So we are getting ready to head to Vancouver next week for Spencer's defense! (D-fense! D-fense!) Melinda is graciously coming to stay for a few days at our house with Max Power, but she was unable to stay all week (without making things complicated), so this week I took on the task of finding Max a doggie day care where he could spend the remainder of our time away. I found one outside of Petaluma that looked cool, and their system is that overnight dogs come for the day to try out the place. So I took Max there before work the other day, and picked him up when I was finished. This place (I named it "dog camp") is set up so that dogs are with other dogs their own size, and they get to trot around all day long. There is always a person with the dogs (always except bedtime, which is 10pm), and they are able to play inside or outside, shade or sun, and there are plenty of beds all over if they wish to lay down or sleep. It seemed like a cool setup. When I went back to get Max at the end of the day, he was a very happy dog! He'd clearly had a fun time. The lady gave me a couple of photos (above and below) that she took of him during the day, as well as a report card, which made me laugh. According to the report card, Max fit in with the "gentle jammers" group (other groups were li'l scamps, swashbucklers, cuddle bugs, touch of greys, and tweeners), his favorite friends were Hauna and Lobo, and he liked to:

*run/explore in the play yards!
*wrestle/chase/hang out with friends!
*have a leisurely sniffing expedition!
*sunbathe!
*happy to snooze a lot!
*get lots of human attention!
*stay cool in the shade!

He did not like to:

*cuddle with friends on dog beds!
*splash in the wading pool!
*dash through the sprinklers!
*love the sandbox toy hunt!
*play on the jungle gym!
*bark a bit inside!

The report card came with all of those exclamation points! What a surprise, he didn't want to play in the water. So, he did well at dog camp, and he'll go back next week for two days and one night. That will be good.


In other news, Spencer signed up for a new online phone thing, and if you leave a voicemail, it can transcribe the message into text and send an email. We were trying it out last night, so I called it and left this message: "...you sound ill. Doggy eval report card especially for Max, play group gentle jammers. okbye!" The email that he got (also sent as a text message to my phone) said the message was: "If that's Bill, we're doggy dollar park right especially for Mac, playgroups donors okay bye." Oh, that made us laugh. Hopefully their transcription capabilities will get better!

This morning I'm going to go see the Harry Potter movie, and then do some errands. I'm going to work tomorrow so that I don't have to take so many vacation days next week, and then work on Monday, and then I leave on Tuesday for Vancouver! Hope you all have a good weekend.