[labman]

Saturday we picked up a new 7 week old puppy from the dog guide school. She is a yellow Lab, perhaps too light colored for the name we choose ahead of time. Xanthe is a Greek word for yellow or blond. They do darken through their first year. She is the 16'th puppy we have raised for the dog guide school.

Shasta was on the list of names, but having read the Fox in the Socks too many times, I wasn't going to have a Shasta in the same house as Aster. My wife doesn't like my suggestion that Knox would be a good name for a male, yellow Lab. After all, we knew a Calvin, and our daughter's first puppy was Luther.

Aster turned 14 the Sunday before last. We had a quiet celebration, only her replacement and his partner. Samson is about 5, but still plays well with Holly when he is off duty.

Our daughter's Zephyr was recently partnered with a man from the same area as our Nita went. It didn't work, and he will be partnered with somebody else later. I am not sure how it would have worked if the old friends ran into each other when they were working.

Today is Rumplestiltskin day. Some of the staff from Holly's service dog school will be passing through the area on their way back and offered to pick her up. She is the second puppy we have raised for them. This sav

[RubyPitbull]

Hey Labman, it looks like your post was cut off.?
Tell your wife I like the name Knox for a very yellow lab. It's fun. Congratulations on giving up your life for another year. LOL.

I have questions.
What is Rumplestiltskin Day? I know the story about Rumplestiltskin but I didn't know there was Day named after him. Is there something special that it symbolizes?

What happened to Zephyr? Did the dog get rehomed as a guide dog with someone else?

[labman]

Rumplestiltskin Day is any day a school reclaims its puppy. Otherwise, I may have forgotten that ghastly little story.

Zephyr is still at school. They will hang on to him and work at matching him to somebody else. They did that with our Zeke. I guess he got tired of it and started
Running people into stuff. We found a place for him in a nursing home in a Alzheimer's unit. Everybody has food in their room. The last I saw him, he was abusively obese. Zeke is the one in the picture looking at the Pro Plan.

What was cut of was that it is 400-500 miles to the school and back plus missing a days work.

[RubyPitbull]

Calling that day Rumplestiltskin day is a bit creepy. I understand it, but it definitely doesn't conjure up any happy or fun thoughts.

I hope they are able to work with Zephyr and get him to completely focus. I understand that it doesn't quite work out as expected from time to time, but it must be upsetting for the people like your daughter who worked so hard to "mold" a puppy for this work.