Life Chronicles: And then he walked away. Brilliant.

[Cooper]

Normally I do Marina Chronicles, but only one of these stories takes place there, so instead I'm chronicling life.

x Coffee is x Coffee, no matter how long you talk

I went to pay for my gas at my local gas station. They're sort-of an everything store. They sell batteries, medicine, pizza, sandwiches, ice cream, coffee, breakfast sandwiches, doughnuts, cigarettes, lotto tickets, alcohol... their motto is: "If we don't have it, you don't need it!"

They have premium coffee, which is the point of this story. I only heard one side of the conversation.

Guy: Hel-

What's the-

Okay-

Do you wan-

*hands phone to manager*

Manager: *covers phone* What's the problem?

Guy: She says she got the wrong coffee.

Manager: X Coffee?

Guy: Yeah.

Manager: 2 bags?

Guy: Yup.

Manager: I sold her the coffee. She got the right kind.

Guy shrugs.

Manager: Hello-

Yes was something wrong w-

Well you got the right kind but-

I wanted to know if-

something was wrong with it because-

I smile at the guy, wish him luck, and head on my way, so I don't know what happened next.

Yes that means no

During my second college class today, we we given the subject of the test next session. The teacher told us explicitly she wouldn't give us the answers, just that one question would be on Julius Ceasare, and stuff like that.

Every few questions, one of the kids in the back would ask her for the answer to the question.

By the end, it wasn't funny anymore.

And then he walked away...

I was talking to the mechanics, who rarely see the customers directly. One was putting a jetskii in the water, and was going to drag it over to the gas-pumps to fill it up. (The gas pumps used to be by the launch, but turns out DNR is kinda specific on where it wants us to have our gas tanks, so when we bought the marina, we moved them to comply.)

SC: Finally!
CW: I just have to fill it up-
SC: I've been waiting a long time for that, y'know!
CW: Oh you have? Well then I'll just swim it over there!

He then tied the jetskii to the dock he was at, and walked away.

Therapy Animals

On a sweet note, one of my professors has a therapy dog. I asked for a few stories about it, because I wanna make my rabbit a therapy rabbit. (She's fairly close. Doesn't go to the bathroom on humans, gives kisses, will take treats from people, but still digs and bites too hard into people.)

She told me a few that were just the sweetest stories.

Story the first: She brings the dog in on Fridays. One of the professors walked into the room with the dog. Upon seeing the person, the dog wagged his tail a bit. The professor fell to their knees, hugged the dog, and said:"I really needed to see you."

Story the second: Her nephew got bit by a vicious dog. Her sister called her, and told her to come over to babysit, and bring her dog. She read her nephew a bedtime story, and while she did, the dog went to the kid's side of the bed, and rested his head by the kid's head.

The kid told his Mom the dog tucked him in.

Story the third: She got a kitten that she named Pandora (because it leapt out of a box into her arms.) It was too young to be taken away from its Mom, and didn't know how to eat.

The professor had exhausted herself trying to get the kitten to eat or drink kitten milk, and was unable to. She fell asleep. When she woke up, she found the bowl of kitten milk empty. She said her first thought was: "That the dog had drank the milk then ate the cat."

What she found was the kitten curled up against the dog, face covered in milk. She observed next time she put the kitten milk down, and the dog would take a bit of milk, then the cat would mimic it. When the cat was done, the dog would clean the cat's face.

I can't wait for Caddie and I to do things like that for people. (Though I doubt she'll be adopting kittens any-time soon.)

[fireheart]

What she found was the kitten curled up against the dog, face covered in milk. She observed next time she put the kitten milk down, and the dog would take a bit of milk, then the cat would mimic it. When the cat was done, the dog would clean the cat's face.
)

Cute.

