Watson the Graduate

November 15, 2012

Watson the Graduate

This little guy has been keeping me very busy and is one of the reasons blogging has fallen off my radar the past few months. He has been with our family for about 2 months and last week he graduated from Puppy Kindergarten - a very basic obedience class. He was the youngest pup in the class and it showed, however he did great. We all have a lot to learn, but we feel like we have a much better idea on how to raise a puppy into a well behaved dog.

I have grown to love having him at home with me. He provides me with some company and I talk to him way too much throughout my day. We take walks together while the kids are at school, which has proved to be a wonderful way to meet our neighbors.

He is still learning how to behave with the kids. He is obsessed with their chewy tubes and tries to take them from the kids constantly. He is learning to stay down and not jump up. Waverly loves him and just wishes he would stop wiggling long enough for her to pet him. He has never snapped or growled at anyone and allows Wavey to poke, pull and grab him. He knows it is all done in love.

Comments

Carolyn Z said…

I am so happy to read this blog entry! Somehow I had missed this. My sincere hope was for Watson to be your little friend, your sounding board, your cuddle buddy when times were tough. I'm glad to hear is is being good, in his own puppy way. I hope he learns to leave the chewy tubes alone and not jump up. I am so happy Watson is with your family. Love, Nonnie

January 29, 2013 at 10:39 PM

Welcome to Holland

By Emily Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland.""Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.