Why a DAD? Part 3 of an on going topic

On Saturday, the whole family went to a memorial service. An amazing, dear friend, who has been a MAJOR supporter of our journey to getting Major (see what I did there?) lost his girlfriend 2 weeks ago. The service was at her amazing estate out near Ojai.

It was mainly an outdoor affair, with close friends and relatives. The grounds have miniature horses, cats, peacocks, and a pond with koi. We were sitting in the backyard chatting, and Major alerted. We checked Stella, and she was 138. Essentially a great, non alert number in our target zone of 80 to 140.

Within a couple of minutes of that happening, we were asked to move around front, and people started sharing stories and memories. Stella and Dash were the only kids there, and they were over playing with the miniature horses. As long as they were being good and quiet, that was okay. Stella had Major, and she had her full body leash on, across her shoulders.

Laurie is wearing the body leash here

So Major, Stella, and Dash were probably 100-150 feet away, and we had our backs to them as we were listening to the stories. At one point, Major huffs, and lets out a small whine/bark, and both Laurie and I turn around. It had probably been 15 minutes since his first alert, but now he had our attention. So we called them over. As Major was leashed and couldn't get to us to alert, he figured out a different way to alert us. When we checked Stella, she was 81. She dropped 50 points in 15 minutes, and was still dropping fast.

So why are DAD's so important to us? When we checked Stella and she was 138, we could have assumed she was doing great, and not checked her again for 2-3 hours at dinner time if she had no symptoms. (And she was showing no symptoms). This happens time and time again at places like Disneyland, the Zoo, the park, while she is horseback riding, or even while she is sitting in her after school math tutoring class.

Whenever we go out, it is comforting to know that not only are Laurie and I watching out for our kids, but so are these dogs. It means that we can take our eyes off her for a minute or 2 and know that if disaster strikes, we will know about it. And often times, much earlier then our meter will clue us in. At 138, Major sensed the drop that was coming. And 15 minutes later, after a big BS drop, he re-alerted to make sure we were paying attention.

He got some extra loving and treats shortly afterwards :)

Even with all of this going on, he is still working

Public access work is probably one of the most important facets of a DAD's job. When we are out and about, often times not fully engaged, shopping, or at a movie theater, or at an amusement park, or enjoying a dinner, having an extra set of eyes (or nostrils?) is so helpful and important.

Alerting st the music store

Alerting in a pew at church

Alerting at Sea World

Everyone was alerting at Sea World

Alerting at a dog agility competition

alerting at Grandma's house

On a different note, I had taken both dogs running with me that morning. We did 7 miles together, then went to Stella's horseback riding lesson, then dropped Raven off at home and headed out for the almost 2 hour drive. By the time we got back, we were all pretty exhausted. Stella still has twin bed she loves, and keeps it filled with stuffed animals, but our dogs are pretty resourceful, and find ways to make the tight spaces work:

And today I took a day off work so we could take Dash to his TrialNet appointment. TrialNet tests siblings and "at risk" people for autoantibodies that are indicative of early onset type 1. We took Major with us, as not only is he a DAD, but he is also an amazing support animal.