Tuesday, August 29, 2017

I have the BEST friends!

I'm not sure if I'm just lucky or if I have done a fantastic job of choosing my friends. But you are all absolutely amazing!

I'm sure you all know that I work for the Marine Science Institute (MSI) in Port Aransas, Texas. But I am stationed in Austin at the main UT campus. I'm sure you also know that cat 4 Hurricane Harvey hit MSI directly and there was extensive damage.

On Friday afternoon when I realized this might be a whole lot more serious than a little tropical storm, I asked on facebook if anyone had a spare room to loan out to poor graduate student hurricane evacuees from MSI. I've gotten 18 offers of rooms and I've been able to pretty quickly accommodate everyone who has responded to my email asking if anyone needed a place to stay. Even those with cats or a chinchilla, those without a car, etc.

A few of the comments from friends (either to me or to the evacuee staying with them):

"don't take a cab to my house! I'd be happy to [drive from North Austin in horrible rush hour traffic] pick you up at the airport"

"of course we'll babysit your chinchilla while you go down to Port A to survey the damages to your home"

"a friend from Houston just claimed our spare bedroom, but we'll go over and clean up the house we're in the process of moving out of and let people stay there"

"I can take allergy meds, so I'm happy to welcome them and their cats, it's no big deal"

"we already set our Airbnb to $0 for evacuees, but if one of your people needs it, just let me know"

[Their kids just started school, they have an older dog, and her father just passed away, but] "we're happy to offer our spare room"

And quite a few "are you still looking for rooms for hurricane evacuees from the Marine Science Institute?", "I don't have a spare room, but I can loan out air mattresses".


Reading the reports of damage from our director at MSI has made my heart sink, but seeing the generosity of my friends makes my heart soar. It's been an emotional few days and it probably won't be over soon. From the bottom of my heart, I just wanted to say Thank You.

*just as a note- as of right now, I have more rooms offered than I have MSI people needing them. If that changes, I'll definitely post and ask if anyone else has space.






Tuesday, August 8, 2017

Copper

Copper was our second foster dog through Austin Dog Alliance. I didn't write a blog about Copper while we had him, but I thought I would now. Austin Dog Alliance adopted him from a shelter in Buchanan Dam TX because his personality shows promise for becoming a service dog.

When they adopt a dog, he/she always goes to a foster home for 2 weeks just to de-stress and get healthy if needed. In Copper's case, he was stressed from being in the shelter and he was severely underweight. He also needed to get neutered before he could move up to ADA and begin his service dog training.
He came to our house and it was pretty apparent that he had never lived in a house before, he wasn't house trained and didn't even seem to understand that when I hold a treat in my hand, I want to give it to him. But he adored Jeff and I from the start, followed us around the house, always hung out right by us. We had to put his crate in our bedroom so he would sleep at night.

Copper is very sweet and has a great personality, he loves to play fetch, loves to play with Roo, and loves to play in water.
He clearly had never been taught anything, before coming to our house, but he's smart. I was able to teach him to sit, and we got him house trained in the 2 weeks he was with us. He's working on polite leash walking and chilling out around other dogs at ADA now.
He gained almost 6 pounds in the 2 weeks he was at our house, he got neutered, and he seemed to gain energy and feel healthier in the time he was with us. It was pretty cool to see the difference in just 2 weeks.

Copper moved up to Austin Dog Alliance on July 31st and since we were there for my party on August 5th, we got to see him. He looks great and his trainers agree that he's very smart and a fast learner.
Good Luck with service dog training Copper!

40th Birthday Thank You



My 40th Birthday was a huge success! Both the fundraiser and the celebration. To blatantly steal the words of Laurie Allen “'Thank you' seems inadequate to convey my gratitude"  to everyone who donated. I appreciate it so much, but I guess "thank you" is all I can say. So THANK YOU!!

At this point I have raised $4245 for Austin Dog Alliance. This has absolutely been meaningful and rewarding, exactly what I wanted for my 40th birthday. And the money will definitely make a difference for Austin Dog Alliance.

The Executive Director of Austin Dog Alliance told me she's honored to have me supporting ADA. And she said my fundraising is "impressive". I told her, it has very little to do with me, it's that I have amazing and generous friends and family. That's the absolute truth. All of your love and generosity made my 40th birthday my best ever. And it will make a huge impact for Austin Dog Alliance.

If you meant to donate, but haven't done it yet, you can definitely still donate here. 

One more time: THANK YOU!!