Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Fall Weather will bring Chance and Steeler back into the visiting pool!




I know, I know, it’s August but it is flying by and soon the fall will be here and when the weather begins to turn a bit cooler it is once again time for Chance and Steeler to do their therapy visits which they so look forward to. The tail wags, the kisses, and the drool that their human friends shed upon them is just as exciting for them as it is for those who love them.

There are a few bigger events that bring people back year after year looking for one or both of my big furry attention seekers. One being the very popular Bloomsburg Fair, granted we are not as popular as the sought out band Sugarland, but we do have our loyal fans!

On our first visit to the Bloomsburg Fair some three years ago with the State Animal Response Team (SART) Chance was the only one that grabbed the spotlight as I did not own Steeler at that time. Since that first year, the SART organization that they both now represent has become better known and gets loyal returnees to the Bloomsburg Fair just to see the big black mugs of Steeler and Chance. Those returnees usually come with new family members or friends to share their joy with these two big oafs and we are very thankful to those people for their support. Other patrons have told us they heard about the ‘Two Black Bears’ through family or friends which prompted their visit to the SART trailer. SART is very appreciative of the public’s effort to raise awareness and much needed supplies for our cause and for those of you that live in Pennsylvania that do not yet know about SART you can find us on the web at http://www.pasart.us/.
For State Animal Response Team’s in other states you can visit http://sartusa.org/

Other events we normally attend are the Bloomsburg Renaissance Fair and more close to my heart is the Danville Spring Fling. The last two years at the Danville spring fling went over so well that we decided to do the Danville Fall Festival this year as well. It was at the first Danville Spring Fling we participated in that I decided to try doing some picture taking with the dogs to help raise donation money for the SART organization and since it went over pretty well we took that idea to the Bloomsburg Fair as well. Hopefully, weather permitting; we will be able to do it again at the Fall Festival.

Danville Fall festival ~Saturday Sept 12, 2009 ~Booth Located in front of the Iron Heritage Restaurant across from the Courthouse.

Bloomsburg Fair Days~September 26th - Oct 3rd 2009~ Located at the SART Trailer in front of the Horse Barn. Please check for dates and times of arrival at the SART trailer bulletin board as the mother of these dogs does have a day job!

As an added note:

Working with SART is a great experience for both myself and the dogs. It's a wonderful feeling to be part of such a great team and we always welcome more team members and whatever you have to offer, we will use! Time, materials, or experience with animals, all are great assets to us.

But I must say that neither Chance nor Steeler may have been so popular had they not been trained as therapy dogs and this I owe to friends Connie and Dixon Cuff. Dixon has since passed and is greatly missed by all who knew him, but Connie has continued to run the Susquehanna Trail Dog Training Club and puts out new Therapy dogs yearly. Kudos to Connie for keeping the group together.

What? You say you would like to do therapy dog work but you don't have a dog? Well we can solve that problem, just log onto the Mostly Mutts or the Animal Resource Center websites listed below , I am sure you will be able to find a furry friend:) While you're at it why not make a donation, it takes a lot of money to keep these guys fed and healthy!

Mostly mutts: Sunbury http://www.mostlymuttsonline.com/

Animal Resource center: Bloomsburg http://www.animalresourcecenter.org/adopt.htm

The baby rabbits have hopped the coup!(or the garden)

The baby rabbits that made a home in the small garden I have on my deck have gone and not a moment too soon as Chance figured out something was up! For those of you that have not heard the story, Peter awoke to some barking then screetching and found that Bentley had found the nest and proceeded to start eating them! UGH, discusting. So we watched very carefully when we let the dogs out always taking Bentley out on a leash since he seemed to be the only one who was aware of the nest. I checked on them daily and all were doing fine, their eyes open and growing in leaps and bounds. Then one morning after keeping an eye on them for a week and a half they were gone:( Click on the post's title to view the movie or copy and paste the link below. Wildlife is so great to watch!

http://www.youtube.com/user/abigailsrun