Lycangeek

Chance Goes Home

For those that have been following the story of my foster dog, I'm happy (and somewhat saddened) to report that he has gone off to his forever home.

PetAPalooza 2006

Thought I'd drop a Chance update for those that have followed his career with me so far (just look at the dog category - many of them are Chance). Quick refresher - I'm in Sheltie Rescue and he's my current foster dog. When I got him over a year ago, he was a real mess, physically and mentally - it took me 3 weeks (seriously) before he would come up to me for a pet.

Well, he's still very shy, but he is getting better every day. Case in point - PetAPalooza 2006. This is a big dog/cat/etc. event here in Austin, and Austin Sheltie Rescue had a booth. I brought Chance along with me so that we could "shop" for a forever home. Didn't get many hits (needs to be a home with no small children), but I was so impressed with him - he didn't wig out! He even played with me several times - something he normally only does if no one else is home!

The photo doesn't really show the event well, but at least you can see he's calm (no tucked tail) and happy :)

Finally! A Government Law I Can Get Behind

For those non-dog/cat people out there, this law probably is a bit of a head-scratcher...using the polite version. But for those of us who have very strong bonds with our pets, it's a major relief. I can't even imagine what people are forced to go through in these situations.

The part that amazed me the most was that even service dogs were not allowed to be evacuated before this law - can you imagine telling a blind man that he must leave the one beloved animal who has given him freedom to die?

What is a Service Dog?

As I've mentioned in the past, one of the charities I work with is the Texas Hearing and Service Dogs. One of our recipients has written a letter to the AKC to nominate her service dog for the AKC Award of Excellence. However, I think she describes quite well why these dogs are so important.

And remember, THSD takes all of its dogs from shelters and rescue groups - these are dogs thrown away by other people.

Puppy Chance

For those that have been following our foster dog, Chance, you'll be amazed at what happened yesterday - the breeder who had raised Chance found us! She was looking over the Austin Sheltie Rescue page, saw the picture of Chance, and recognized him. She's sent us this great picture of him as a puppy, and is going to donate to help with his care!

While the nose is much shorter and the body not so thin, this is so Chance. That look he gives is unique. If you want to learn more about Chance, check out my Dogs category, read from the bottom, looking for titles with Chance in the title.

Mighty Texas Dogwalk 2006

It's that time again - the Mighty Texas Dogwalk for 2006 is just a couple of weeks away. For those that don't know about this (which is probably most of my LabVIEW and .NET readers), the MTDW is the main fundraiser for the Texas Hearing and Service Dogs charity, which I volunteer with.

A New Chance

I realized I haven't updating my fellow dog lovers out there with the latest Chance news, so if you have an interest, read on...

Chance Update - The first walk

It's been a while since we last heard from our intrepid explorer, Chance the Sheltie, so I thought I'd share this morning's experience.

I'm back, briefly

Well, I've been out of the blogsphere for a couple of weeks, and what a crazy couple of weeks it has been! I still can't wrap my head around the disaster over in Louisiana and Mississippi.

Here in Austin we've had several refugees arriving from the affected areas - both two legged and four legged, winged, etc. In fact, the Austin Humane Society has been working with Town Lake Animal Shelter (city pound) and the Red Cross in handling the lost animals or those that came with people who can' t keep them right now.

It was a strange experience last Saturday. I teach the dog handling portion of new volunteer orientation at the AHS and this time we were a bit rushed for time. The auditorium that we hold the class in was being taken over for dozens of crates to hold the animals just arriving. As soon as we wrapped up the class I found myself helping to unload several rather upset animals from vans. What a trip they've had.

Anyway, I try to avoid writing too much on the personal experiences, so I'll wrap this one up by saying that on the home front Chance is doing well and that I'm about to fly off to Los Angeles. It time for the Microsoft Professional Developer Conference (PDC) - so hopefully I'll be finding time to post interesting news from there.

Chance and the Morning Adventure

For those of you following the adventures of our foster dog, Chance - aka Joey, this morning was a major step forward...