The Madcap RECAP!

Urm, Hello there! Is anyone still here? So it's been a while. A lot has happened. So I think, to do a quick and dirty update, I shall give y'all bullet points! * I began traveling back and forth to New York in 2012 to work as a contracting instructor at the Helen Keller National Center, training assistive tech instructors to train deafblind people on telecommunications equipment. * I seperated from my at the time, husband. * I got divorced in April 2013, and am now contentedly living the single life with dogs in the big cheesey! * Sadly, we lost Bristol in August of 2013 from Kidney disease related to jerky treats made in China. We miss her every day. * In September of that same year, Laveau was diagnosed with early onset kidney disease also caused by the jerky treats and my vet suggested a reduced work load and that I begin training a new dog. * October of 2013, enter Soleil— pronounced so-lay— a three year old female yellow lab service dog candidate * The next 6 months are taken up with training, more training, and still more training. Laveau's kidney disease stabelizes but she is not able to work long routes because she tires easily. * May of 2014, Soleil and I take our first trip together on a plane, to visit friends in Wyoming. We do her final traffic testing, and she takes and passes the CGC and ADI public access test. Her guide and mobility dog training is completed. * We are now moving on to hearing and retrieval tasks. WHEW! I'm tired again just writing that out! I hope to be posting here more regularly once again, now that things are more relaxed, lets hope! WAGS