Robbin Huls's Posts
Paxton's First Birthday
It's hard to believe that it's been almost a year since I filled out the forms, had a home visit, took my pre-placement class, puppy-sat and then got online to see the upcoming puppies and waited....
Of the litters' pictures that I had on my wall, "O", "P", "R", "S" and "T", of course Paxton came from the P-litter, the third time through the alphabet for litters from 2006. Although he was born on September 3, it is 7-8 weeks before they are puppy tested. Then the regional evaluators choose puppies to match waiting raisers, so it was actually November 3rd when I received the call telling me that Robin had chosen "Paxton" for me and he would be arriving that Sunday.
The first week was a bit hectic, but we quickly got into a routine and by December, he was settling into his new job, coming to work with me.
Since then, Paxton has slept or played in my cube while I typed and talked on the phone, soothed co-workers spending long hours at the office (coming into my office to say, "I need a Paxton break!"), joined the group for lunches out and team building events, and slept under my chair through countless meetings. He has walked on metal stairs, concrete stairs, painted stairs, open back stairs, plastic and wooden pallets, grates of all sorts, linoleum, tile and carpeted floors. He has heard and seen forklifts, big trucks with air brakes, metal stamping machines, copier machines, picture kiosks, fire engines, and even a crane. Oh, and he's figured out that the set of keystrokes' sound when I hit the Ctrl-Alt-Delete and Enter buttons means that I'm going to be leaving the office and he gets up and stretches by the door, ready to go!
I can see how much he's grown and matured over his last 10 months with me. He receives many compliments on how well behaved his is, but he's still just a "teenager" and I can also see that he has much yet to learn.
Due to the multitude of factors that determine when each dog is ready for school, we raisers don't know exactly when our charges will be heading off to Guiding Eyes for the Blind until shortly before they go in. Until that time, Paxton and I will keep enjoying our adventures and learning together!
