Pool Party

As a social outing for the foster puppies (and the owners) PAWS hosted a pool party for all the puppies in their yard. They had pools all over the place for the puppies to play in (see the video), and a potluck for all the owners. It was lots of fun for Emmy and for Bill and Amy as they watched their little girl splash and play with the other dogs. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers, Emmy is heading in for her X-rays to determine if she is physically ok for service work on August 20th. We are hoping to hear that she has a clean bill of health!!!

Emmy and Emma her sister

Bobbing for treats

Emmy playing in her own pool (don't distract her she is focus on playing with those toys)

The life of a dog...

To be a dog...

I like to color!

Splish, Splash in the sprinklers!

Lindsay & Josie (who is 4.5 lbs!)

Emmy & Josie learn to play together

Josie attempting to play with Emmy's big toys

A few days ago, we went to take Emmy out to the bathroom and we noticed that the sprinkler system was on...but one of them was broken causing an "Old Faithful"-like guiser to erupt on our front lawn. So what did Emmy decide to do? Play in the water of course! It was pretty cute to watch her running through the sprinklers all over the lawn.

Then later that day, Emmy had a visitor! Our friends Chris and Lindsay just got a King Charles Spaniel named Josie. Josie is still very young, but she also was the runt of the litter, so she'll be very small (max. 10 lbs) when she does grow. (To put that in relation to something else...when Emmy came home at 7 weeks old she was 12.5 lbs!). Anyway, Josie came over to meet Emmy and they did very well together. We weren't sure how it would go with such a difference in size of the dogs...but Emmy was very careful with Josie who had quite the brave little spirit! By the end of the night they were good friends..even sharing toys! Thanks for visiting Josie!

Dr. Emmy visits again!

"Welcome to Holland Hospital....can I be your friend?"

Posing outside of the hospital

Emmy's cool Pet Therapy bandanna!

Dr. Emmy returned to the hospital today for another therapy dog session. This time, Amy was able to go along to see how well Emmy does. We were able to visit a few patients and Emmy enjoyed every minute of it. In fact, she seemed sad every time we went to leave a room because she had made herself right at home with each patient. She of course got lots of attention from nurses and other hospital staff. Probably her favorite spot was visiting the ladies at the welcome desk, because so many visitors and staff walked by and said "Hi!". Jillian, the Pet Therapy coordinator even gave Emmy a cool bandanna to keep for when she comes back again...and also as a souvenir of her trips to Holland Hospital! Thanks for letting us come visit Jillian! Check out our link on the right hand side for Holland Hospital's Healing Environment. There is even a link there for a story about their pet therapy program.

Dr. Emmy

Emmy had a unique opportunity to play "doctor" today. This summer, Bill is interning part time with Holland Hospital as an Assistant Chaplain. While he has a variety of responsibilities in the hospital, Bill has also taken particular interest in the canine version of care...the Pet Therapy program. A few weeks ago, Bill shadowed the pet therapy coordinator to see what the pets do to care for patients in the hospital and after it all thought, "Emmy could do that!". Well, today she got just that chance. After Bill reported to the hospital this morning, he found out that they were short on therapy dogs coming in today and they had a backlog of requests for therapy pet visits throughout the hospital. When her heard their cry of need...Bill knew just the dog to step in..."Super Dog"....a.k.a. Dr. Emmy! He raced home to get her and brought her back where Emmy was able to visit with 6 patients of ranging ages. Emmy was AMAZING and was the perfect representative for Paws with a Cause! She was SUPER solid on her commands and the most touching thing of all...she knew exactly what to do to make each person feel better. Whether it be a sniff on the hand, or a nose rested on the bed...she brought a smile to the patients' faces...and of course there was lots of oooooo's and ahhhh's from the nurses station! Emmy was a hit! When she got home, Amy was already home for lunch and she ran in, tail waving high in the air with an attitude of, "MOOOOOOOOMMMM! Guess what I did today?!?! I WAS SO GOOD!!!" You could tell she was so proud of herself...it just brought tears to my eyes...and of course a great big peanut butter kong for Emmy too! GOOD JOB EMMY!

More summer fun!

This past weekend Emmy continued to enjoy the perks of summer. On Sunday we took Emmy to church for the second week in a row. She did much better this week...even slept through part of the service! YAY! After church, we went over to a friend's house and they have Emmy's dream come true - another dog to play with, a fenced in yard....and... a swimming pool! Emmy spent the afternoon chasing their dog around, playing all over the yard and of course refining her swimming skills. Emmy conquered her fear of jumping into the water and fell in love with flopping into the water. She is quite the swimmer...and very fast! Of course she was also exhausted after all of this.

