Please keep Tiffany in your prayers

(Another new post is below this)


I wanted to let everyone out there know about my lovely Golden Girl, but not the one most of you are familiar with. Most of you know about my girl, Nuri, but she is not who I am talking about

Pup #3 is Tiffany III and she has always held the biggest part of my heart out of all the pups that I have raised. She is the one that I hoped failed the program and I could get her back. I was beyond thrilled, however, when she was paired up with James III and the two of them began their incredible journey together. With Tiffany, James is a whole new teenager and is living a life that has small signs of autism still remaining.

We received an email from Tiffany yesterday telling us that Tiff suffered a stroke the other day. Her family noticed that she was drooling a lot and her jaw was hanging open more than usual. She was taken to see the Vet and saw a Neurologist. They are not positive as to what caused the stroke to occur, she's only 5 years old. They think that it could possibly be an infection that did it (that's what they hope) but it could possibly be something as serious as a brain tumor.

Tiffany has to go through Physical Therapy and do jaw exercises to strengthen her jaw again. She says that it hurts to lick and she can't even do that right now. She can stick her tongue out a little bit, but that is all. I know how much she loves to give James kisses every day. James is still taking care of Tiffany by brushing her teeth and grooming her every day. The two of them have a very special bond and I know that Tiffany is trying to get better fast so that she can get back to work.

Tiffany is restricted to little work right now and will hopefully be back to work within a months time. LA, Tiffany's trainer and NER's graduate Coordinator, says that once Tiff gets her jaw strength back, it's time to go back to work!

We are all praying for a speedy recovery and to many more working years for Tiffany and for James and Tiffany to be together for a long time. My little Golden Girl thanks everyone!!

Puppy Class

Last night the NJ-Chapter had their monthly puppy class. We had a huge turnout this time!! It was a Halloween themed night and we had fun playing games and the dogs played dress-up! We wanted to see how the dogs reacted to having costumes on their bodies and dealing with things on their heads. It was hilarious!Service Dog Tomba and pup Onora representing "Jack" and "O'Lantern"!


Little Miss Devil Mina

Cool guy Feeney

Suave Zack

Horse-like Story

It was a fun time seeing the pups all dressed up. We also had someone put on a dog costume that had a huge head and had the pups greet this person. It's similar to one of the temperament tests that the pups will encounter upon turn-in. We also played a little bit of Limbo, having the dogs go either over or under a bar.

We also pretended to "trick-or-treat" with bags of delicious smelling chocolate candies! The dogs did great and none really seemed concerned about the bags being shaken around them. Good dogs!!

We also sometimes have a Q&A session near the end of the class to discuss problems we are having with training the pups. Everyone offers advice and it's a great way to share ideas and get some guidance from other PRs.

the secret is out...

I was going to keep it a secret for a bit longer, but I goofed and posted a message on the CCI Yahoo! Groups with information about....you guessed it! My new puppy!!

So meet............

Bright II
Thanks to Bright's BC Rachel for the pictures!!

I will be picking up Bright on Nov. 14th when I turn-in Nuri. I would take her earlier, but Nuri is still a bit of a handful and another pup would be too much for me to take care of at one time! I'm very excited about a new puppy, but it's bittersweet since I have to let Nuri go off to college.

Bright is also a pup that is involved in CCI's fecal sample study. I'm not positive on all the details, but there are a lot of things that have to be done (collecting fecal samples, getting vaccines, collecting a serum) and they have to be done on certain dates as well. It's interesting and Bright will have about a month and a half left of the study by the time that I get her. Well, I was hoping for a new challenge and it looks like I will be getting one!

Cole & Ilia Video - Tissue Alert!!

Many people ask why I do it. How can I give up that cute puppy? This is why. This is the reason I can let my heart break every 14-16 months when I turn-in a puppy. This is why I will continue to be a Puppy Raiser and help create miracles.

W Litter Update!!

So before I had written that a lot of Wilara's litter mates have graduated. Well here's another! Congratulations to Whisper II and her PRs as she graduated yesterday as a Side Placement Service Dog!!

So here are the graduates from her litter:
Weston - Skilled Companion
Walker IV - Skilled Companion
Wessex II- Successor Service Dog
Wyatt - Successor Service Dog
Wexler - Service Dog
Whisper II - Service Dog

Incredible is all I have to say. I can't remember if Whitley graduated or not, but still. It's just great to see so many of her littermates graduate. I know that all of Baumann's puppies have a higher rate of graduating since he is such an amazing dog.

So again, congratulations to all the graduates and their new partners. Congratulations as well to the PRs that raised these amazing dogs. Wilara was a joy to raise and she is a joy to have at home with me now.

Good luck to everyone!!!

Chapter Meeting

So on Tuesday night we had our monthly Chapter meeting. We were meeting at Kessler Rehab as usual and it was a pretty big turnout! We were lucky to have Katrina, our PPM, there at the meeting offering to work with some of us PRs on commands and behaviors. She was there at 5 and we had to make appointments with her to get some help. It looked like a great training session!

