2 is better then 1

this week I got to visit the library twice!  it seems my mother got a little confused about days and times,.... I guess that happens with humans sometimes.  I was pretty sure it didn't matter to me, any day at the library is a great day!

we are taking a short break from the library until the new summer program starts.  I can't wait!  Miss Cheri tells me, but "shhhhhh" I think its a secret, that I am going to have my own special Zenny Hour!  Can't wait, I hope the kids get to read to me, I love reading and listening to the stories.  Sometimes I take a little nap but that okay too.

Nick came to the library just to see me!   I gave him a big old sloppy wet kiss!

 My sister Lucy came for a quick visit also.  Lucy isn't a therapy dog yet, but I think she will be when she grows up a little.  Lucy is very well trained and a little shy.  Miss Cheri was nice enough to let her come visit for just a bit.  Here is Nick making friends with Lucy.

My friends Anna and Karen at the library can't wait until I come back.  Its so nice to have friends!

yahoo!

what a day I had at the library.  I met so many new friends, I am so lucky!  we read a story about monkey's, I love monkey's.  then the kids did some really messy hand printing.  I wish I had hands!

First, I had a nice little snooze while Miss Cheri was reading,......its important to rest whenever you can!

here is Nick, he was a lot of fun.  he let me give him tons of kisses and he giggled a lot.  I guess he has 2 dogs at home already so he doesn't need another one, but it was fun to meet him.  I hope I see him again!

This is Sadie, her grandmother is Miss Cheri and they both like me a lot!  Sadie has a dog at home also.  Everyone here at the library has dogs!  Sadie likes to do a little training with me.  I love to follow her around the library after we are done reading stories. 

Here are Stephanie, Alexandra and Sadie.  it was so much fun to meet them!  Stephanie and Alexandra met a very extra happy dog recently that was a little to excited to be very much fun.  Its hard to not get so excited when you are dog and you love life!  But if you do, then no one wants to pet you.  So, my mother works really hard at helping me to be gentle and kind.  Now Stephanie and Alexandra know that there are nice gentle dogs they can pet!

Anna and Olga were at story hour also.  Someone was tickling my feet!! Are you ticklish?  It makes you giggle, doesn't it?

Just as my mother and I were leaving we saw Brianna and Autumn.  visiting is so much fun we just had to stay for a few more minutes,..... look, my mothers finger is in the picture!  how silly,......

Whew,............. it was a busy day at the library, time for a nap!  goodnight,................

monkeys jumping on the bed

today at the library we read a story about 5 monkeys, they kept jumping on the bed and banging their heads! do you every jump on the bed? i like to sleep on the bed, of course. there are lots of beds to choose from - my mother makes sure there is a nice comfy place for us to sleep in every room of the house.
where do you like to sleep? here are some of my favorite places,.... don't they look comfy?


             Living Room!                     Outside, my daddy made this!            hot tub cover

    this is on the porch, sometimes we share with the cat, her name is Izzy




 And sometimes I get to sleep on 2 beds!

look at me, weaving!

we had a pretty quiet weekend, what was yours like? 

today my mother decided to start teaching me to weave.  Do you know what that is?  Well I didn't until we started playing.  Its probably like learning to tie your shoes or tell time, right?

my mother wants me to go in and out between her legs.  she uses cookies (yummmm, roast beef today!) to help me learn. 

Its hard work this learning, but I think I'm getting it, what do you think?

whew,..... I had to take a little nap after,..... learning tricks makes me tired!

what did you do after story hour?

Its me again, Zenny! I wanted to show you what I do after I play with you at the library. I love to take hikes in the woods and today I met my friend Tessie for a nice long walk. It was great to get out and stretch my legs and play in the water! Do you like our orange vests? Our mothers put those on us so that people can see us from far away. We wear bells to so that people know we are coming! Listen carefully, you can probably hear the bells,..........

Do you like to swim or hike? Its great exercise for me and my mother,..... check it out, isn't my friend Tessie pretty??



