Reunion Weekend

This past weekend was a big one in our house.  First of all, The Tim was able to get his first vaccine shot on Saturday morning, which was a big deal for all of us!  Vaccine eligibility opens up today to everyone in the city 18 years older and above, but he got a notice at the end of last week from the Dept. of Public Health site that his turn had come up.  So he made an appt for early on Saturday, and now in two weeks he'll get his second, and by the end of May we will both be safe for public consumption! (Well, vaccine-wise at least.)

Also, on Saturday, Hamlet and I walked over to Washington Square here in the city so that the woman who raised Hammy as a puppy could see him.  Her name is Robin, and we have been friends on Facebook for a while, but had never met in person.  She was going to be in the city for a tour of Independence Hall with a group of other puppy raisers (and puppies!), and wondered if we could meet during the lunch break, since it has been years since she has seen our boy.

As it turns out, Hammy's dad, Spike, was her dog.  He sired A LOT of puppies for the Seeing Eye Foundation, and Robin has been a puppy raiser for a long time, and she happened to get Hamlet as her 7th puppy to raise for them.  The way it works is that the puppies are given to preapproved raisers, who bring them up until they are about 18 months old; then they go the Seeing Eye headquarters in Morristown, NJ, to see if they can make the cut as service dogs before being matched with someone.  Those who don't make the cut are returned and or adopted out as pets, so everyone has a happy ending.

Well, as we entered the park, I heard someone say "Hi Hammy," and he went NUTS with excitement!  I really think he remembered her voice.  He was so thrilled and so excited.  We sat and talked and visited for almost the entire hour, Hamlet got treats (I'm sure the highlight for him!), and I got to hear lots of puppy stories and stories about Spike.

This is a photo that Robin took when we first sat down and Hamlet was with her.

I have to say, that face gets me every time.

And here is one I took of them having a conversation.

Robin is really wonderful, and a whole lot of fun, as I had suspected from many of her Facebook posts, and I'm so happy that she and her puppy - or as she called him her "granddog" - had a chance to reunite.  

Once she had to rejoin the group to go home, we headed back to our house as well.  I took a few more photos since it was such a lovely day.

Here is Hamlet right before we left the Square:

Then we headed down to Pine Street, so we could walk past Pennsylvania Hospital and I could get a photo of him there.

That is the original building of the hospital, the first one in America, founded by - say it with me - Benjamin Franklin.  The building is beautiful, and of course behind the main building are the add-ons making it a huge, modern, city hospital.  Sometime I'll have to tell you about the inside, and the original parts of things.

Then we headed around the corner, to one of my favorite things in the city.  This is a water trough next to the original hospital, where people used to be able to water their horses; it's now a planter, but otherwise looks the same as when it was first constructed.  I couldn't get Hamlet to face me, but nonetheless:

The landscapers were actually nice enough to wait until we finished before getting started with their planting (I'm sure they are used to variations on this theme).  I also took a closeup so you could see the quote engraved on the trough, which is one of the most wonderful things of all, in my opinion.

******

Sunday was spent by Hamlet resting (he was zonked out!), and The Tim just taking it easy (his arm was sore, but nothing else).  So the kitties and I decided to follow their example.  I finished a book I was reading, and did some knitting, and Hamlet and I had a lovely walk in the neighborhood, along a street where all of the flowering trees were starting to bud, and the flowers had started to bloom everywhere.  

Probably one of the best weekends we've had - I know it was for Hamlet, at least!

Here's hoping this week will be kind to all of us.  Have a good one!