We were also joined by NER's Develpment Director, Debbie, and our new Volunteer Coordinator, Tracy. Debbie met with my mom and me before the meeting to go over some things and talk a bit about a few ideas that we had. All went well and I'm working hard on some window decals! YAY!

The meeting was very informative as usual which was great. We began to discuss our bi-annual fundraiser, Wine & Noses and it seems to be getting off the ground. The new task is to find sponsors which is always a big task. I might have to hit up RBVH (Red Bank Veterinary Hospital) where I work for a sponsorship. I know that they do a lot of work with The Seeing-Eye and I'm hoping that they will help out another branch of working dogs. They also do a lot with Police Dogs which I am always seeing in the waiting room! I know that a lot of CCI dogs come through the hospital so I might have to appeal to that. I have seen working dogs come through and I know that a few PRs use RBVH as well.

There was also two little pups in attendance! Katrina's new pup that she is raising, Angus, was there and is an adorable little Border Collie. He's a special dog being raised for a National Board Member which is so cool. The other pup is Onora (Omeeka x Zorba) who is an 11-weekold Golden. She was being given to Team Tomba to raise! So Abbey has a new pup now that Harlin has been released. I'm so happy for her! And Onora is absolutely adorable. She's actually Nuri's cousin if you look through her bloodlines. OMSI III and Omeeka are siblings and therefore Onora and Nuri are cousins. Hahahahaha. I love it! Anyways, here are some pictures that I took of Onora:
She's got that Blaze "splat" or "frog" position that just seems to be genetic for all puppies of his! She is so cute and it will be fun to watch her grow up! She just stretched out and promptly fell asleep. We were all laughing!

Turn-In Paperwork

As many PRs can tell you, probably the most draining part of puppy raising is filling out all the turn-in paperwork!! At CCI they have us fill out a repeat puppy raiser application in addition to all the standard forms. The repeat application is about three pages long and I never look forward to filling it out! I should just submit the last application.....who knows? Might be easier that way!!

They also look for pictures for the slideshow that they will be showing at the graduation/matriculation ceremony. I have been combing through all the pictures that I have of Nuri and trying to come up with the best ones to send in. There are so many!!! It's hard to pick just a few! So.....here are the ones that I have chosen to send in, and then I have to get another picture of me and Nuri as well.
I always send in at least 8 pictures so that they have a few to choose from. Plus there are too many great ones to narrow it down!

It's amazing how fast this past year has gone by. I can't believe that it's already time to give Nuri back to CCI. It gets harder each and every time I have to give one of my fluffballs back to CCI, but it's worth all the hard work and sometimes frustration. With Nuri it's been an interesting adventure and a wild ride! She has taught me so much over the last few months and for that I am grateful.

Event at Kessler Rehabilitation Center

So today Nuri, my mother, and I went to West Orange to Kessler Rehab for their 2nd Annual Adapted Recreation Expo. We got a message from NER's applicant coordinator, Jess, and we packed up everything and off we went! We knew that the event was being held, but NER did not ask anyone from the NJ Chapter to be there since it was going to be such a small event that it didn't seem to be needed. Jess, however, called us in at the last minute to give the event a bit of a boost. It seemed that everyone at Kessler was wondering where the dogs were! So Jess decided to go through her phonebook and give us a call.

We showed up and we had fun meeting people and Nuri was given an opportunity to work around many different kinds of wheelchairs. She was the center of attention and loved it!There was a table there for a local therapeutic riding school and with them they brought a large stuffed horse. Nuri has been around horses before, but from a distance watching as they circle around at street fairs offering pony rides. This stuffed horse was kept in their barn so it smelled like a real horse which was a good thing for Nuri to experience! She enjoyed it.There was also a table that had one of those electronic dogs. It was little and Nuri was completely fascinated with it! It was hilarious! She played with it and had a blast.I took some videos of Nuri with the electronic dog. She was having a fun time with it and it was a good thing for her to be exposed to. So here are two videos I took today.

Please VOTE again for CCI!

CCI has entered a contest to win $10,000 in a donation from The Christie Cookie Company. Just go to http://www.ilovechristiecookies.com/contest/ and CCI is already listed. Just scroll down to the C's and they are listed under Canine Companions for Independence Santa Rosa, CA.

Thanks everyone in advance!! Every little bit helps make someone's life that much easier and they can live more independently because of it.

To all the Puppy Raisers out there across the country (for this organization and every other one) you and I are doing an amazing, selfless, thing and you should be proud of yourself!!

San Francisco 49ers and CCI 2010 Calendar Release Party

The other night CCI and 49ers players got together for the launch of the new 16-month 2009-2010 calendar! It's filled with pictures of the players with the pups and graduate working dogs. It's great! They can be ordered here and click here for a video of the release party! It seemed that everyone had a great time and it looked like a good experience for the pups as well. They had fun playing with the mascot!

Also, Trixie Koontz, world famous CCI retired Service Dog, has a new calendar out as well.
It can be ordered at your usual book stores or you can go to Dean Koontz's actual website and buy it there which is probably the better idea! I'm not sure if proceeds from these sales benefit CCI, but I wouldn't be surprised. We all love the Koontz family for their donations and love for our wonderful organization!