Comin' Around

Before I get into Garrett's progress, I have to wish my lovely bride, Marvelyne, a very happy birthday. Babe, you are the best thing that's ever happened to me and I love you.

In addition to having the freedom to miss my wife's birthday for Seeing Eye dog training, I'm also blessed today by some cool breakthroughs. Garrett is starting to show more of his personality and, thanks to a large hunk of cotton, I'm getting to see it.

See, it's a miserable day in Morrisstown. Think Seattle but colder and with more wind. We were able to go out and take the Maple Street route with corrections and, with all the wind and rain, Garrett only needed one, maybe two corrections. With a 20 plus mph wind blowing rain on us, this is pretty darned good. Byut, the personality thing...

When we went out to park time at 5:30 in the a.m., it was raining. Not as bad as when we were on route, but still coming down. When we got back up to the room, I pulled out the doggy dry off towel and Garrett came out of his shell! Turns out, he absolutely loves getting dryed off. Back, legs, head, neck, belly, chest, he starts wagging and playing like a pup. As I was bent over toweling him off, he also thinks that's time to pretend he's a croquet ball and go through the wickets, er, my legs. He's been wagging a good bit more and I'm sure that'll continue. When we were just sitting in a lecture, he was sitting between my legs and, just for a couple seconds, turned up to look at me and ask for some head pats. First time he's really shown any affection with his head. He tends not to look at me very much, but this will most likely change as the bond continues to grow.

This afternoon, all routes have been cancelled. Just too bad of weather where traffic is hard to judge and rain so thick it's hard for the dogs to see. But, if the day ended now? It'd be on an up note for some cool breakthroughs happening today.