Wow, Zane, great comeback, dude!

Yes, I'm so proud of my brother-in-law, Zane! Gary & the Johnpeer gang have been working with him to becaome a therapy dog. I think he was getting tired of being a guard dog on the beaches of southern California!

Congratulations, dude! You are so handsome. Could we be "kissing cousins?"

Here is the letter that Gary sent us regarding his graduation as a therapy dog:

"I would like to congratulate you and your Pet Partner for passing the Delta Society evaluation. It is wonderful to see a handler and their dog really working well together as a team. You were both obviously responsive to each other's cues. I've attached a list of facilities that the Animal Health Foundation has volunteers visiting or have expressed an interest in having volunteers visit.

You will receive an email from Delta Society with your registration number in a couple of weeks. I would appreciate your emailing me a copy of it for my records. I will then send you a vest for your Pet Partner and you can conduct visits. Your Delta Society ID card and tags will be sent directly to you a few weeks later.

Please email me a picture (jpeg) and a paragraph or two about your Pet Partner for his business cards. The front of the card will have your Pet Partner's picture - the back of the card has Breed and a short paragraph (baseball trading card size) about your dog - such as his favorite thing to do or some people have a motto. When I receive your Pet Partner's information, I can get started on having cards made so they will be ready when he gets his ID, etc.

Thanks so much for choosing our organization to become a part of - if you ever have questions or would like to tag along with another team, I also can mentor teams when visiting a new facility - please let me know.

Thanks for bringing smiles to many people.

Jan Vincent, CPDT
Pet Partner Team Coordinator
Animal Health Foundation
Delta Society Evaluator
AKC CGC Evaluator 714.710.9114

Isn't that impressive? Good job, Zane. Dad and I are very proud of you! You are still the Zane Train, maybe now the Zane Therapy Train!

Lots of licks and love, Miss Parka

Texas Trip yee hah!

Howdy yall,

Well, I kept hearing that a lot so I'm telling ya'll the same thing! That means hello to you non-Texans.

Dad has been so busy, he has not had time to open the Zane Train blog so I can bring everyone up to date on my latest travels. On Thursday, June 11, we flew to Dallas with an unplanned layover in Amarillo. There were lots of thunder storms in Dallas. After a couple of hours that seemed like a day in the small Amarillo airport, we made it safely to Love Field.

We met up with one of our key chapter leaders, James Jennings, and I stayed at his house, while Aaron, Dad and James played 9 holes of golf. Dad said that he played very well and in fact, really like the #4 hybrid that he borrowed from James. (We just bought him one yesterday for Father's Day!)

Dad had a Friday morning conference call with Walmart and then we had lunch with a guy named Tom. Then Aaron and Dad left me at the hotel while they played some golf again. That evening we got to go to Aaron's new home and I got to play with Maya for a while. She's a nice Rottweiler!

We had a DFW Chapter meeting and VisionWalk celebration for the over $131,000 they raised at their May 16 walk. Aaron passed out the Flying Horse awards that Dad dreamed up. See Biscuit went to the top team and Eye O'Silver to the 2nd place team.

We flew to San Antonio in the afternoon and then had dinner in our Holiday Inn hotel room and Dad crashed pretty early from being so tired. Little did he know that I was snoring long before he was. It was almost 100 degrees in the Alamo city!

On Sunday afternoon, we went to Stone Oak Hospital where Aaron and Dad held the San Antonio/Austin chapter meeting and VisionWalk celebration for their great Walk on March 14 where they raised over $120,000! Aaron passed out the Flying Cow awards to the top fund raising teams, El Seemore and Moo Pigmentosa and Seymour Clearlee.

We went to the River Walk that evening for dinner on the river. Aaron and Dad were scooping up lots of chips and salsa and whenever Dad dropped a chip, I scooped it up! I did a great job of keeping Dad out of the river and showed him all the funky steps back to the car.

Dad said that I did extremely well on this trip and gives me an overall grade of A-. He also feels that I am 90% working together as a team. My only issue to be resolved is my desire to "dive" for food while walking through a restaurant. But those scraps are so tempting!

But I'm so cute, you just have to love me, right?

Love, Parka

Happy Dad's Day!

To all Dad's from their pups!

Good morning and Happy Father's Day!

Cuzzie just had a bath and isn't she cute?

Dad just gave me a nice grooming, aren't I HOT?

And Dad, doesn't he looked relaxed?

Breakfast brunch on the veranda...ah the good life.

I'm so happy here in Denver with my Dad, Richard. He takes such good care of me. I count on him to feed me 4 times a day. Can you believe that?

Yes, you know, I like to EAT. So Dad feeds me when we get up. I kind of help that process along by trying to wake Dad up usually starting about 4:00 AM, and then reminding him about every 30 minutes. Dad keeps telling me to REST, but I'm REST-less. I'm hungry! Dad finally gets up at 5:30 AM or so and feeds me soon after he takes his shower and gets dressed.

Then Dad feeds me again around 7:00-7:30 AM the balance of my one cup of food. He then feeds me again around 1:00 - 2:00 PM and finally the balance of my second cup around 5:00 PM. I just love him. He is thinking about my needs, which is LOTS of food.

Dad grooms me every week and takes really good care of me. We went to the Vet the other day just so he could check on my "girlish figure." I weighed in at 53 pounds, so he's keeping me lean and mean. I wish that he would fatten me up a little, don't you?

It was quite a honor yesterday as Mom, Dad and I did some shopping for Dad's new golf club, I heard them say a 4 Hybrid club. Dad also asked the sales person if they had a GPS system that would find lost golf balls. I guess that means he hits a lot of them into the woods and areas off the course. I wish he would take me so I could locate the balls for him.

Dad took us on a mountain hike a couple weeks ago and we had a great time! There were 3 other guide dogs there too and of course, I was doing the best job. I know because they did not worry about how we were doing. Dad and I were just trekking along. We hiked about five miles and I know Dad and I were pooped after those hikes.

I want to wish Dad's everywhere a very happy day or rest and relaxation and be thankful to your partner for all that HE does to make your life a wonderful one. HE knows how much we mean to him.

I know that Zane made Dad very happy and I know that Zane loved Dad and Dad loved him. I've seen him cry several times when just recalling their good old days. Zane, in fact, has become a therapy dog and I'll have to tell you more about that later

Dad, I wish you a wonderful Father's Day and thanks again for taking such good care of me as I take good care of you.

Love, Miss Parka