Still waiting

Still no acceptance letter from the therapy dog people.

In the meantime, Finn and I have been learning to snowshoe. We got about 8-10 inches of snow on Tuesday and so it's a good amount for a beginner. Yesterday Finn ran straight into me and knocked me down into the snow. I've learned that snowshoeing can affect your balance on certain terrain. Luckily I had snow pants and a warm coat on so I was padded and not upset about falling into all that snow. Of course, Finn thought it was great fun once I was down there and started licking my face and jumping on top of me. Anyway, hopefully the snow stays around so I can continue with this new activity. It gets us outside and helps break up the long winter.

Today it was 0 degrees when I woke up and the wind was gusting to 40 mph and bitter cold. Makes you want to stay home and drink hot chocolate all day. I'm terribly behind in all types of holiday preparation including cards, decorations and gift purchases. We did finally get our family photo taken for our holiday card so that's one step in the right direction. It was a beautiful day right at dusk but the moon was full so it lit the sky in this gorgeous shade of blue. Here it is.

One step closer

I don't think that I realized how much paperwork would be involved with this therapy dog process. Not only did I need to fill out about 5 pages of forms and submit a photo of Finn and I but I had to take about 5 more pages of forms to our vet for him to complete.

After a full physical exam, heartworm blood test, fecal test, one vaccine booster and about 30 minutes of the good doctor's time, we learned that Finn has a slight skin infection on his upper lip. The therapy dog form has a list of systems i.e. body parts that are to be checked by the vet. Unfortunately, this small bump and little bit of hair loss on his upper lip required our vet to check "abnormal" next to the skin/coat section. We left with a week's worth of antibiotics and now wait anxiously to see if this abnormality warrants a rejection letter from the therapy dog program. We can't go on any visits until we receive our acceptance letter and identification badge. Who knew this would be such a process?

In the meantime, Finn and I have been enjoying the 8-10 inches of snow we got yesterday. Finn really gets quite invigorated by the snow and has a blast doing hot laps around the yard. Today it's super cold and windy but I hope to post some pictures soon of our winter wonderland.