Rock Starlet

There may be exceptions, but most people who raise puppies for CCI find the first two months to be tough. Beyond the normal challenges (housebreaking, stopping the pup from chewing, digging, garbage-eating, etc.), it takes a while for puppies to learn to walk well enough on a leash to go for serious outings. Furthermore, CCI tells puppy-raisers not to overstimulate their charges or expose them to potential disease. (Full immunity from their vaccinations doesn't come until they're 4-5 months old.)

It's confining. But with Darby (Dionne's predecessor), I discovered a lifesaver. Another puppy-raiser (Pattie Urie) loaned us her puppy stroller.  Using it meant that I could keep up my normal exercise walks. It even enabled Darby and me to participate in a puppy drill-team event in Balboa Park. When Darby got old enough, we returned the stroller to Pattie but I started looking for a second-hand one on Craig's list. We got lucky, and now with Dionne, we're breaking it in.

I zipped her into it for an hour-long walk on Friday and she howled, barked, and moaned almost the whole time. But on a shorter outing yesterday, she was calmer. This morning, Steve and Tucker came along, and we didn't even close up the front. It had occurred to me that any puppy who was afraid to walk down a few stairs wasn't likely to leap out of her stroller. Wrong! She did leap out -- probably because she didn't know what would happen.  She wasn't hurt, but she didn't try it again. Our hope is that she'll very quickly get used to riding in plein-air. That's more fun for her -- and for us.

Exposing her to the world, like this...

... gets you a lot of attention.  People literally stop you in the street. Everyone smiles, and many coo and ask to hold her or pet her. I've had at least two grown men pull out their phones to photograph her. Neighbors have stopped their cars in the street to exclaim over her cuteness. This morning, one woman told us we were saints for raising service dogs.

That's just silly. We truly want Dionne to graduate and change someone's life for the better. We'll do our best to try to achieve that goal. But the truth is that we're also in it for the fun. Steve and I don't normally crave attention when we're out in public. But it's fun to feel, however briefly, like you're in the  entourage of a rock star.