One O'clock came too soon

One o'clock came too soon in my day.

Of course I left all the supply buying until the very end. Went to PetSmart at 12:00 hoping to get out by 12:30 since I had already made a small list of what I needed but that didn't help much. I left tons of things off and spent too much time debating on which crate to get so I was rushed.

Her flight came in at 1pm but she was not handed to us until 1:45p. On our way there we got lost and couldn't find the entrance to the United Cargo building so we didn't wait too long.

She met a lot of people today. My two roommates, and one of their parents and of course Kyle and myself :) She had a lot of play time and food/water. That puppy didn't want to sleep, which ended up being a good thing since she is sleeping at the moment.

Today I found out I might need some more patiences when it comes to her house training. She is a puppy and accidents happen. We will work on that again tomorrow.

Things I learned about my Florida:
1. She is Stubborn - she does not want to walk back into the house
2. She likes to toilet inside the apartment - she made it clear that she does not toilet outside. She waits until she comes back in.
3. She LOVES hair - overtime she saw long hair she went for it. Man did that hurt.
4. She is a good eater - she ate all her food and started whining because she had ran out of food.
5. She doesn't like her reflection - she tried to be a good girl and toilet outside but the door was closed and her reflection caused a barking spree. It was really cute.
6. She likes to chase her tail - it was too cute, she went to bite her leg and caught her tail and started trying to bite it.
7. Most importantly she likes her crate - the two times I put her in there at home she was good and fell right asleep. In the car, that is a different story. She whined for about 5 minutes before coming down. She is not a big fan of it in the car. She didn't give me hard time when we put her to bed so lets hope no accidents.

(Can't seem to get pictures downloaded at the moment)

The Beginning

I'm starting to get cold feet.

When I first applied to become a Puppy Raiser for Canine Companions for Independence (CCI) I never thought I would actually get approved (my extremely optimistic self).

I had always wanted a dog of my own but the time never seemed right. I first heard about CCI through work about two years ago but I didn't do much research. This past summer I ran across an email asking for volunteers to raise a puppy from 8 wks to about 14 months. I asked everyone I knew what they thought about the idea. Everyone said it sounded great idea but it would be hard to give up the puppy after taking care of it for so long. So after a few months of contemplating with the idea I finally decided to apply.

To my surprise, I will be picking up FLORIDA V on Wednesday, exactly two months after applying!!!

My heart starts racing and a smile illuminates my face every time I think about it. I know this will be a very big change and a struggle at first and at the very end when I have to turn her in. What will get me through this adventure is the thought that one day, Florida could possibly become a service dog and help someone live a much fuller life.