DENVER -- July 24, 2008

The puppy has landed!

Meet my "little brother," my successor, Marianne and John's CCI puppy #6: ROSS. He arrived Wednesday morning via Continental Airlines, and by all accounts is quite happy to be here. I haven't actually met him yet because I'm having a little one-on-one time with our CCI contract trainer, Amy. I'm getting a few extra lessons to help me when I go to CCI College next month. But Marianne called to fill me in on the news.

Now I know some of you are as confused as I was when Marianne told me Ross was here. HUH? Who?

You may remember that Kirby, the puppy we were originally expecting, was ill and CCI decided to keep him at the Northwest campus for medical care. His illness is serious enough that he's been released from the CCI program, but the veterinarian who is taking care of him has adopted him! That's good news for everyone.

Stu, the puppy program manager, called to let Marianne know that she and John would be getting a puppy named Tate on July 23rd. Everyone was eagerly awaiting his arrival, until Tuesday afternoon when Marianne got another call from Stu. It seems that during the routine medical exam that CCI performs an all the puppies before they are sent to their puppy raisers the vets discovered that Tate had a pronounced overbite.

"Huh?" I said to Marianne. "What do his teeth have to do with anything?"

"Well, it's not an issue for a pet dog," Marianne explained. "But the trainers and the vets examined him and determined that it would hinder him in retrieving many of the objects expected of working dogs. Things like keys or credit cards or pens would be hard for him to pick up."

Ah, that makes sense. A large part of an assistance dog's job is retrieving items for his partner, or taking items from the partner to someone else. I guess teeth have a lot to do with a working dog's job, so I'll stop protesting when Marianne brushes mine.

Anyhow, Tate has also been released from CCI and will be adopted as a pet. Marianne hardly had time to absorb this news when Stu said he had another puppy that could come to Denver on Wednesday, which is how we ended up with Ross. He's a black Lab, and has the same father (Baumann) as Hudson. Marianne was delighted. "I don't think I could have waited another two weeks for the next "possible" puppy!" she confided. "It's a relief to have Ross safe and sound on the ground in Denver."

It's not unheard of for things to change with puppies at CCI in any stage of the process, but even so, Marianne says this is fairly unusual. If you can imagine such a thing, people were actually suggesting that I was hexing things. Harumph. I've never been so insulted in all my life. What kind of puppy do they think I am? Marianne told me to lighten up, that people were JOKING.

Oh. Some of that famous puppy raiser humor. Ha ha.

At any rate, CCI has a very carefully monitored breeding program and having puppies released for health reasons, especially so young, doesn't happen often. CCI has around 950 puppies born each year, so things like this do happen occasionally, but it's just a weird twist of fate that it happened to Marianne and John TWICE IN A ROW.

Marianne said this just proves what Val Valentine, the puppy program manager before Stu, always told the puppy raisers: "Don't get the towels monogrammed until you have the puppy in your arms." Marianne explained that Val meant a puppy raiser shouldn't overdo things for a new puppy until it is in the puppy raiser's home. For instance, she didn't make name tags for Kirby, Tate or Ross. "I'll go to PetsMart on Saturday and get a name tag made for Ross," she promised. "I'll probably get him a new toy, too. And yes, Parker, I will get something for you!"

Ross is going to work with Marianne today. I'm a little worried that everyone will forget about me in the hullabaloo a new puppy creates. I'm still The Cutest Puppy in the World, right?

Chow for now!

Parker

Questions or comments for Parker? Send me an e-mail!

Would you like more information about Canine Companions for Independence or perhaps be a puppy raiser? Call 1-800-572-BARK or go to CCI for details.