September Sponsor Letter

Hi Sue!

I wish I had some more pictures to share with you this month but many of our recent visits have either been impossible to handle Beacon and photograph at the same time or due to privacy issues we could not photograph.

We went to a boys prison (privacy issues), a medical step down unit (I was a little nervous about leaving Beacon bedside while I photographed), a nursing home (I was too interested in listening to stories that I forgot to snap a single picture!) and several school visits (again, privacy issues).

We celebrated Beacons first birthday with some special doggie ice cream for Beacon (see Beacon 1 and Beacon 2).  We found out about doggie ice cream just in time for our first pup, Honey, to celebrate with so, of course, Beacon had to have some puppy ice cream too!  To say he enjoyed it would be a major understatement! 

One of the school visits Beacon went to this month made the front page of the local county newspaper (see Beacon_paper).  I just received a copy yesterday and plan on placing one in the mail for you.  Would you please give me an address to mail a copy?

On that school visit Beacon and I were invited to a kindergarten class that was learning about the sense of sight.  I talked with the students about how dogs can help people who have low or no vision.  Beacon, being the great dog that he is, stayed in a perfect down for the entire presentation.  Then, Beacon and I showed the class how special Beacon is and how well he listens to commands that 'regular' dogs do not know.  Beacon was a big hit and the perfect dog!  After the question and answer time, and those kindergarteners had a million questions, I took off Beacons jacket and let him have fun interacting with the kids.  Should he not make it as a guide, Beacon certainly has the ability to be a BARC (Be A Reader to Canines) dog!

Sadly, our time with Beacon is ending.  Our Area Coordinator will bring Beacon and another Nashville in for training pup, George, back to campus on October 5th.  Unfortunately, that also means that we will not be able to bring Beacon to your offices as we wanted.  I am disappointed but glad Beacon will have a travel buddy with him when he heads to campus.

I will send some additional photos before Beacon leaves us and hopefully some pictures as he arrives on campus for your next meeting.

He is still the sweetest, laid back pup around!  We are going to miss Sweet Beacon terribly!

Have a great few weeks!