Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages, it's officially official! Fergie and I officially graduated this past Saturday! 
We were among 16 other graduating teams, two of which were autism assistance dogs. After the ceremony, I got the chance to meet with Fergie's puppy raisers. The way Hearing and Service Dogs of Minnesota works is that each dog is with their puppy raiser from the age of eight weeks, to approximately age two. It's at this point that they bring the puppy back to Hearing and Service Dogs of Minnesota for evaluation to see if the dog is ready to be placed with a client. If the agency determines that they are, then sometimes after the evaluation process is complete, they remain at the agency until a human partner is found for them. Other times, they go back to live with their puppy raisers until a human partner is found for them.
After talking with them in a bit further, I discovered something rather interesting that I wasn't aware of it until that exact moment. Following the graduation ceremony, her puppy raisers and I are to have no direct contact for at least a year. Although I'm not really sure why this is, I do know that it is clearly stated in may contract as puppy raisers. Now that's not to say that we can't have contact through the Director of training. In other words, I can e-mail the Director of training pictures to give to her puppy raisers, but I can't give them my direct e-mail address for at least a year. While I think it's kind of silly, in a way I can see why they'd do it that way; probably because they've had some puppy raisers who became far too attached to the dogs and had a very difficult time letting go, and that could be very confusing for the dog. Likewise, they may have had some clients to end up calling upon the puppy raisers for advice, support, answering of questions, etc..
Here's another crazy thing. Her puppy raisers only had one litter of puppies. I got Fergie, and one of the other graduating clients got her sister Faye. Now, is it any accident that they only had one litter of puppies and I got one of them? I don't think so, and I never will! As I've said in prior entries, Fergie and I's partnership became so at first lick, and we've only continued to bond since that time. There will never be enough words, written or spoken in the English language to express my gratitude to everyone over at Hearing and Service Dogs of Minnesota for taking a chance on my ability to be able to properly take care of and control a Service Dog. Thank you to each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart!
As I wrap up my thoughts on this subject because I can't talk any more about this without crying, and that would make NaturallySpeaking nearly impossible to use, I feel as though there is one more person that I need to thank from the depths of my soul! Without his support, dedication, partnership, friendship, and most of all love, I can guarantee you that there would have been times throughout this journey that I may well have given up! You know why I didn't though? I didn't because I knew in my heart of hearts that some day, with him at my side, my picture perfect scenario could, and would become reality! Thank you Chan! Believe me or not, I don't think I could have always maintained the great outlook that I had about this entire situation if you hadn't been right beside me through some of the toughest times! For that, and many other reasons, I love you, and I always will! 