Tuesday, August 27, 2013

“Chase away sorrow by living one moment at a time to the fullest possible extent!”





Over the past year Iris and I have had some very long days and even some long weekends but this trip to Houston pushed the limits of my body. The mind is there saying come on we can keep going yet the body just seems to fall flat. The good news is that I know we have made it through and met some great people in the process. First things first Yes TEXAS IS HOT!!! I will stop complaining about CT's heat (at least until it gets hot again here). 

We had to fly to Florida to catch our connection into Houston making the flight out there about 7 hours of travel time without a break for Iris. All I can say is that Miss Iris is one of the best behaved service dogs ever, she never once complained but boy when she got out of the airport in Houston she was one happy traveler to see real grass. The folks from TX were extremely great from the moment we stepped off the plane until we got back on the plane to come home. There were a number of Legion people there to help make sure that we had help in getting all of our travel to hotels taken care of and made is feel very welcome. All I can say is thank you all for a great time.
While at the convention I was amazed even though we were only dealing with the delegates side of the membership how many people were actually there. The legion along with all the service organizations may be in a waning period but there are still many American's out there proud of their service and their loved ones service also. I talking to the delegates about the experiences I have had with Iris and How America's VetDogs has changed my life I shared a number of tears of hope that others would be able to also find hope. How nice would it be if every veteran that has a medical need for a service dog was able to get one? It is a message that I know I will continue to proclaim on a daily basis.

Iris had fun while we were there playing and hanging out with Lara a Lab/Golden mix from VetDogs who helps her Veteran with her issues. There were a few other training groups that had their service dogs in training there also. All the pup's got along splendidly and I am sure that the quality of dogs being trained for our Veterans impressed all the legionnaires that took time to come and learn about them.



On a different note, for all those that follow the advocacy work I do, there have been a couple high profile issues the past few weeks on the eastern seaboard. One that affected a graduate of America's VetDogs which has been handled very well and is well on the way to become a great training opportunity for the town and community to learn more about Service dogs and Veterans needs. The other one is a retired Air Force Vet & his service dog in Mass that was kicked out of a restaurant. This happened in Oxford right up the road from me. Unfortunately the whole thing has turned into a mess and people are taking sides. When that happens businesses get hurt people never get the full story and future disabled people will still encounter issues because there is no resolution. I have all intentions of going up to this resteraunt later this week or next week in hopes of showing the laws and explaining why they are in place. Hopefully we will be able to come to a resolution and ease tension in the community.

So anyone wanting to join in on this run to Oxford MA please let me know. 

Till then have a great labor day weekend coming up and be safe.

 Here is the first of the Artist renditions of the plans on the camper. There are a few changes but I really like where this is going. Stay tuned to what happens next. 




Attention: I have a Personal Fundraising Page for VetDogs Now! Please follow this link and make a donation to help another veteran like me get a service dog like mine. 

The next three here are Maggie Starr's rendition Same concept except the idea of keeping all the body parts looking correct not stretched out and all the windows & venting on the camper have been kept in place to insure proper placement. I am sure that we will come up with something between the foundation and us.
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