All About the Boy

Happy Cinco de Mayo!  We have a nice and sunny but cool day here, which is especially good because today is all about this boy:

Yep, 11 years ago today, the "H" litter of puppies were born who were going to be trained as Seeing Eye Dogs.  As you may or may not know, not all doggies end up making the cut, and don't worry they go to loving homes.  But for those that do, it becomes a busy life with a lot to learn!

Here is Baby Hamlet with his original family, who owned his father, named Spike (that cracks me up!).  Look at the little fuzzball face!  I wish I could have known him as a tiny puppy, but he was a dog with a plan.

His original family socialized him, and they did the preliminary training for about a year and a half.  Then he had his test at the Seeing Eye headquarters in Morristown, New Jersey, where he passed and then went into serious training for about 2 years.  After that, he was placed with Jeff, and worked with him for about 8 years.  Jeff and his wife are both blind, and she had a black lab guide dog named Karma.  Hamlet and Karma needless to say, were best buds, and they retired about the same time.

 This photo is from a visit at Christmastime to Jeff and Sharon - that's Hamlet kissing Jeff, and Jeff's new guide dog, Mike, getting in on the action.

Here is Hamlet making sure that he has Jeff all to himself.

When we adopted Hamlet in July 2018, we were worried that he would miss his other family.  He clearly did, but he also adapted pretty well.  Then when we went to see them that Christmas, he was THRILLED to see everyone, but also ready to go home with us without incident.

A dog who, as part of his previous life, went to work every day, travelled internationally (he's been to Europe 5 times), gone of 3 cruises, and led a pretty active life, has adjusted to his retirement pretty well.  Now his "big" trips are to Baltimore or WV, which he loves I'm guessing almost as much as any of his other trips - as long as people are there, it's an adventure for him! 

He joined the family when we had three cats, and though he was a little bit nervous about them at first, having never been around cats, he quickly fit right in, and it was all a lovefest.  It's not unusual to see him napping with a cat or cats.

And gets a lot of kisses and baths from them!  (Here is the Koodle checking things out.)

Happy Birthday Hamlet!  We are so glad that you are part of our family, and we love you to the moon and back!