Pet and Companion Fair

It was a very full weekend, but we forgot the camera so that we could record what we did. Lyn used the camera on the cell phone, but we don't know how to get the pictures off of that.

At any rate, we went to the Pet and Companion Fair on Saturday and helped man the Guide Dogs for the Blind booth for the first shift (our club was responsible for doing this all day Saturday). There were 3 raisers plus dogs for each shift and Lynne our puppy group leader stayed all day. We met lots of people who wanted to meet the dogs and even met a few who were interested in puppy raising. I met a man who has a career changed dog from GDB named Avani, which came as a surprise. He was surprised to learn that the name had been recirculated. Bethany, group leader I met at the graduation ceremony a few weeks ago, stopped by with roommate Kim and told me about their new puppy, Tandy (who is adorable - at least from the picture I saw). The puppies enjoyed one another and shared toys. They met a lot of dogs and I thought they handled meeting new dogs very well. I had a good time and want to man the booth next year.

After our shift was over, Lyn and I wandered and talked to Golden Bond Rescue about fostering (huge need here) and I also met an adorable yellow lab mix at the Southwest Washington Humane Society site. I wanted to take him home - he nearly leaped into my arms - but had to remind myself I already had a puppy. I sure hope he was adopted into a good home! We talked to The Delta Society and I tried to find out how guinea pigs make good therapy animals - I still don't know but they are trainable. We saw Fly Ball demonstrations and watched shepherds being tested for herding ability. There was a pen with Australian Shepherd puppies that I kept stealing away to see - (I still miss Charlie). We also watched dogs jumping into a big pool of water to retrieve a stick - mostly labs - and we bought a Furminator for Ardella who has begun to shed a lot.

We met Keri and Ryan for dinner last night in Portland. They moved to a new apartment and Ryan's parents came down to help them move. We haven't seen them since the engagement, so it was a lot of fun to reconnect and know that we'll be family in the near future. We were going to go to the Screen Door, but since there was a 45-minute wait, we went to El Matador and ended up being very happy with the choice.

Ardella appears to be sick today. I'm putting her on water for the day and will start a bland diet of rice and boiled chicken tomorrow.

I started a toe-up sock after teaching myself how to do the magic cast-on that I wanted to learn. I bought Wendy Johnson's new book of toe-up sock patterns and printed the magic cast-on instructions off Knitty. I'll knit one sock and then I'm starting the Guided by Love sock pattern I bought this past fall. I think I can even do the beaded Braille!

I won a swirl shawl pattern at a drawing from Two Pointy Sticks blog! I'm thrilled!

It should be a quiet week. I'll post pictures if we can get them off the phone.