I let Tucker off his leash in the van so he could move between the seats without getting stuck, and I'm pretty sure that meant he slept on everyone's feet at least once. At one point, while we were discussing when the next stop might be, I said something about needing it to be around 5 so I could feed Tuck. One of the girls asked if he would really know what time it was. I laughed. Sure enough, at 5:00 on the dot, Tucker came crawling under the bench seats to the front of the van and sat straight up beside me. The internal clock of a hungry dog is quite amazing. ;)
I served as a student representative for the SRHC (Southern Regional Honors Council) this past year, so Tucker and I had several meetings to attend during the weekend. He did wonderfully at each of these, and during the presentations. Despite the fact that I announced at the meeting last year in Little Rock that I would be training a Leader Dog for the Blind and the fact that his jacket says "puppy being raised for..." I was still asked by one of the professors on the council if I could see... and this was after we had been in meetings for the past day and a half. It never ceases to amaze me. Even so, we only had one real issue in Tampa: it was hot. Tucker did so well with the heat in Arizona last semester that it didn't even occur to me what was wrong when he started begging to stick to the shadows on one of our walks. Once I realized the pavement was too warm, we stuck to the shady parts and hurried back to the air conditioning of the hotel.
GWU scheduled the Senior Pinning Ceremony for the Sunday we were supposed to be driving back from Tampa, so the majority of the seniors were allowed to take a van back early so we could make it in time. This meant we had to drive half of the way Saturday evening and the rest of the way Sunday morning. Late Saturday night, we were attempting to locate a hotel when the GPS took us to the middle of a wheat field. There were no lights whatsoever. One of my friends suggested we were about to be in a real life horror movie. It was obvious, however, that she missed the mark a little. We were clearly about to enter an episode of Scooby-Doo. Think about it. College kids, a big 15 passenger van, and a dog. Scooby-Doo.
Thankfully no masked villains jumped from the rows of wheat, and once we asked for directions in a McDonald's drive-thru, we were able to make it to the hotel without incident. We made it back in time for Senior Pinning and Tucker did a lovely job there as well, sleeping through most of the ceremony and posing for pictures afterwards.
This past weekend was Easter break, so we went home to Hendersonville. Tucker played hard with Mattie's puppy Kalli all weekend, except when I made him go shopping with me for a formal dress. (He doesn't really enjoy shopping, and he has a nasty habit of creeping on the people in the dressing room next to me... ) Even so, he was very professional. Monday morning, as we sat in the parking lot of the mall, I noticed that Tucker's bottom right canine tooth was chipped. That night, after I returned to school, Tucker and I went to my friend Derek's house for a cookout. Tucker played with his Australian Cattle Dog, Buddy, most of the evening (and went for a somewhat unplanned swim in the pool). I thought everything was fine and dandy until the next morning when I let Tucker out of his crate. Whereas he normally gets really excited and picks up "glow ball" to carry around the room while snorting, he picked it up and dropped it. It was strange, but I didn't think much about it until it happened again after he ate. He had eaten very delicately, which if you've ever seen a lab eat, doesn't happen very often, so when he dropped the toy for the second time, I decided to check his mouth. To my astonishment, the top of his lower right canine was missing - I could see pulp. Long story short, we went to the vet, they gave him antibiotics and pain killers, and then we went to Walmart to buy "broken tooth approved" toys (aka, soft rubber toys).
When we got home, I decided to let him have his "freezer toy" (a rubber toy filled with frozen dog food) because the vet said the cold might actually help numb the tooth. Unfortunately, he was still hurting too badly, and refused to play with it. Being me, I decided to try to put Orajel on his tooth. I totally underestimated the speed with which his tongue would be able to take the gel off, and soon my couch and I were covered in dog drool. Thankfully, once the pain meds really kicked in, he was at least able to lick at the freezer toy without hurting too badly. In fact, the meds have made him really mellow, which is kind of amusing. At least he doesn't seem to hurt as badly as before.
Despite his injury and the fact that his meds may have made him a bit loopy, we went to the YMCA today for an AX service project which had the theme of reading to pets (aka, Tucker). We talked to the kids about Leader Dogs and then read them books about dogs, and finished up with a nice puppy petting session. Tucker loved it and he was so very, very good. The Y librarian was very impressed with his poise around so many small children who all wanted to hug his neck.
Senior Pinning - Photo Cred: Mark Houser
Photo Cred: Beth Anne Kington
Okay, so let me just explain what's happening in this photo. Tucker and I have the same routine every time we put his jacket on. I tell him to wait, I drop the leash and step on it, and then I put his jacket on. He stands perfectly still for this almost 100% of the time. This day (as we were driving to Tampa) was not one of those days. As I leaned over to put his jacket on, he lunged and pulled the leash from under my foot. We were in a parking lot (as you can see) and my immediate fear was him getting loose or getting hit by a car, so I instinctively reached out to grab him. As it turns out, I was slower than I thought, and instead of grabbing him by the scruff, I grabbed his tail. So, before I really knew what was happening, I was hanging onto his tail pulling him back towards me. Beth Anne, ever watchful, saw the whole thing and snapped my reaction to having pulled my puppy by the tail. :)
Getting ready to go to the block party in our tie-dye. Photo Cred: Beth Anne Kington
Photo Cred: Beth Anne Kington - Once again, Beth Anne realized what was happening before I did and snapped this lovely photo. This is what Tucker thought about sitting in presentations all day. :)
Photo Cred: Beth Anne Kington. Well, I look ridiculous, but the puppy looks good! Presenting "The Furry Side of Service Learning: Future Leader Dogs and the University."
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