Another First

Dear Sophie,
It goes without saying that your purpose as a service dog is to make life easier for me, doing things that are difficult for me to do myself but, tonight, you took it a step further. It's not the easiest job to change the sheets on my bed and, in doing so tonight, I ended up on the floor and got stuck. Instead of panicking, or awkwardly wiggling out of the tight space between the bed and the closet, I let out a "Sophie, Come!" and in you came, bracing and backing up and bracing and backing up, until we reached an open space where I could stand. Okay, maybe my life didn't depend on you doing that, but my morale sure did. Thanks, Sophie. Hope you enjoyed your cookie ... you earned it!

CERTIFIED !!

Dear Sophie,

I'm flying! Are you? This afternoon we reached the top of the mountain, the culmination of our months and months of hard work and training! You took your certification test today and you passed! It's what you were born for, Sophie! This is your purpose in life. It was an uphill battle, mostly of my problems, not yours. Even in times of doubt that we'd ever be able to pass that test, our teachers never gave up on us, seeing us all the way to certification. Our training in Happy Tails is done ... ... but it's only when we reached one mountaintop that we could clearly enough to see other heights to shoot for. My promise to you is the same one I made to our instructor, that we'll never stop growing and learning together. You'll have new goals to work on, new things to learn, and even new things to teach me. I've loved being a team with you, but it's oh so much sweeter to see the word "team" with a number beside it. Team 19 ... don't you just love the sound of that? I couldn't be more proud of you, big girl. Lord willing, there are many more miles of roads ahead, but let's you and me just rest for a minute at the end of this particular one and bask in the sweet scent of success. We'll reach for higher goals as we start down a new road tomorrow.