We also had a second round of hives this weekend with Emmy. Last weekend she got hives on her face and the vet thinks she ate a bug, such as a bee, that she was allergic to. Well, needless to say she did it again this past Friday night...this time we think it was a lightening bug. By Saturday morning she had hives all over her body and was quite itchy. A few more doses of Benadryl and she was all cleared up. Now we just have to figure out how to get her not to eat bugs!

I like swimming

Well it has been a busy few days!!!! First Bill and Amy went to Chicago for their anniversary and Emmy went to spend a few days with her best friend Duke!!! If she wasn't tired enough already, then Bill's mom came to Holland for a few days, which was a great opportunity for Emmy to get petted and loved to her little heart's desire. Then for the finale we went to Bill's friend cottage at Gull Lake, and Emmy not only got to spend time running around the yard chasing ducks and geese, but Emmy had her first chance to swim!!!! You can see the videos, she was a little skeptical at first, but once she got in, she was clearly a natural!! She was all over the place splashing and chasing balls, it just gets me tired describing it all. To top off the weekend Emmy went to church on Sunday. Emmy was extremely well behaved and handled sitting still during church relatively well. The only issue is that sometimes she likes to sleep on her back upside down, and she rolled under a pew and began to scratch and tap the seats of those in front of Amy.....oooops, sorry. After church we went to a friend's house and Emmy met, Cooper, a 7 month old puppy who weights about 10lbs. Let's just say there was lots more running and play. Well after all that it is time for a nap for all of us, enjoy the pictures and videos.

What is it Lassie?

I love swimming

The First Dive

June Time Fun!

Time out from fetch for a water break! Unfortunately, two heads don't both fit in that bowl!

Waiting patiently for Barb to throw the ball!

Everyone practices self control and waiting while Barb throws the ball

Emmy's most recent sleeping/hiding place...inside our closet! Silly pup!

Duke comes to stay for a weekend! Good thing there's enough lap to go around!

Sorry it's been so long since we've posted! The three of us have been enjoying the nice summer weather and using it as a opportunity to do lots of playing and having fun. It's pretty much been life as usual around here though. Emmy just weighed in last week at 53 lbs! YAY! She had been hovering around 50 lbs for so long that we never thought she'd take the leap into what's considered "adult" weight for her. She has really shot up in height the past few months and we think she's just starting another growth spurt which will hopefully help her fill out a little. We know she's growing, but we still think she's small compared to most dogs of her kind. We'll see...she may just be a petite one!

Now that it's summer, Emmy has had a lot of chances to go to work with Amy because the Admissions Office is definitely a lot quieter in the summer months. We set up Emmy's kennel in Amy's office so if there ever is a time when Emmy can't tag along we have a place to put her. Also too, as was the instance a few weeks ago...there are a few occasions when Emmy just isn't having a good day (a.k.a- she ate one of Amy's dress shoes while sitting nicely under the desk!) and needs a little time out. Everyone at work seems to really enjoy having her around and she's handled being in that setting really well.

We also have been spending time with our good friends' dog, Duke. One afternoon, Emmy and Duke had a playdate in the commons area of campus to play around and such. Emmy was a little sad because she had to be on her tie-out and Duke could run around freely but they adjusted pretty quickly. They sure love to play! Two weekends ago, Duke came to stay with us while his parents were out of town and so they both got to play with each other even more. The biggest adjustment has been for Duke actually because he is not used to Emmy being just about as big as him and she wasn't so strong last time they stayed together...so he was very tired by the time he went home.

This summer has also allowed Emmy to experience her first thunderstorm...which didn't really bother her at all. In fact she slept through most of it with no issues! Other than that, Emmy is up to the same old same old...but definitely more well behaved and more mellow than before- YAY for growing up (minus the fact that means that she gets closer and closer to leaving us for the next stage of training with every passing day)!

This week, Bill and Amy are headed to Chicago for their 1st wedding anniversary, and are leaving Emmy with Barb, Carl and Duke too (we have a lovely puppy exchange with them which is great!). She loves going to their house mainly because they have a fenced in yard that she can run free in...plus it doesn't hurt that Duke is there too!

Hope everyone is doing well! We promise we'll keep the updates coming more regularly!