Ruston's Matriculation February 22, 2003

We made the trip to Oceanside, CA on American Airlines to return Ruston to CCI for his advanced training. We also returned another CCI pup for his family who could not make the trip. His name is Joshua. He was a wonderfully well-behaved dog and we think he has a very good chance to making it to team training. Friday we ate dinner at Coco's and bought a couple of gallons of wine to get us through the 4 days stay. We figured we would be spending a lot of time remembering and crying about the kid. Sunday we spent the entire day at Disneyland. Monday we picked up the new pup and flew back home to a tremendous ice storm in Fort Worth. Did you know that California CCI pups rather like pottying in the driving sleet???

Here we are in the hotel, Marty's Best Western.

Marty's has always been very good to us and after visiting all of the other available places in Oceanside, without paying over $100 a night, this is the only place that not only treats you well, but also has a good plot of grass for pottying the pups. Joshua is on the floor and Ruston is on the bed.

A day in the park

Saturday we spent the morning at the park. This is a closeby park and was very well kept and nice to walk. It provided us some respite without sitting around getting upset about loosing the dogs to CCI.

Ruston and Joshua

Then we went to the Mission to exchange the ADIT capes for the matriculating capes. Ruston and Joshua posed in their matriculating capes in the gardens of the Mission.

Ruston by one of the statues in the garden at the Mission. Ruston after matriculating on the west wall of the Mission church. Ruston at CCI posing by their sign. We turned both dogs in to CCI - both on the stage and at the facility. Ruston was ready to leave us. We were not so ready, but had to do so. We got to meet the new puppy we would be bringing home! After the graduation we all met at the Cannery restaurant, one of our favorite places to eat. There were LOTS of CCI dogs there!

Ruston Graduates!!!! This wonderful day occured October 17, 2003 at Santa Rosa, CA. You see, Ruston was moved to the Hearing Dog program midterm because he was a very special kind of dog! We flew to CA to attend the graduation and meet his new partner.
Ruston was matched with Louise who is from Kentucky. They loved each other at first sight. In fact, when we were allowed to spend some time with Ruston, he didn't act like he cared. He only wanted to go be with Louise. So much for OUR egos! Louise is a very kind and warm person who has lots of CCI support in her area. This is important because hearing dogs are not totally trained when they go to their homes. They did not have the exact sounds to learn with, so they have to hear the actual doorbell or that particular phones' ring and learn to respond to it. It isn't too hard, just a bit different from what they trained with. I know Louise will do a good job helping Ruston understand the new sounds. Congratulations Louise and Ruston! Welcome to our family and the CCI family!

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