a helping paw

Last night, at a local theater, we met a woman accompanied by an enthusiastic young dog in a cape, a superhero of sorts. Turns out that the dog is being trained to assist a lucky deaf or disabled person. And the woman is its weekend foster mommy. During the week, the dog lives up at the local prison, and has been raised since it was small by a prisoner (great program). But it turns out that dogs who stay in prison only are spooked by the outside world -- pictures on the walls and so on (and what does that say about our fellow humans who are in prison and then get out). So to make the eventual transition a little easier on the dog, it stays in prison just for the work week and has a foster parent on the outside for weekends. This animal was bright and alert and loved all the attention it was receiving, but was absolutely quiet during the play, better, I think than most humans. I'm sure it will provide great service to some deserving person.

I told the foster mommy this story: my friend Jeff has an assistance dog named Ember. Jeff and Ember used to live in a household in which Sean and his pal Polar lived. Polar noticed that *some* dogs got treats when the microwave rang and they let their human know. So Polar made it a point to bring her (hearing) human to the microwave next time it rang and then expected a treat too. Smart animal.