Island Hearing Celebrations!

Island Hearing has been supporting PADS since before my time (many many moons ago...)and they continue to be one of my very favourite groups of people. Like us, they are in the business of changing lives and increasing independence -- in their case they use state of the art technology and lots of patience and skill to help their clients hear better. We serve many of the same clients, and they think of us often -- whether it be to order PADS calendars to give to their customers at Christmas time, or because they are attending a trade or homeshow and want to give PADS some exposure by sharing their booth with us. Like a well matched working dog team....Island Hearing and PADS seems like a match that was meant to be! In short, they're amazing.

Yesterday we got to celebrate with them though...PADS Retired Hearing Dog Bowen, Puppy-in-training Duke, Instructor Pam Houston, Volunteer Brigid and I (Communications Coordinator Tara) piled into the PADS van long before it was light. We wrote "ROAD TRIP!" in the van mileage log and headed for Sechelt on the Sunshine coast. Island Hearing was having a Grand Opening for their new Sechelt Clinic.

Bowen was quite certain he was the rockstar of the day, firmly claiming his spot in the passenger seat -- he was quite convinced that this was his right and was nothing less than horrified when I tried to evict him to the floor. We comprimised on my lap where he, through many grumbles and grunts, tried to impart to me just how brilliant and amazing he was...nearly human in fact. Duke established himself as more of a "princess" than a Duke, sighing and pacing the back of the van until Brigid provided him with a towel to lie on.

We arrived at the Sechelt clinic in record time, and were immediately impressed -- not only is it beautiful and welcoming with huge windows with a glass sunroom as a waiting area -- but the staff was even more welcoming and warm.

Our dogs showed us in short order the difference between their off duty idiosycracies and their working professionalism. Bowen demonstrated his hearing dog skills, how he waits in anticipation for every sound so that he can let Pam know that the timer is going off, or the phone is ringing or someone is knocking at the door. Duke, charmed the Island Hearing staff and customers with his soulful puppy eyes, and impressed them with how well behaved and obedient he was for a 7 month old pup. On the job, he uttered not one complaint about his spot on the beautiful new white tile floor.

It was a great day...we had the chance to celebrate with some great people, and talk to some amazing customers whose lives are changed by Island Hearing...keep up the good work guys! We'll see you soon :-)

The post about the Calendar...

The Calendar is tradition. It is beautiful and adorable and the hearts desire of every puppy-raiser. I'm glad this year was officially a contest, but it was hard.

They are all just so darn cute.

We eliminated the pictures that were just odd. Like the one of a gangly teenage dog not in cape, sleeping it it's crate facing away from the camera. There weren't many of these. fortunately...unfortunately... (they amused us).

Then we cropped what was left. That eliminated about 40%...square proportions ruin some photos.

Then we eliminated anything that looked remotely blurry. Out go another 10%.

Then I lamented. We still had about 200 pictures for 13 spots.

The voting began. Each person voted for their favorite 3 in each category: Black Labs, Yellow Labs, Chocolate Labs, Goldens, Hearing Dogs, Group Shots. It took a week. People wrote cheeky comments on some of them like "I am sleepy" or "save me from this photographer!".

The staff were all expected to vote each day. No one knew who the dogs were or who the photographers were. Except for some of the obvious ones...like York and Toby. When you're one of a kind it's hard to hide. People liked to guess. Mostly they were wrong, it amused me when they voted for a picture that they thought was their "favorite dog" and it was not them.

Then my work began, trying to make 24 photos into 13...and then I decided I couldn't do it.

So we also got 4 beautiful new notecards.

THANK YOU to every person who made the job of choosing SOOOO difficult! The photos were simply beautiful, and the puppies made us proud.

So here it is folks...the 2010 PADS Puppies-in-Training Calendar:

http://www.gifttool.com/shop/ShopProductDetails?ID=1580&VER=1&LNG=EN&PID=37023&DID=969

You can pre-order yours now!!