Christmas This Year

We finally got to move to the house on the farm, and we have friends staying with us for Christmas. The pile of presents under the tree is amazing!

 

As always the year seems to have flown by. We started 2014 in Benalla, VIC, struggling through weeks of over 40 degree heat. We went as far north/west as Mount Isa, and followed the east coast down to Colac, VIC.

 

It’s been another year full of ups and downs, good days and bad days, decisions, regrets, achievements, and family. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

 

“They said it's complicated
They said we'd never make it this far
But we are.” - Who We Are by Switchfoot

Crazy People

It’s been an interesting five weeks since my last post here. We got an interview for a job on a dairy farm, and surprise! We got it. The job was meant to be milking every weekend – Friday night, all Saturday and all Sunday. There were three other people on the farm – a couple and a single mum with two young boys.

For some reason the other workers hated us. They kept pushing down our hours, until we weren’t dong any work at all. The boss quickly gave us some maintenance work to do and put us on a good wage. Meanwhile the couple were verbally abusing him over the phone and in person, and badmouthing us to him.

The boss has a heart thing and isn’t doing so good, and all the stress was bad for him. So while we laid low he rounded up a couple of other guys, including two police officers for safety, and gave the couple their notice. Daddy’s taken over the milkings now, and hopefully we’ll get to move up to farm soon.

Meanwhile, the boss has given us the use of his ute and we are parked up at a place with space to run the dogs. We’ve even got out our agility gear again.

While all this was going on, I was trying to get Sparkie’s service dog ID. First it ended up at the wrong address, and then it got lost on the way to me. So we had to contact our trainer again and he organised another one to be sent. With our luck, at that time the only two people who could authorize it were on leave for the rest of the week. Finally, on November 17 our trainer received our ID and sent it via Express Post to me – which meant I picked it up from the post office today. We also have the videos from our Public Access Test, so hopefully at some point I’ll be able to put some of them up.

Aside from our new ID and badge, Sparkie also now has a pair of dog shoes to protect her feet from hot ground during the summer, a professional looking harness on the way, and some more patches to go on it.

Success!

On Wednesday, 8 October 2014, Mummy, Sparkie, and me went from Geelong to Burwood to meet our trainer. We rode four different trains on the way there, and one of our swapping stations was the busiest one in Melbourne (Flinders St Station). Sparkie easily passed her Public Access Test, and we rode three trains home. We were out for 12 hours and by the time we arrived home we were all exhausted.

 

We haven’t received the videos from the day yet, so here is some photos of us waiting for a train, and one of us on the train.

 

So now Sparkie is fully certified! We are still waiting on our ID card and some other bits and pieces, but we have Sparkie’s new coat.

We Are Unstoppable

On Monday we went to Melbourne’s CBD by train. It was Sparkie’s first train ride and she was such a good little girl!

The following is copied (only slightly edited) from my diary, so forgive the rambling!

“Up at 6:30am, on the road at 7:30. Made it to the train station on time, caught the 9:02 train. Sparkie jumped on like a pro, slept under my seat the whole hour and a half to Melbourne. The CBD is incredible. So many massively tall office buildings. And the people! So many people. First we went to the toilets, and then we had trouble finding any grass for Sparkie to pee on, finally found a gravel patch with some plants poking out and let her use that. The place we were going was on the tenth floor of a VERY flash building, revolving door, heaps of people in each lift. Sparkie handled it all perfectly. She had a bit of a goofy moment at one point, rolling around the floor. And then she fell asleep again. She woke up when my anxiety levels started to rise – she sat up and started nudging me and licking me. Love my little dog! When the session was over I took Sparkie to look out the window, she was fascinated by the tiny people way down there! We rode the lift back down, another eight strangers crowding in, and then outside. Back to the plants. And then back to the toilets at the train station. Went upstairs for a sandwich and a bottle of water, and downstairs to eat it. Sparkie's heelwork was amazing. I gave her a little drink using the empty plastic sandwich packet as a bowl, and also a tiny bit of crust. Before we went back on the train, we gave her another chance to pee but she didn't want to go. Then toilet for us and back on the train. Sparkie stayed awake for a while but eventually fell asleep. When we got back to Seymour I took Sparkie's coat off so she could sniff and be goofy while we waited for the other guys to pick us up. Took nearly an hour because Jessica had turned her phone's volume right down!”

Some short videos:

Sparkie riding on the train. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phaNJbJVD_U

And this is us crossing a road in the CBD on the way back to the station. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4a9sQTYSH8

 

On Friday we’re off for our Public Access Test, Sparkie’s final assessment to see if she’s ready to graduate from “in training” status.

(resting on her mat during a lunch break at Southern Cross Station before we caught the train home)

We are unstoppable
That's who we are, that's who we are
For the impossible
That's who we are, that's who we are

– Unstoppable, TobyMac

Hiatus

I’ve been neglecting this blog again. So many things have been happening. This post doesn’t mention them all.

 

On August 25, we decided to cancel the Superdog shows we had remaining for the rest of the year. Shortly after that we were all sick with the flu, and then we found another diesel leak! We got it fixed, but now the bus has developed a new rattle, which seems to be in the engine.

 

With the pressure off, life seems easier. Mostly. It’s giving me a chance to focus on Sparkie’s service dog training, and we’re on our way to Melbourne for our certification on October 3. Which puts more pressure on me. But whatever.

 

Will we ever do more Superdog shows? I hope so. We might do some small events next winter. I want to keep the places we perform at small and our performances low cost so there’s less pressure to perform perfectly. For now, we’re on hiatus.

 

And here’s a bunch of photos.

Days In The Sun

So many things have been happening lately that I’ve come to the decision that I’m not going to get a special post for Auntie Beth’s visit. While she was staying with us we camped at the Maleny Showgrounds, which is beautiful. The day before she left we spent on Bribie Island. We went for a walk beside the beach and ate ice cream.

We have done some renovations to the bus this month – big ones like shifting bunks and seats. We’ve also cleaned out a lot of stuff we didn’t really need and done heaps of trips to the rubbish dump and to storage.

 

On Tuesday we went to Maroochydore, another beach, yay!

Today we’re doing more bus renovations, shifting one bunk forward to make room for a cupboard. Next up is making space for a bathroom! And we are done to just one computer again. Also, it has rained all day so far today.

 

Next post: Sparkie’s new lead and general training updates, and maybe more bus renovations.