Last Ski

March 16, 2009

We went for our last ski with Kruiser this weekend. After taking both dogs on the dog trails (photo above) we left Pat in the car and skied non-dog trails with Kruiser. Crushed at not being able to find a stick anywhere in the meadow, Kruiser pulled off a small branch of sagebrush and carried it for the rest of the ski. At lunch a trail grooming snowcat came by. We fully expected them to challenge us about having a dog on a non-dog trail, but the operator only stopped to say hi. He remembered Kruiser from an earlier ski and asked how he was doing. Later we bumped into a group of 3 women who cooed and gushed over Kruiser and another guy who actually threw the sagebrush limb for him to retrieve. It sure seemed like Kruiser was carrying out a campaign to open ALL trails at Devil's Thumb to dogs.

It's hard these last days, having so many "lasts" with Kruiser, but at the same time it's exciting how well he's doing with the detailed training for helping Matthew through non-verbal prompting. With reminders from Ed, Krusier now has the routine down to go out back to pee, then jump on the bed and nuzzle my ear and face to "wake" me up, then run down the front steps to "go get the paper," then gallumph up the stairs to "bring" it to me. I then sort the paper and rebag the sections to be recycled and tell him to "bring" them to Ed (the "bringing" of the paper will transfer into Kruiser bringing Matthew his medicine in a bag, reminder notes, etc.). After coffee and paper, I ask him (Kruiser, not Ed) to "go get my clothes" and point toward the pile I left the night before. One by one, he carries over my shirt and then my jeans. To Kruiser it's all a great game of fetch. Hopefully it will make Matthew and his family's life better.