And then of course, Nap Time! Yeh!

stories about sheep,............

Today at the library we listened to stories about and sheep and sang a song! Remember? "bah bah black sheep have you any wool?".

Frankie was great, he knew all of the words!

After every story my friends get to do a project. I wish I had fingers so I could do it also! Today they made a sheep, see?



Casey and Madison came right over to say hi today. What fun it is to have friends so happy to see me! Look at these cute hats we tried on, they have such fun things at the library.

They have this really cool place in the library where they read stories. It has windows and everything! Check it out, you can see really far,......

I can't wait until next week. I wonder what the stories will be about?????

have you met my friend Izzy?

So, I'm a dog, right?  Have you heard that dogs and cats don't get along?  Well I am here to tell you dogs and cats get along really well.  This is my friend Izzy.  She came to our house last summer as a little kitten.  My mother and I went to a really fun tracking seminar in NH.  It was held at a Humane Society and we came home with a kitten!  My mother, she's a real animal lover.  We love Izzy.  Her real name is Isabella.  She hangs out on the porch with us all the time, watches the birds and likes to hang out when we are working on our blog.  Do you have a cat or kitten?  What fun!

This is Izzy sleeping with me in the porch. 

And this is Izzy helping at the computer. I think she is keeping the seat warm for my mother!

And how was your weekend?

How did you spend your weekend?  Play ball with your Mom and Dad?  Hang out with your brothers and sisters?  Meet your friends and play soccer, ball, jump rope, or just laugh? 

Here's what we did over the weekend!

Saturday morning, we all just relaxed on the porch.  Here I am with all of my sisters.  We are hard to see bcause we are all black - can you find all of the labradors?  Can you find me?  I'll give you a hint, I have a really big head and its kinda square in shape,.............

Then, my parents had to do something called "run errands"  I like the run sounding part, but not so sure about the other thing.  I think it means we drive around a lot and sleep in the car.  But we also got to visit Evergreen Walk .  My sister Lucy was with us.  It was fun!   Its a great place to go if you are a well behaved dog (My mother says I am so I must be!).  You get to meet new people, hang out, eat at Moe's outside and watch the birds.  Here we are!

Doing "errands" is very tiring.  Do you ever take a nap during the day?  I LOVE to take naps.  And after a busy day like we had it seemed like the thing to do. 

See you on Tuesday!

Relaxing,...

After our visits to the library my Mom likes to take me to a place where I can run and jump and play to let off a little steam. Its hard work being a therapy dog and it great to be able to relax afterwards. Of course, I lots of ways to relax, but one of my favorites is to go for a hike with my girlfriend Tessie. I am one of Tessie's many friends and we love to swim in the mud puddles at Bolton Notch.

Here we are after our walk, wet, muddy, tired and happy.  Its a great life!

And then of course , there is the napping part, thats important also!

What Fun!

What fun I had today!  On our way to the library today I was a little sad as it was once again raining.  Again!  Rain!  But it started to clear up as we drove into the driveway and it felt like it was going to be a good day.

Turned out to be a great day! 

They begin the story hour with a cute little song called "Good Morning".  I don't sing very well but I give a rousing "good morning" bark and hello when they start!  They have a cute stuffed toy that they use for the song and I am pretty sure its one of my toys that I lost.  I'll save that story for another day. 

I spent a lot of time with my new friend Grace. She's really cute, and a very happy girl! We hung out on the floor together for a long time.

She even brought me my toy!

So many friends!  So many faces!  Here are a few more from our visit.

This is Gaeb.  He's not so sure he loves me yet, but I'm working on it!  Last week he put a cookie on a chair for me and today, well today I sort of surprised him when a crayon from the project they were working on dropped to the floor.  In my usual excited fashion, I DIVED under the table to get the crayon.  Of course I was trying to retrieve it for my mother (hmmmmm,  at least I think that is what I was supposed to do) and to Gaeb's surprise I dived right past him under the table.  It was fun and I think I saw a little smile on Gaeb's face!

