What a great month! It began with a weekend trip to the Hagerstown KOA RV Park. The girls (Isabel, Elena, and Elli), Jake, and I all went. It was a little bit cold, but that doesn’t bother me. I got to go on walks. And, of course, all month long, I went with Maria to long meetings at school, went to work with her at Hero Dogs, and ran all the usual errands. She says it’s an opportunity for me to practice my service dog skills, but I think she just really likes having me around. Speaking of skills, I continued attending puppy classes. I saw my brother Audie there and played with little Gracie. I have really perfected SIT, COME, DOWN, WAIT, TAKE IT, and GIVE. I am working on doing it with more distractions. You know, as a service dog, I will have to do these things no matter what else is going on around me.

The highlight of the month was my three visits to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. I was there for the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) as an ambassador for Hero Dogs. I met so many nice people and made so many new friends! I can’t wait to grow up and be partnered with one of our wounded warriors. I’m going to work extra hard to make sure that happens!

Let me tell you about some new experiences I had this month. I rode an elevator (no big deal!), climbed up a set of metal grated open back stairs (big deal!), went to the movies to see Hugo (I curled up and went to sleep), went to two new restaurants, and spent a night at Hero Dogs with all the big dogs. Then, I went with Maverick and Jennifer and Stacey and Maria to the CFC headquarters in Washington D.C. to have our picture taken for the end of the year promotional video. After our picture was taken, we walked around the streets a little bit, and let me tell you, there were some different smells. There were city smells and city noises. Jennifer said we need to practice some more city walking.

Then, the holidays came! The first thing I did was to pick out a Christmas tree. I helped put it up, and helped decorate it. Although I LOVE sticks, I never touched this tree! It had lights and shinny things. Then, I went to the Friends Meeting School Holiday show and dinner. I watched the show put on by the students and sat quietly through dinner. As tempting as it was, I did not pick up any food dropped on the floor. And, if you can imagine “dinner and kids,” there was a lot of food on the floor!

Hero Dogs’ Lady Liberty (Libby) spent the holiday with us. She had hurt her toe nail and needed medicine and TLC. Since Maria raised her, it was like coming home from college for Libby. She was so much fun. I got to play and snuggle with her. On Christmas Eve and Christmas day, the whole family came over. We all got presents and played and sang songs to a log that gave us more presents (tradition from Spain…). And, then it was time to rest.

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