Monday, June 27, 2011

El mejor pollo del mundo

Longtime readers of this blog may recall that when Dempsey was a baby, we stopped by one of our favorite fast-food chicken joints when we drove through Chicago.

We're happy to report that Pollo Campero has now opened in West St Paul! To celebrate, we took Dempsey. And this time, he was old enough to actually go inside and sit quietly under the table to watch us eat our chicken.



Sunday, June 12, 2011

A beehive state

Dempsey hasn't gone on many adventures lately, because we've been in a beehive state: busy, busy, busy.

But that's not to say Dempsey hasn't been working hard! Despite not having any hands, he is surprisingly handy around the house as we do projects. He fetches tools and rags from the basement (from Doreen) and brings them upstairs and partway up the ladder (to Paul). He flips light switches to make sure the light bulbs are screwed in tightly. And he does nice "braces" to help Paul get up from the floor or some other uncomfortable position.

Here he is delivering a screwdriver to Paul. Dempsey looks like he'd rather be on a play date, but like a good little service dog, he finished all his work before we headed to the tennis court to play with the Chuck-It.



Dempsey's favorite chore was helping me get more paint at the hardware store. Not thinking, I was carrying two quart cans, leaving me unable to carry the empty gallon can to get the color matched. Luckily, I had Dempsey with me! He carried the empty can (which, btw, has a plastic handle so it didn't hurt Dempsey's teeth) all the way from the car to the paint counter at the hardware store.

As we walked through the store, people gasped, "Look at that dog!" and started following us. By the time we arrived at the paint counter, Dempsey was leading a small parade of people eager to see what he would do next.

I wanted Dempsey to "rise" and "put" the can on the counter, but alas, it was a bit too high. Dempsey kept leaning his head back, trying to get the can onto the counter, and I finally helped him. When he jumped down, everybody applauded, and Dempsey looked around, smiling and wagging his tail. I think he was genuinely happy to get all the admiration, which is a good thing, since I forget to bring the treat bag. I had Dempsey "take a bow," and then show off by picking up a credit card. He was quite the star!




Friday, June 3, 2011

Going to California

I've been in California the past few days while Dempsey has been at home with Doreen, but everywhere I look I see reminders of the little guy. For example, this headline from the paper the other day:

Doreen and I know how great and wonderful Dempsey is, but this news came as quite a surprise. We probably shouldn't have let him watch the news story about the dog in the bin Laden raid; who knew Dempsey would be so ambitious?

And today at the store, I spotted this car in the parking lot:



It's a reminder of why we're working so hard to train Dempsey, and what a wonderful gift he'll be for somebody someday.

Thursday, June 2, 2011