February 5th … until March 5th – wow how time flies! And I still miss you My Little Man!
It has been difficult – a month fraught with sadness, anger, guilt, loss – new hope, good days, fun memories & gratuity.
In the grand scheme – things are good. Days at the shelter have been fun and engaging. Play is very much back at center stage. I drifted away from that for a while and I am not sure why. Smoke put me in check: “play Mamma, you gotta pplllaaayy!”
My friend Judy and I are the process of developing an obedience class for the many people that have requested that service from me. We have done some soft runs with willing friends and the feedback has been extremely positive and encouraging. My focus is to help dog owners to develop and maintain a relationship with their dog that is based in rules & boundaries, but doused with tons-a-fun! Classes will start right after tax deadline and run one month: 2 classes a week. We shall post schedules and times in the next few weeks. Please let Judy or I know if you have any interest. A perk for the shelter, is that we will keep two slots open for volunteers to bring shelter dogs gratis! I need to get moving on the marketing for this class!
The Pit Stop is moving along – we are in the process of welding the permanent kennels together – actually, Mitch is welding and I am typing. That pesky “we”. In the Pit Pen (the play yard), I am cultivating patches of grass that are interspersed throughout the wood chips, which in my mind, adds to the comfort and beautification factor – a dog pen does not have to look like one. Oh yeah, I am going to sow some spring wildflowers around the perimeter of the outside of the building, which will soften the use of chips and gravel as general landscaping material. The insulation, sheet rocking, painting and general cleanup…and yes, the signs still need to go up. Building The Pit Stop has been a labour of love and I cannot wait to see it start wrapping up, so that I might invite people down to see it.
So Smoke, things are happening. Your legacy lives on. Every day there is a comment about something that you showed or taught me or someone else. You have been a treasure in my life! I found a little girl that looks just like you and I have put out some feelers and am waiting to hear back. You can go and see her at: http://www.rocketdogrescue.org/happy/ What ya think?