Our Big Day Out

The day before my seventeenth birthday, a Tuesday morning, at 10:06am, we are standing at the door of Hans’ house. Sparkie sat beside me, her ears up. This is new. Hans opens the door, smiles and says, “Right on time!” Four dogs surround him, all wagging their tails and pressing eagerly against the screen door. We head to the backyard where Sparkie gets to meet all the dogs. She quickly made friends with a nine month old Smooth Collie, called “Sunny”, and they were romping around the yard until Hans called his dogs and put them away. We chatted for a while, and then the work began. We took Hans’ car to the shops, and spent two hours exploring the town. We went into IGA and banks and a variety of different shops. Hans’ got us to cross the busy road several times, climb up and down stairs, and walk through narrow alleyways. At one point, in an alleyway, he and Mummy walk towards me as though they were about to run into us, then at the last moment break away. This was to get Sparkie used to walking in a crowd. After lunch, we went to the mall where Hans introduced us to a travelator. Sparkie freaked out, and of course so did I! She refused to go on it, even for treats. Eventually we picked Sparkie up and put her on the travelator, where she got lots of praise and treats. The next time around she only hesitated a second, before jumping right on it! We went up and down the travelators several times, until Sparkie was hopping on and off with no fear at all. Riding the travelator to the bottom and then back to the top by ourselves was one of the best moments of my life! We took the lift a few times too. We went up some more stairs, down a ramp, into another bank and a restaurant. We stood on the balcony overlooking the car park and weaved through the tables in the food court. We went to Aldi and K-mart. On the way home Sparkie fell asleep in the foot well of Hans’ car.

Coming soon, a new video of our day at the shops!

I can't see myself without you.
With you I get strength to do things I've never,
ever dreamt in a million years.
I'm unstoppable 'cause you're here with me.

- “Impossible,” by Newsboys

Upgrades

So the farm job didn’t work out so we’re still on the road. Daddy’s got a few days work painting, with one of the guys who built the bunks.

 

Sparkie’s training is going great. I’m able to take her everywhere – hardware store, library, even the supermarket! So here’s how it works: every week, our trainer Hans sends us a log detailing what we need to work on for the week. I work with Sparkie and fill out the log, and send it back at the end of the week, usually with several videos of our training. Hans reviews the log and the videos and then decides what we need to work on for the next week, and sends us another log. At some point in the next few weeks, we’ll be heading down to Melbourne, where he’s based, to have a one-on-one in person training session.

 

And as promised, the bunks. Ian and Mike arrived on Sunday morning (ten days ago) and the bunks were all in by lunchtime. Only they forgot to take into the account it was Sunday, all the shops were shut, so we had to sleep on solid wood for a night. We piled as many blankets and sleeping bags as we could for padding, but it was a miserable night of tossing and turning, and I woke up feeling almost as stiff as the board I’d slept on! So that day we went out and brought air beds, and we’re all loving our new comfy beds.

 

The van is still for sale, and a guy has said he’s going to buy it, and he was meant to be here at 6pm today but it’s 7:30pm now and there’s no sign of him. So we’ll see what happens next!

Moving Forward

So much has happened since my last post that I haven’t had time to tell you about it. And we also had computer trouble, which still isn’t quite fixed but at least our internet is back now.

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Sparkie is in training to become a service dog. Not just any service dog, my service dog. We found an organization that helps me train her myself, and when our training is complete Sparkie will be a certified service dog. We’ve come so far in our five weeks of training, but I know there’s still further to go.

We’ve gone into the shopping mall a few times, and the library, and Target, and the post office. Mostly, Sparkie’s acting like she’s been doing it all her life, and it’s easy to forget she’s still learning. Occasionally she’ll mess up, break her stay or beg attention from a stranger who stops to chat, and I’ll remember we’ve only been doing this five weeks. She’s enjoying all the time she gets to spend with me and I’m finding her more and more responsive to my commands.

As you read this, I can just hear you thinking, why does she need a service dog? I have some issues that interfere with my life, and as a service dog, Sparkie will help me cope with them. For now, that’s all you need to know.

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Our ultimate plan has always been to travel over the winter and work over the summer, but for the past five years we haven’t managed to get a job at the right time. This summer we decided to try again. It took several weeks, but Daddy’s finally got an interview to go to on Monday. Fingers crossed it goes well and we get to spend the summer working on a dairy farm!

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We’ve been staying at a showground for the last few weeks, and slowly people have got to know us and now they keep bringing us food – last night we were given hotdog rolls and sausages! And one guy, a semi-retired builder, had heard about us from someone else, and he’s lending a hand to build our bunks. Not only is he putting the bunks together, but he’s also paying for all the timber!

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And so the first week of November ends and my 17th birthday is in eighteen days, and Christmas is four weeks after that, and then it’s the end of 2013. It feels like just the other day we were in Ariah Park, NSW, and I was recovering from some bug than kept me in bed the last three days of 2012 and the first four days of 2013. It’s been a busy year, but it seems to have been very short.

 

In the next post – the outcome of Daddy’s interview, how Sparkie’s service dog training works, and how the bunks look!