We have an exchange student- Welcome Ines!

I've been doing some volunteer work for an assistance dog organization here in Belgium. So that is how I first met Ines. We didn't want a puppy, we didn't want a puppy...now we have a puppy. And Howard loves her too. We are raising her for the organization so she'll go back when she's about one year old. Hopefully she will successfully train as a hearing dog to help alert a hearing impaired person to sounds in their environment. If her ears are any indication of her abilities, she'll be great!

Here's a picture of Ginger and Ines. Ginger has just started to appreciate all of Ines' fine qualities. This includes chewing Ginger's ears, poking her to play, running circles around Ginger, and doing all sorts of other puppy things. Sometimes Ginger graces her with a short play session.

As part of her early socialization we try to take Ines to lots of new places. Here's Howard with her at the Grand Place. We perhaps overwhelmed her that day. There were throngs of crowds!


Here's a link to the organization's website:
http://www.harttegenhart.be/NL/nieuws.htm

So two days after we picked up the puppy, Ginger became extremely sick. I had to navigate the oncall vet system here in Belgium and do it in French. She was horribly sick for a whole week and I became convinced that she was dying of something. She cried all night, vomited, wouldn't eat, and would hardly walk around much less take a walk. After lots of tests and sleepless nights, she woke up one morning completely healed. No idea what was wrong. But I now can conjugate the verb "vomir" (to vomit) in five tenses. We all slept for an entire weekend after that!