GRADUATION DAY!!!

Graduation was great!! It has been a really special day. I can’t believe that we are done and on our way home. We have met some very special people who have all become part of our family; both the other recipients and the trainers, staff, and volunteers of Canine Companions.




We started out the day by returning Raine to the trainers at 9:30. Then we had a brunch with the puppy raisers for all the graduate dogs. We got to meet the puppy raisers who had Raine. The L family—It was a husband and wife and two sons, and grandma.



They are a wonderful family. It was so neat to meet them.



During the brunch there was a slide show of the “teams.” We also had a chance to publicly thank the puppy raisers.





After the brunch, the puppy raisers go to go see the dogs. We (the “graduates”) went to the hall where the graduation ceremony was being held. There were a lot of dogs around. I mentioned yesterday that there were 47 dogs being turned in. There were also puppies of various ages. C did not want to go into the building. He wanted to stay out and pet all the dogs. :)





The ceremony was very nice. They had a video of the interviews we had done a few days ago, with pictures that had been taken throughout training. C had signed “I love Raine” (with prompting—from dad) during our interview. They showed that at the end of the video. I of course started bawling and had to ask for some tissues from someone.



They also showed a video of all the puppies being turned in today. They called it matriculation. After that video they had the puppy raisers bring the dogs up onto the stage as they read their names, where they were from, and how many puppies they had raised. One man had raised 16 puppies!!!





Another thing the staff member from CCI mentioned during graduation was the fund raising that goes on for Canine Companions. CCI does not receive any grants. All of their money comes from fund raising. This year Legoland is donating money to CCI that comes from their “green” program (the recycling that is done at the park.) The money they are donating is only from 5 months of this year and it will go to the November 2010 graduation.





At the end of the ceremony, they announced each graduate (or team). We came up on stage and the puppy raiser handed off the dog to us. Of course, there was lots of pictures taken. There was graduation class speaker. She did an amazing job. I’m hoping to post her speech on here in a couple of days.



Afterwards, we took some pictures of our puppy raisers, or rather C did. (He loves to take pictures. I’m going to have to go through and weed out the people we don’t know.) We didn’t get many pictures, because our battery died.





We are now heading home, with an extra body in the car.:) I can’t wait to see my other kids. I’ve missed them so much. I was going to start school up Monday, but I’m thinking we need some time to get into a routine with Raine a bit first. So, I guess we can always finish up history from last year this week, and start up school next Monday.



And, I have to mention, we went to an In ‘n Out. We actually have a few up near us that I didn’t know about, but I have some friends from out of state who just rave about this place. So I broke my diet, and we ate there for lunch/dinner today. They are really good hamburgers and the shakes are delicious (which is too bad, since I shouldn’t eat them), but I don’t know if I would say they are the best hamburgers ever. (The price was great though!:) And I like the fries.