Jellystone Park & the Teetons!

Howdy everybody,

Can you believe it? Dad and Mom finally took a vacation and took me along. I have to admit that I did a LOT of laying on the back floorboard, but they were kind to me. They gave me two pillows. One for my body to lay on and another one over the hump, kind of folded up where I could lay my head on it and get lots of scritches from Mom & Dad along the way. I was actually pretty comfortable!

We left on July 1st for Casper, WY, to spend the night in a cute bed and breakfast which was actually in a converted apartment in the basement of this cottage. I had a BIG kitchen to eat my food in and Mom took me on walks while Dad was soaking in the HOT tub. There was another dog there, but I kind of intimidated him so he stayed away from me.

We went to dinner with some friends to the Casper Petroleum Club and it was really swanky. The food was delicious...don't tell anyone that I scooped up some crumbs that hit the floor.

The next morning, we drove up the Wind River Canyon to Cody and then over to Jellystone Park. I heard Dad say that this place has two million acres. Thankfully we did not walk them all. We saw lots of canyons, hot springs, geysers. This picture at Old Faithful from the Lodge 2nd floor observation deck. Cool!

We stayed in a condo in West Yellowwstone, which gave me plenty of room to play tug with Dad with my Kong and Ring. I love that Dad likes to play tug and keeps telling me "he's gonna get my Kong or my Ring." I love it when he chases me, too!

Mom and Dad had their 9th anniversary lunch at the Old Faithful Lodge while I took a nap. There was a big rain storm that night, but we were safe inside the condo with the windows rattling. Dad said they had four TV channels to start with, but after the storm blew out the Idaho Falls feed, we were down to one channel. That meant more play time with me, I loved it!

On July 4th, we drove south past the Teeton Mountains. I know I spelled it wrong, but I got to tee-tee at the base of them! They were pretty awesome to behold. We drove along the upper Wind River and Shoshone River to Lander in central WY. They were all booked up with no place to stay, so we headed for Rawlins and ended up in Rock Springs for the night.

I got to see all sorts of fireworks that night. People got out of their cars and were shooting off fireworks all around us. Then the big show started at the Rock Springs fairgrounds and it was beautiful. Mom took lots of pictures with her new camera.

We got back to Denver in the afternoon and I was pooped. I just found my rug and pillow and took a long nap. Then it was time to play again!

What a great trip! Dad and Mom really needed the rest! (Mom didn't really get much - she drove 1628 miles in five days!)

Happy summer to everyone. Hope ya'll have great vacations and rest.

Lots of licks and tummy rubs!

Miss Parka

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