After being open for 52 business days, we did our 1000th spay/neuter at our clinic today.

One of our shelter kitties, Panda, was the lucky patient.

Panda about ready to get prepped for surgery.

Let's shave that belly!

All done

Panda is now ready to go home, and we’re ready to tackle our next thousand patients.

This is from our visit to the coast two weeks ago. I’m sure she has already grown!

We just started carrying these toys in Davenport’s Den. I thought they were adorable and had to get one for Dante.

Here’s the happy Dante:

It’s finally vacation time! There has been lots going on the last week or so, but no time to write about any of it. Maybe I can catch up this week and share what’s up with Maggie the puppy, our spay/neuter clinic, and the workshop we had on dog play groups.

But for now, it’s time to try to catch up on sleep. Between daylight savings time and time zones, I lost a sixth of a day, but I’m definitely ready to call it a night. The trip to Boston today was easy; I’m so glad they started flying non-stop from Portland to Boston.

Tomorrow I’m going to visit Animal Rescue League of Boston. I saw their shelter briefly a year or two ago, but this time I get a behind the scenes tour. Should be fun!

I got to visit my parents on Friday evening and saw Bella (now known as Maggie) and Alice. They are great together. I haven’t had time to even get the photos and video off my camera yet, but dad emailed some adorable pictures today…

I think they’re pretty happy!

Our second week of class has passed and again everyone survived.

Julio was very excited to go to work, but wouldn’t settle in my office today and spent most of the day in the car. Thankfully it’s still chilly out otherwise I’d need another soundproof box to keep him in during the day.

So after a day of forced nap time, Julio was more than ready for class this evening. When I got out his leash he wagged his tail so much it didn’t even show up in the picture.

Ready for class

As I carried Julio down the hall to the training room, a shelter dog was on her way back in from a walk. Of course, Julio gave her a very vocal greeting. Apparently just a second before, in the training room, Annie had wondered aloud where Julio was. His shrieks announced to all class members that we were on our way.

Amazingly enough, that was his worst barking episode of the evening. He was relatively quiet through the whole class and was even able to focus on me and treats for longer this week.

Last week he only lasted 20 minutes before getting overwhelmed and mostly shutting down. Today even 40 minutes into the class he was still motivated by treats and able to check in with me. He was a little too distracted to follow a treat lure as well as I know he can in other situations, but overall it was a huge improvement.

Julio’s classmates Falco and Zume were pretty cute during class.

Annie demonstrating with Falco

Zume showing off his amazing cuteness

Falco the Handsome

For the last bit of class, Julio started to act tired and gave me the “why can’t we go home yet?” look.

Mr Pathetic

Like last week, Julio again spent the end of class laying down at my feet. But this time he was more alert, instead of being curled up at my feet wishing the world would disappear.

Settling at the end of class

After class we had a dog party and let our pint sized puppies run around together. Falco showed off his amazing running abilities in which his back legs almost overtake his front legs. Zume thought this was a great game.

And... they're off!

They ran so fast that when they turned the corner they would run into the breakroom door with a THUD. The funniest part is that they did this again and again.

Julio was too tired to join in much and later spent the entire drive home passed out and silent. Now he’s curled up on top of his Romeo, sleeping peacefully. I love Mondays!