And then, well, I managed to get my favorite library folks to pose for a picture with me.  They are so much Fun!  Thats Lindsey on the left, she has dogs at home and talks to me in that voice that just gets me all wiggly and giggly.  Thats Cheri in the middle.  She's the boss!  She has a dog at home named Tanzy.  We love her a lot because she lets us come every week.  Anna is on the right.  Anna wasn't quite sure about me when I first arrived but I have won her over!  Its her story hour that we do on Tuesdays.  And guess what, Anna doesn't have a dog at home but she just got chickens!  I think that might be better because there are many and they run around.  Very cool.   

My 2 New Friends

So that Therapy Dog job I was telling you about?  A couple of weeks ago I met 2 new friends at the library.  They were SO much fun.  Their parents took pictures of me with the kids and so did the library folks.  Its so much fun to have people enjoy me.  Think about it, everytime I show up at the library they smile and I get lots of petting and best of all they always want me to come back.  How cool is that? 
Here is a picture of my new friends, Ben and Garrett. Don't we look great together?

Training to be a Therapy Dog

So, know you know that it took a while, but my mom figured out a great thing for the 2 of us to do together.  I was to be a therapy dog!  So many questions!  Can I do it?  What is it?  Will I be up to the task?  Will it be fun? 

Well, I found out all of the answers and more.  My mother decided to take me to Bolton Veterinary Hospital for my therapy dog training.  We took a class for 13 weeks every Sunday.  It was pretty hard work.  The training teaches you to behave politely around people and other dogs.  They teach you things like "paws up" so that you may be pet easier by folks in wheelchairs.  Grooming is an important part of being a therapy dog.  I have to say, it is my least favorite part.  All of that brushing!  and spraying and nail cutting!  But since I do SO love mud puddles and water I guess its only right.  I get lots of nice tasty chicken for getting my nails done so how bad can it really be anyway? 

Being a Therapy Dog means I get to wear a pretty cool uniform also.  Its a handsome blue vest that I wear proudly. 

We have a couple of places that I enjoy going to and make people smile - but my favorite is a local library.  The library staff are just wonderful and make me feel so welcome!  My main job is to hang out during story hour and listen to the stories being read.  Then, I get to say hello to the kids, see what projects they are doing and give big sloppy kisses if they let me. 

Can't wait to go to the library - I'm all dressed up and ready to go!

The Beginning of my Tail

I was born in Pomfret, CT.  I had a lot of brothers and sisters.  When I got to my new house I had 4 new sisters to learn how to live with!  The first few weeks week were a little stressful.  Most evenings my parents found me by 7:00 upside down in my crate snoring.  Its very tiring when you are a young labrador puppy, sleep is important!

Everyone wonders where I got my name from.  My parents were married just before they brought me home at a restaurant called Zenny's.  They thought it would be a sign of good things to come!  Its a nice name, no one else has it!  And it ended up being the perfect name for me because I am very "zen" like. 

My first 2 years of life my mother tried to convince me that I would like to do the things my sisters do.  Agility, hiking, obedience work, spending every waking moment looking for stuff to do.  I did my best to convince my mother that I was DIFFERENT! 

She got it, finally.  I take life slowly and methodically.  I LOVE to sleep in, while everyone else is up and about at 6:30AM.  What is with that????  I love to sit on the hill and enjoy life, smell the roses, "read the paper" so to speak.  Whats wrong with that?  Nothing I say.  And FINALLY my mother got it.  Sometimes humans are a little slow. 

Now, I get to sleep in, I enjoy wondering the yard for hours and sleeping in the shade of the garage.  I get to hike and play in water.  I sniff, and sniff, and sniff.  What fun, you should try it! 

And finally my mother and I found something to do together that we LOVE (other then hiking that is).  My new job is being a Therapy Dog and letting other folks enjoy my mellow personality and smile at my very majestic head.  Its a tough job, but someone has to do it. 

Read on, I'll tell you how I became a therapy dog, and share with you my travels and tails.