009-08-05T20:19:00.002-04:00

so, i'm holding down the fort while the parents get a few days of r&r. yes, even terry went on a real vacation! (even though he only gets to stay 3 days) anyways, today i thought it was about time to clean the place...you know, so there's at least a little less to do the night before mom gets home ;) all i can say is we sure put the stress on the shop vac, dyson, and dirt devils around here. well, after refinding the floors, SALLY and i had a big adventure to the vet.

the vet moved, so i got a little lost...much to SALLY's dismay. she basically hates every second in the car, but she's very good at putting up with it anways. we got there and they were a little late taking us into the appointment, so we got plenty of exposure in the waiting area. SALLY made friends with the african grey parrot who lives there. in fact, he talked to her a lot and they had a very long stare down. i don't think her ears went down or her face unwrinkled the whole time we waited....although she did lay patiently at my feel all the while. she knows just how to push her limits ;) she also tried to steal a few cats out of their crates and didn't really know what to think of one particularly yappy little dog as it came and went. she definitely showed interest in all of these, but did not go to the end of the leash or bark or break command...although i'd be lying if i said she wasn't a little distracted!

all-in-all, it was a good day for SALLY. she made sure to stay within her boundries and had her tail wagging throughout her needle-pokes. the vet called it a happy tail, but i think she's just a happy SALLY. she sure does keep me laughing!

on other exciting news, yesterday i went to look at some puppies and was so awed by them that i ended up putting a deposit on two! that's what you get for sending me to look at puppies alone! there is one boy and one girl and i will pick them up at 8 1/2 weeks on the 18th. then i'll have them for a few days and get their vet visit in before i take them up to hazelton. they are now officially named...but their names will, as per my style, remain a mystery until i can get their first official, adorable pictures :) i'll keep you posted!

LOVE,K
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this and that

2009-08-03T19:23:00.002-04:00

well, i haven't really been up to too much of anything exciting. just getting back into the swing of things here, which is, of course, busy. i still don't think i've made up for my red eye flight/time change/jet lag...but maybe before school starts! i've been running lots of errands, trying to catch up with family, and trying to keep track of dogs. and of course, lots of meetings!

SALLY has been doing wonderful! she is so low-key here at home and just follows me around and lays wherever i stop. she is really great! just a week until she transfers to continue her training with the ladies at alderson! hopefully things remain relatively uneventful until then!

LOVE,K
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home!

2009-07-28T11:07:00.002-04:00

hi all! sorry, again, for my failure to update. now that i am back to some form of sanity, and have a working computer, i'll attempt to get up to speed! the last week of client training/our time in california was craaaazy, as expected. graduation was wonderful, stressful, emotional, and everything else rolled into one. it was so gratifying to meet and aid the clients, and so sad to leave our new family. although the days were long and the time flew by, it felt like we were all together for much much longer than 6 weeks. goodbyes were very hard.

so, the big surprise is that i came home from bergin u with a dog! SALLY, silly sally as she is known there, is now the next wonderful p4p dog. i have posted some pics of her before, as has karen, she was jenny's dog during our time there. she is the cutest yellow lab ever! and our very first yellow lab in the program. she was released from adi as a demo dog due to some behaviors she has that will make her unsuitable for mobility asisstance placement. we're not sure exactly what her long-term role will be with p4p, but she is staying with me for 2 weeks until our next trip to alderson. she will then be transferred there to karen's program and we'll eval and continue training her from there. she is very sweet and expressive, and very quirky. she reminds me a lot of WYATT, so that's a dead giveaway how much i like her! she and i had some very stressful times on our way home--her first flight and my first time flying with a dog. all the stress was on my part though, as she did flawlessly through all of the encounters and layovers and curious people and cramped spaces at my feet!

well, that's all i can think of now. at some point i'll post my hundreds of california pictures on my photobucket, but first i have to filter and sort through them all, so it'll be a bit. now i'm back to the real world, my little west coast bubble has bursted! so i promise to keep up with the blog again!
LOVE,K
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KYRIAp4p

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WE WON.

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