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Alpha's Heavenly Days,  TDI, SAR
           Ch. Alpha's Cooperative Effort × Ch. Ashlawn's Bianca Divan, RM
Daisy
This is Alpha's Heavenly Days, TDI, SAR ("Daisy"). She's a young girl who's in training for her CD, she's registered as a therapy dog (she used to work at a local nursing home, but when I had to quit driving, she had to retire!), and she's doing search & rescue work like Gracie and Zöe. She's got a lot of potential and a lot of ability, and we're going to try to live up to what she's expecting from us! Stay tuned for developments!

Daisy's breeder has finally retired, but we stay in contact.                             E-mail me and I'll let you know who she is and how to contact her!
Daisy's won her first title. She's now Alpha's Heavenly Days, TDI! That means she's an official Therapy Dog! That's the first thing I've trained her to do, but she's got lots more out there waiting. She's in training for her CD (that's Companion Dog), but I don't know if I can drive to obedience trials, so that's kind of on hold. I can't drive her to her therapy visits either now, so she's retired from her therapy work. But she's proving to be a great search dog. Go get 'em, Kid! She also has her first "find" in a real Search and Rescue situation, now, so she's actually Daisy, TDI, SAR. She's really doing great! She's a very special little lady.

She's also about to start her greatest adventure: she's about to go on her first real trip with me as my service dog! She's going to Pine Mountain State Park in Kentucky, then to Walt Disney World for  about a week, then she's going to South Carolina to visit the in-laws, then she's going to Sapphire Valley, North Carolina, then she's going back home. I'll write more later to let you know how she did! (Just for informational purposes, she's already taken me downtown to see The Lion King and she was an angel. Then she went with me to Louisville for Easter. She's being a super service dog so far!)

She's back from Disney World and the rest of her vacation, and she did GREAT! She was a little noisy in her hotel rooms, but she did great overall. She wasn't afraid at the hotels or on the rides (Pirates of the Caribbean was her favorite), and she did great in the Haunted Mansion. She also rode Ellen's Energy Adventure and the "it's a small world" ride, although she did not discover what Gracie found so interesting about that one! She met all of the princess characters and a few of the head characters like Chip 'n Dale, Goofy, and Clarabelle Cow, and she was very good the whole time she was there. Now I'm really looking forward to our fall trip!
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Initial photo ©2001 Sue Hamilton, WDW photo ©2008 donna j., and text ©2009 donna j.
And on top of all the Walt Disney World news, she also has another find in her search work!  You done good again, Daisy!
Well, she's gone on her second trip to WDW, and this trip was every bit as good as the first one. We got many pictures and we had a blast. We're going back this October again We go back nearly every year. The only thing that is better than a Disney park is an elkhound specialty! We're going back this year to catch the Halloween party for the last time for a few years. Check back in November to see how she did this time!
Well, the trip this year didn't turn out like we had planned. We took both girls to the vet for their "before vacation" check up, and Zöe fell back out of the car when she jumped in. She hurt her back and she's limping really badly on her left side. She's going back to the specialist on Wednesday. Keep her in your prayers, please! But Daisy won't be going back to Disney World for a couple of years. She'll be going everywhere else with me, but Disney World is out for a couple of years!

UPDATE!! Zöe's much better, but she's got a long way to go. She's still limping very badly. She evidently hurt her back when she fell out of the car, and nerve damage takes a loooooong time to heal. Keep her in your prayers. She's getting better, but it's going to be a long time before she's back to being Zöe!
Isn't Daisy cute?
Daisy's started a new endeavour now. Ed's training her to scent when his blood sugar level's changing! I think she's going to be able to be a big help to Ed, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see. We're pulling for her to do well!
Daisy's just gotten over a bad case of Poison Ivy! What? Dogs can't get poison ivy? I beg to differ! She itched like a banshee for about two weeks, but it's all gone and healing up now. She got it while she was on a search. We decided to bathe her when we got her home. BIG MISTAKE! And Ed was very careful and he scrubbed her very hard. That took all the poison ivy stuff through her coat and onto her skin! Well, she's doing much better now, and I swear I'll never bathe her when she gets home from a search again! Moms and Dads aren't perfect, I guess, but we do learn, so it will never happen again!