Fantasia Can Fly

Today was the CCI summer picnic and Bone Voyage party on Camano Island. We had 4 people and 4 dogs packed in a car for almost 3 hours to get to the party. Once we arrived, there was tons of food, at least 30 or 40 dogs with their people and plenty of fenced area to let our dogs run.

I am pretty sure that Fantasia was just about to take of flying after that little black puppy!

Growing like a weed

I took a look at Fantasia today and noticed just how long her legs are. She can no longer just walk under Brianne.

It has been a crazy hot week. We had record high temps - a couple days hit or surpassed 100, so the little wading pool has been out almost every evening. Fantasia and Brianne have had so much fun splashing around after work.

On Tuesday, Fantasia joined some humans in an above ground pool and got to swim for the first time this week. She was a star! It only took her a minute to figure out how to paddle and keep herself afloat. It was alot different than the wading pool, but I think Fantasia had a good time and she slept really well that evening.

Its not easy being cute!

Today was CCI day at the Mariners game. Fantasia as one of the youngest puppies at the park made quite a hit. We started making friends as soon as we parked and started walking to the stadium. People would talk about the cute little golden and I told them about the CCI booth in the stadium. Once we reached the stadium, it seemed that we could only walk a few feet before we were stopped. People just had to pet cute little Fantasia, which gave me a chance to talk about our booth at 125 and tell them a little bit about Fantasia... "she is a 3 month old Golden Retriever and she will be a service dog". I pretty much kept to the same script.

Once we finally made it to the CCI table, Jason and I took turns holding Fantasia so the passing (baseball?) fans could see the puppy. We stayed at the CCI table letting people pet Fantasia until it was time to head up to our seats for the opening pitch... and a pretty good few innings for the Mariners and a really good nap for Fantasia. Then things went bad for the Mariners and we headed back down to the CCI table.

Then things got worse for the Mariners and we made it back to the table just in time for many fans to walk past on their way out, once it became obvious that hte Mariners couldn't come back... At least the fans got to see the cute CCI dogs including the exceptionally cute Fantasia.

First Month

Four weeks ago, Brianne and I drove up to SeaTac to pick up little toe bitin' Fantasia.

Fantasiahe isn't so little anymore, she weighs over 20 pounds and no longer is the pest that Brianne has to run away from. I often find Fantasia curled up next to Brianne or mirroring her pose. The two dogs are playing so nicely now.

A funny thing happened last week. Fantasia had disappeared for a little while. I called her and she came running down the stairs. A little while later, I found a collar on the landing. The collar had belonged to Dara (who is Fantasia's mom), so I guess Fantasia was missing her momma dog who she hadn't seen for weeks, but Dara's smell must have still been on the collar. Dara left for puppy college just over a year ago.

Back Home

The camp was closed for a week while I was at a family reunion. Brianne stayed with Gramdpa and Grandma and Fantasia spent the week with another CCI puppy, Cowboy. Now that we are all back home, Brianne is starting to enjoy having a puppy around. Brianne is trying to play, but sometimes is just too big and crazy for little Fantasia who ends up running under a chair to try to stay safe.

First days at work

I work at the Washington State Legislature, so the CCI puppies have to go to work with me. Fantasia made quite a hit at the Legislature this week. She made many friends. She ate her lunch on the lawn in front of my building and many co-workers and friends stopped by to meet little Fantasia.

Fantasia is 9 weeks old today. Tomorrow she heads off to a puppy sitter for a week while I am in Colorado. I expect that she will grow alot in that week.

Boys Camp

To celebrate the opening of Carter Camp CCI... we invited some of the CCI pups from the local boys camp.

Camp Councelor Morris brought over Mick and Pongo as well as Mick's sister Mitzi.

One Golden and one Yellow Lab had their paws full watching the one Golden and three black puppies. But I think they all had fun.

Camp Opens

The newest Camp Carter happy camper arrived this weekend. On Friday, Camp Counselor Brianne and I drove to the airport to pick up Fantasia. Brianne was not impressed by this ankle biter and tried to get away from the sharp little teeth. Friday was a busy day of visiting people. We stopped at Jason's work to visit his co-workers, and then made a couple of other stops before we finally made it home to rest before the evening.

First order of business once arriving at home was trying on the official Camp Carter CCI uniform... Its a little big for now!

First Post

Welcome to the Blog for Carter Camp CCI. What’s with the name? Well, I raise puppies for Canine Companions for Independence (CCI) and often puppy sit other CCI pups... so sometimes my house seems like a puppy camp. Each puppy that I raise for CCI stays with me for about 14-16 months starting at 8 weeks old. Then she goes off to advance training (or Puppy College).

Puppy #8 will be arriving in 3 weeks. Her name is Fantasia. Her mother is Dara (puppy #6). We got to visit Dara and Fantasia last week.

Puppy #5, Brianne, didn't like puppy college so she came home to be a camp counselor. Right now we don't have any puppies visiting us, so Brianne only has Tigger to hang out with.