Boo's Home Experience

        I've taken Boo home a couple of times and she will be going home with me again over spring break. She is a little goofball when it comes to making the two-hour trek home. When driving back, she likes to sit in the front seat. My sister sometimes has to be in the car with us and usually when Boo sees this happening, she wants to sit up front too. Her and my sister sitting in the front seat together doesn't work too well because Boo doesn't want to sit still. When she's by herself in the front seat she does good for about an hour and a half into the drive. On that last half hour of getting home, she gets ants in her pants and tries to go from the front seat to the back seat and back to the front. This process is repeated until getting home.

        Boo knows the exact moment when we get into our driveway. She gets all excited and wags her tail. She's pretty impatient with me when I try to get out of the car because she will climb into my seat with me still in it and climb out the door. She doesn't like the thought of me getting out of the car before her. My family has been there to greet us every time that we get home so she's pretty excited about seeing them. She gets all happy and when she gets in the house she does a mad dash around our first floor scaring all the cats in her way. 

        I have six cats and Boo thinks they are her best friends while being home. She goes up the them and sniffs them whether they like it or not. Her favorite thing in the world is to stand over our one little cat and stare at her. She will almost stand completely on top of this cat and the cat usually has no idea what to do. Boo also likes to chase the cats around the house because she knows they can't do anything about it. She has gotten swatted in the face by the cats and nothing has fazed her. She still keeps going. 

        While at home we still have to go on socializations. The places we typically go are to Wal-Mart, Pet Supplies Plus, and Giant Eagle. While at these places, people stare at us more than when we are at school. It can be pretty creepy some times. They just stare, but I have to tell myself that they are staring at Boo and not at me.

        Boo loves being home because she doesn't have to do too much while being there. She can take naps all day, terrorize the cats, eat all the crumbs off the floor, and play with her toys. She has little to no responsibilities while being home. She's going to love being home for another week with me. Life is great for Boo.

              

 

Meet the Polar Paws Pups!

This week I'm going to introduce all the Polar Paws puppies! I realized that you all might not know who I am talking about during some of my blog posts, so we're going to do a little introduction of them all.

We're first going to start with my darling Boo. She is nine months old and she is a golden lab. She is from the Monsters Inc. litter. Her parents are Jarka and Nome. Fun fact, the previous dog I fostered is Boo's full sister! Boo is playful, mischievous and, extremely smart. She is handled by yours truly, Ashley, and Megan. When she isn't getting into trouble, she is usually found sleeping or playing with her toys.

Jammie is next on our list. She is ten months old and she is a golden doodle. She is from the Cookie litter and so is her sister Lornadoone. Jammie is playful, brilliant and, extremely lovable. She is handled by Kenzie, Bryant, and Mrs. Zembower. She is usually found playing with her toys or sleeping.

Lornadoone is Jammie's sister in the Cookie litter. She is a sweetheart, smart and, cute little ten-month-old golden doodle. Lorna is typically found playing with her sister or her fosters, Charis, Paula, and Ellie.

Boulder is a nine-month-old golden lab. He is a very laid back, lovable goofball. He comes from the Mother's Day litter. He used to have his brother on campus but, Inspire had to go back for more training. When Boulder isn't found smooching on Boo, he's usually playing with his handlers, Cheyenne, Luke, and Melissa.

Stripe is a playful, lovable and, very intelligent four-month-old golden lab puppy. He comes from the One-America litter along with his Brother Eagle! When he is done playing he is usually found sleeping. His handlers are Allison, Kerrigan, and Taylor.

Eagle is a four-month-old golden lab puppy. He is very playful, happy, and a little darling. He comes from the One-America litter along with his brother Stripe. Eagle is usually out and about having fun and enjoying life with his handler, Katy.

Monk is a twelve-week-old golden doodle puppy. He is a little, tiny puffball. He is very snuggly and very cute. Monk is usually sleeping and snuggling with his fosters, Ally and Jacob.

Boy Gregory is a ten-month-old golden doodle. Greg is very cuddly, cute and, playful. He comes from the Prince litter. When he isn't cuddling, he's typically found playing with his handlers, Joe, Hanna and, Whitney.

Saber is an adorable four-month-old sweetheart. She is a snuggly and adorable golden lab from the Video Games litter. She's usually found snuggling and chewing on her toys. Her handlers are Cameron, Lizzie and, Richie.

I hope you now know a little bit more about our precious little Polar Paws puppies!

Boo's Snow and Mud Days

The most recent discovery that my co-handlers and I have found has been that Boo absolutely loves snow. She loves to play and smash herself into it. Her most favorite way of playing in the snow is to place her face as far down as it can into the snow, keep her bottom up in the air, tuck her front legs under her and, plow her face through the snow. Anytime she and I have walked somewhere and there is snow on the ground, she is clearing a path. My co-handlers and I enjoy throwing snowballs at her and watching her catch them.

As you can see in the picture, she also loves to lay in it even if we have somewhere to be or something to do. It is very cute to watch her play around and enjoy herself. Boo is such a little goofball and she loves being in the snow as much as she loves being in the mud. On a bit of a side note, on Saturday, she had another fun day playing in the mud with her buddies when she realized that the snow was no longer on the ground.

As you can see, Boo happily played in the mud again. She looked so proud of herself for getting really muddy again. Below are the final photos of Boo and the aftermath of her bath. She was so upset about being cleaned that she cuddled into her towel and fell asleep.

                        

Boo is always so happy and carefree and, if she could talk, she would probably look at me and say "mom, hakuna matata."

Boo's Amateur Modeling Career

As you all might be able to tell, I am a little obsessed when it comes to taking photos of Boo. I love photography and Boo usually happens to be the subject of about 68 percent of my photos and the other 32 percent being my cats. Like look at how good of a model Boo can be...

Taking photos of her can be frustrating some times, but most of the time, I can get some really nice ones of her. For example, this picture.

It took me many attempts to try and get it. She didn't want to sit still long enough for me to get a good focus on her. I was sitting in the same spot for about 10 minutes to try to get her to let me get the photo. But I feel as though it came out pretty nice along with these pictures too.

I love taking photographs of Boo. Some days she is a great subject; she would sit still, let me take a bunch of photos of her, get her treat, take more photos, and be perfectly content with them. Other days, it takes us 10 minutes to get a good shot. In my opinion, she is an amateur-modeling career on her paws if she could sit still long enough for the shot to be taken. 

#4Paws4Dylan

Social media is used for many different things. It can be used for promotions, to sell things, to view things and, to support people. 4Paws for Ability helps children and veterans get service dogs to help them. They use social media to reach out to everyone and they use it to get in touch with all of their fosters and families. This past week I was able to see an incredible way that social media was used to support someone.

Our coordinator, Jacob Dingess, had gotten a message asking for some help. A boy named Dylan, who has a 4Paws puppy, was getting VNS surgery Wednesday.

 A Vagus Nerve Stimulator (VNS) is a device used to treat seizures when seizure drugs are not effective and surgery is not possible. VNS consists of a pacemaker-like generator that is implanted in the chest wall and is programmed by the physician to stimulate the vagus nerve in the neck. The message had asked us to send pictures of our puppies with the hashtag #4Paws4Dylan and a little "good luck in surgery message" through Facebook to show our support for Dylan. Here are some of the messages sent.

There were so many photos to help support Dylan and his family. Boo and I came a little late when it came to sending a picture, but I made sure her support was shown to him.

It's amazing to see what social media can do for people and the reach that it has. It truly is a wonderful thing to see the amount of support that can be brought together through social media. I hope Dylan is doing well and loved the photos and support he has gotten through this organization.