A New Friend...

Coconut came to visit --you can scroll down to see a slideshow of the fun we had together.

Coconut is our new friend. He is a 6 month old Jack Russell puppy and he has ALL puppy :) His owner, Heidi and her daughter Charli Su had to go for a long weekend, so Bode and I puppysat! Tara and Geoff think they were in charge, but we took care of everything.

We know how hard it is when you can't go on trips with your family as most of the places Tara and Geoff go do not allow dogs over 50lbs and that rules out Bode, so I always stay with him at our grandparents house. Our previous knowledge made it easy to help him settle into our routine and learn the ropes with still feeling comfortable. Bode taught him that "ice cookies" are just as good as regular cookies, but you can't fool me with those ice cube things, and to tug! I taught him how to play tag in the yard and we all played fetch and chase together (although you will see in the pictures that we wrestled too). Today is his last day with us and it took the entire four days to teach him the doggie door--I had to try and show him to let Bode go first and then wait as there is a LARGE backswing when Bode goes through!

The hardest part is that Bode and I are set in our nap and bedtime schedules, but Coconut kept fearing he would miss something so had to be awake all time time. I think Coconut caught on as he is sleeping now and Heidi will be coming soon to get him, actually Bode is asleep to and I am off for a nap after this. Remember change is hard, but if you treat it as your own vacation and not that your favorite people left you...then you can have just as much fun as those humans!

Another article on pet therapists...

http://wjz.com/pets/courthouse.dogs.2.738811.html

You're Invited!!!

We have great news!! There will be an official grand opening of our office with The Back Door Counseling and CARES Suicide Prevention...the people we share our suite with! We love to visit their clients too!

We would love to have you attend if you are in SW Florida as we will both be there for the first time together. We go together but never with people there, so this is a big deal for us. We are guessing Tara will put up the gate to our play room so people can look in and pet us and look at what her play therapy room looks like.

The police chief is coming as well as one of those political guys from Tallahassee, Representative Aubuchon. We better be on our best behavior!!

Here is some more information:
Thursday, July 10th from 4:30-7:30pm with CARES having a ribbon cutting and check presentation at 5:30pm.

Please let us know if you would like to attend, the more the merrier and we can count you on the RSVP list to make sure there are enough yummy snacks for you!

CARES opening will the first resource center in SW Florida for prevention efforts and this is such a needed thing in our area. If you are interested in volunteering, we are also recruiting volunteers. For those of you that don't know, Tara is also the lead therapist/Vice President for CARES and we are mascots!

Together we can all save a life (or more!)

A Fellow Pet Therapy Dog...

Check out Buddy's story on the following link. He helps kids in court!

http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=5244356&page=1

Way to go Buddy!

Love, Abbey and Bode

National Take Your Dog to Work Day

Did you take your dog with you on Friday? We got to go to work and it was great...although we go everyday! We are so excited that someone created a national day to celebrate dogs at work.

We worked with the kids and stopped by the real estate office, where Geoff works too. We decided that real estate isn't our thing, we love working with the kids and families!!

Here is the link to the website for National Take Your Dog to Work Day: http://www.takeyourdog.com/index.php

We would love to hear what others got to do on this great day...post to us!!

Take a breath...

We decided to write this blog together...we had to take a break though because we were fighting over the keyboard :)

This week we realized how important it is to step back and take a breath. Rascal and Baxter left this week, which was happy and sad at the same time; the new therapist moved into our building; we got a window leak; and Tara got called to court--that means we can't go to work those days! And that is just the start of our week...have you ever had weeks like that? We have never been on a roller coaster, but heard Tara say that is what the week was like. Up and down, happy, sad, joyful, stressed, and on and on.

Together we learned that we cannot do it all or control it all and it is important to step back and breath. This allows the situation to move in the direction it is going and for you to view all sides of it. Sometime those breaths need to be the deep breathing kind where you breathe in for a count of 5 and breathe out for 5. This clears your head as well.

Next time you feel like you are on one of those roller coaster things that wont stop, or maybe like us-- chasing your tail round and round (we still don't realize that is part of us...)--stop and take a breath to reevaluate the situation. If we all did this, there could be less conflict and stress in the world.

Feeling left out...

Look at these pictures I took of Bode and our cousins playing. This is Abbey for those that didn't realize! Rascal is the cocker spaniel watching and Baxter is the little white dog. It's funny to watch because Bode is 120lbs and Baxter is only 10lbs!

We love to play, but sometimes I feel left out and thought I would write about that. My favorite game is tag, but all these boys like to play tug and wrestle. I was really struggling to find out how to get involved with their play and was pouting a lot instead of working at becoming a part of the group. Have you ever felt like it was easier to stay away then find a way to engage yourself in what others are doing?

Don't get me wrong, they look like they are having fun, but those games aren't my favorite. Finally I learned that we can split up and do things without it being all of us or we can share and I can play their games and they can play ours. Good think Rascal likes to sunbathe and rest (he is a lot older than us) and we can do that together! It is hard to learn that it can't always be the way you want it an that we have to share, but I do hear Tara talk to kids a lot about something called compromise and I think that is what I am learning to do this week!

Personal Time...

Hi, It's Bode! Ever feel like you can't get away, every where you go there is someone there and you just want 5 minutes by yourself? Thank goodness I can do that at work! I love that word, WORK, WORK, WORK. This week we have Rascal and Baxter staying with us and it is a lot of fun, but we keep forgetting to rest and then we get upset with each other because we are too tired.

Right now everyone is laying around because we got up early to run, play tag, tug, and wrestle, but Baxter wants to keep going. He is only 9 months old and I guess that is why. Tara keeps telling us that it is ok to take time by ourselves and Abbey keeps finding great hiding spots. I have found that I can go lay on the living room couch and no one knows for a bit. We keep rotating who goes to the office so we have playtime to run and then work with the kids. I learned yesterday that if I don't take a nap before work then I don't do very good. Good thing I love naps too!

Please remember that everyday you should take time for yourself just to get a way from everything and breathe! Also naps are great to lift your mood when you can fit them in...even 20 minutes helps!

It's Summertime...

Yes in Florida, it always seems like Summer but now it really is Summer!! We love to sunbathe when we aren't working with the kids and to relax by the pool...please don't make us go in though, we don't like to swim! Summer is a great time to spend with friends and family and cool off with well earned treats. Sometimes we hear that our clients feel they deserve things for no reason, such as expensive trips, cars, or ice cream every day. We love our doggie ice cream, especially the peanut butter kind, but we know we don't get it handed to us with out hard work. We cannot fight, have accidents, or bark too much, however if we play good with each other (our cousin's Rascal and Baxter--more on them later), walk nicely and work hard with the clients, then we earn good things. Sometimes we receive surprise treats for our hard work...Thank you Ms. Theresa for the new treats!

Remember, even though it is summer and we feeling like laying around or goofing off, not matter how old we are, we still have some responsibilities that have to be done too!