Life on the Rollercoaster!

I'm a bit of a procrastinator and I had procrastinated and procrastinated but finally buckled down and on Friday booked our flights to Ohio in December.   The only thing left to do is book a rental car.  We are almost ready to go.

On Monday Jeremy, the Lead Trainer at 4 Paws, called to tell us that the dog being trained for Dawsyn would not be eligible to be licensed as a Service Dog.  Although she was training very well and could all the things we needed her to do for Dawsyn, she has a skin sensitivity and  cannot wear a harness without scratching uncontrollably.  No harness = no service dog license!  Jeremy assured us that he could probably have another dog ready for us by next spring.

On Wednesday Dawsyn had an appointment with the neurologist (everything is great and we are weaning off another medication.  YAY!) and we asked his opinion about getting a dog that was NOT hypo-allergenic.  He didn't like the idea of her possibly have an allergic reaction but agreed that allergy shots would be an option.  I asked Jeremy if that was a possibility for December but he didn't think there would be one ready that would be a good fit with Dawsyn.

This morning I started the process of cancelling our airline tickets.  I quickly discovered that our insurance was not going to cover this particular set of circumstances and that we were going to lose close to $1,000 in penalties and the remaining $1,500 would not be refunded but would be a credit with Delta airlines to be used within the next 12 months.  I wanted to cry!

I took a couple of hours, focused on something else and waited for Jeremy to return my phone call.  I got lots of work done today staying busy and trying not to think about losing a whole schwack of money!!  Jeremy and I managed to miss each other a number of times throughout the day but finally connected this evening.  We talked more about options and it really looked like we were going to have to cut our losses and hope for something in the spring.  He said that he was so disappointed because he felt this dog would have been such a good match for Dawsyn except for the sensory issue.  He told me that she would be placed as an in-home companion.  I asked some questions about her abilities and learned that she has a great nose on her for sniffing out seizures, is good at tracking, is well-trained in behavior disruption and is very loving.  The only thing she can't do is wear a harness and therefore, cannot go to the mall or the grocery store or into a restaurant.   I got to thinking that really, the things she CAN do are much more important to us than the things she CAN'T do.  Jeremy suggested that Ben and I talk about it and get back to him.

It didn't take us very long to make a decision.  We will be flying to Ohio as planned and will be bringing home a lovely in-home companion that is trained as well as the best service dog!  Jeremy was great about talking us through our decision but he still wouldn't spill the beans about which dog was coming home with us!  ALWAYS with the secrets!!  He did give us a few hints and narrowed it down considerably.  We know that our new dog is a female golden doodle whose name starts with "L".  We know that one of the two beauties below is coming home with us on December 17.

          L
            Labelle                                              Lilith

I think either of them will be worth the new grey hairs this week has caused me to grow!!