Saturday, April 5, 2014

Or maybe I talk too much

Baraga
January 31, 2014

Do you think it is something about my voice? Or is it that I just bond well with the puppies I raise? LD Dutch's reaction to my voice when we visited him and his new handler at Leader Dogs for the Blind last week reminded me of FLD Bear's reaction during this visit back to Baraga. Bear had lived with me for a mere 10 days before Tammy and I delivered him and FLD Axel to the inmate raisers at the Baraga Correctional Facility on January 9. 

FLD Bear was lying on his mat with his raisers on the far side of the chow hall in Unit 8 when we arrived for FLD Copo's handoff. Bear heard my voice, his raisers told me, and he jumped up to look for me.

A small black lab is standing on a grey rug on a tile floor, looking intently at the camera. He is wearing a blue bandana with a white triangle with red letters that say Future Leader Dog and a black paw print. Two men are with the pup. One is on the left side and he is lying on his side, propped up on his left elbow. He is wearing blue pants and shirt and a blue jacket. He is holding a brown leash in his left hand and is reaching toward the puppy with his right hand. He is looking at the puppy and smiling. The other man is kneeling behind the puppy on the right and is holding the puppy's back haunches with his hands. He is wearing the blue prison pants and shirt iwth an orange stripe on the sholders. He is looking at the camera and smiling.
"He recognizes your voice," one says. The other adds, "I think he remembers you." Indeed, I think he does!

I didn't want to distract FLD Bear too much, so instead of getting down on the floor with him like I wanted to, I meandered to the other side of the room, chatting with inmates on my way to see how FLD Axel and his team were doing..at much the same speed as this run-on sentence!

A young yellow lab puppy is halfway lying on a green dog bed. The pup is wearing a blue bandaa, with the same patch and his name "Axel" embroidered on it with a peace sign. The pup is looking up at someone out of view to the right of hte picture. His leash is extented off camera to the left.A pair of feet wearing white shoes are in the background.
FLD Axel looks up to his raiser.

Eventually I made my way over to FLD Axel. Tammy was busy filling out the puppy-raiser contract with Copo's raisers and reviewing the paperwork that outlines raiser responsibilities.

I had time to chat...

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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousApril 6, 2014 at 3:13 PM

    I'm not sure if I like the expressions in the pictures, or the commentary more. Maybe it's the way they complete each other. Your posts make me feel better, and I'm not even an animal person.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. pattibApril 6, 2014 at 4:28 PM

      Wow, anonymous! That is a super compliment! Thanks for reading, even if you aren't an "animal person." :)

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