I've also read a story somewhere of a woman who had a female dog and had found a kitten on the side of the road. She brought it home and the cat started bonding with the dog. Next thing they know, the cat is latching onto one of the dogs nipples trying to get milk from it. The owner is laughing thinking that the cat won't get anything from it (either dog was never pregnant or dog was pregnant but not in the last 12 months or so). She goes over and pulls the cat off the nipple and milk comes out

[scruff]

Our cat brought up our dog. :-)
He was abandoned as a puppy, too young, and we got him from a shelter.
He was such a small bundle of fur the local cats couldn't tell he wasn't a kitten, and he got taught to feed and clean himself as a cat, cleanest dog I've ever met.
:-)
Everything worked great until they tried to teach him how to hunt. lol.
Our cat put him on the patio. Went and caught a field mouse and dropped it next to dog, and backed off to see what would happen.
Dog did typical drooly dog grin.
Cat went over, patted the hysterically frozen mouse towards dog, and then backed away to let dog have space to react.
Dog sits there grining..
This got repeated a few times - you could see Cat going "instinct is going to kick in any time now.. any time now... any time now... oh for pitys sake!"
Cat eventually stalked off in a huff, mouse snuck away, and dog just sat there grinning and looking bemused.
Local cats continued to treat him as a nice but dim kitten, and he carried on happily as macho as he wanted to be, until he saw a cat... he treated them as agressive mother-in-laws. :-) He was very good at breaking the ice with kids who were scared of dogs, the bodylanguage that dogs react to is different to the language that cats react to, and of course he was brought up by cats..

[starsinthesky]

Therapy animals are the best. There is a dog at the hospital my son went to named Tiger. He came to see my son the day of his surgery and he got to pet and hug him, it took his mind of it. Really relaxed him.

[Pixilated]

*snip*
She said her first thought was: "That the dog had drank the milk then ate the cat."
*snip*

Dog: "Ah look! A snack without the cellophane!"

Therapy animals are wonderful. We have a sad shortage of them in My Hometown. The therapy dog that used to visit the nursing home where Mom now is has unfortunately gone to that Great Backyard in the Sky. So now they are on waiting list for a therapy dog. Everytime somebody comes in with a family pet, Mom turns to watch it go by.

[Merriweather]

Dog: "Ah look! A snack without the cellophane!"

Therapy animals are wonderful. We have a sad shortage of them in My Hometown. The therapy dog that used to visit the nursing home where Mom now is has unfortunately gone to that Great Backyard in the Sky. So now they are on waiting list for a therapy dog. Everytime somebody comes in with a family pet, Mom turns to watch it go by.

My Yorkie was never a full-fledged trained-and-approved therepy dog, but when I used to visit my Mom at her nursing home the dog would go with me, and we ended up having to stop every few feet on the way to my Mom's room to let someone pet her. She of course loved it.

[Draper Mel]

The day I had my back surgery, one of the nurses had her dog there, a small terrier mix. She was training him to be a therapy dog. My sister asked her to bring him into my room, so he sat on my bed for a few minutes before my surgery. It was very helpful.

Also, when my Dad was in the nursing home, my sister (same one as above) would bring her dog to visit him, and the other residents. She used to have another dog, the uncle of her current dog, who was trained as a therapy dog. Her younger dog used to be too energetic, but she's settled down enough to do it now too.

[Seshat]

We have Vi partly trained to be a therapy dog (of the 'visiting people' sort).

Unfortunately, her one fault as a therapy dog is that she gets overexcited, and very easily. She's now a 'senior' (barely) and still overexcites, so we doubt it's going to change enough to make her useful.


But she continues to be excellent therapy for US.

[Cooper]

Haha, yeah. I figured Caddie would work as a therapy animal because she's calm, affectionate, and loves attention. One of the neighbour's kids was poking her, prodding her, pulling on her ears... she didn't care.

But she's still a baby, so I'm trying to teach her teachable things. (I think I could spend years on Owi, my other rabbit, and will never be able to get him to handle being picked up without freaking out.)

She took a treat out of my hands yesterday, whereas a month ago I had to leave the treat in her cage, then walk away before she'd take it. She doesn't mind a harness (though she's too small to do a lot of harness training right now. The harness falls right off her.) She has never gone to the bathroom on me, but has hopped off of me and gone next to me. She alternates between nipping me and giving me kisses, which doesn't hurt 90% of the time. I try to let her know when it does hurt. Finally, whenever she tries to 'dig' into my arm, I pull her away and hold her down for a minute. She's been doing that less and less.

After that, I can't think of anything I can do for training her.

It makes me kinda glad that Owi and Caddie didn't bond, as it allows Caddie this great opportunity. (Owi treats her like a stuffed animal, and won't stop humping her, biting her, or digging into her. He only stopped when she screamed. He then pulled away, licked her a little bit, and generally acted like he didn't know she could get hurt. He really loves her; he just doesn't know how to show it.)