Guide Dog Pup II

Let me introduce you to Yani.  She is half Lab and half Golden and a half sister to our first pup Tullagh.  She arrived a few hours ago so I wanted to show her off just a bit!  Kathy is holding Yani and standing next to our Irish Guide Dog trainer, Mairead.

Yani had not been in the house for more than 10 minutes before 3 little girls in the neighborhood were knocking on the door wanting to meet her.  Mairead told them she could come out to play a little bit tomorrow, but for the rest of today, she needed to get used to her new home and to rest.

Yani is one of 8 pups in her 'Y' litter.  All Guide Dog pups in the same litter get names starting with the same letter to make it easier for trainers to keep track of ages and relatives.  Yani has the same father as our first pup, but a Labrador Retriever mother.  This is the guide dog 'standard issue' breed as they have a wonderful mix of traits that make them ideal as assistance dogs for autistic kids or as guide dogs for non-sighted Irish pepole. 

Also, I wanted to let you know that Kathy's sister, Pam, is continuing to recover miraculously!  She was able to take 7 assisted steps yesterday!  Kathy is going to be posting a much more detailed update shortly, but in the mean time we want to thank so many for your notes, encouragement and prayers.