OK. First of all, the Furry Friends are just nice therapy dog volunteer people, and are not Plushies. Or Furries. These are a very different thing than Furry Friends. Don’t even ask me about them. Just google it. You’ll see. My mom would not approve of Plushies. Probably not your mom either.

So we made the journey over the mountain to the land of San Jose, to a PetCo in a wet, deserted strip mall somewhere in Sunnyvale. Over here on this side of the hill, we are all communist, tofu eating surfers. On that side of the mountain, where a snowplow sat waiting at the summit, it is the Silicon Valley. I used to go there during the dotcom, to big office parks with big parking lots and security badges and stock options. There are a lot of car dealerships and nail places. I get lost there. It freaks me out. Our class was in a dog training pen in the back of the dog food warehouse, taught by a dog trainer who also did the evaluation. The dogs had to be ok with a wheelchair, a walker, socializing with other dogs and humans, and basic obedience skills. Piece of cake. Gustavo who does not habitually pee on contraband, just eat it, tried to pee on a walker. And he tried to jump into the wheelchair. Oops. I was MORTIFIED but no points taken off. The evaluator said he was great.

He was a spaz. She gave a talk first about pet therapy and I had to keep him doing downs and sits and nose touches and tricks and focusing because he was WOUND up. He’s never been in a dog class environment, and he just wanted to be a puppy. I used to teach puppy class. I know how it goes. He seemed to be one of the less calm dogs there, but I kept him the most busy. Some of the dogs just layed down and slept through the lecture. I think my dogs of that relaxed sleeping type ended with Timmy. But he passed, we got our pictures taken for our Security Badge (RIGHT-San Jose, man!), and we just wait to get processed by Homeland Security so he can go to the nursing home in Capitola every third Sunday and get petted. He can get away with being a spaz because he weighs 12lbs.

Furry Friends goes to juvenile halls, children’s shelters, nursing homes, hospitals, and alzheimers units. Visits from the animals (not just dogs-there was rabbit in the evaluation class and I guess they have all kinds of animals in the program) provide a distraction for kids and adults whose lives revolve around pain, illness and trouble. That’s from the manual. I’ve been reading through the manual and it’s just so cool. They gave out a dvd and it made me cry.

It’s sort of ironic I have one of the most social and sweet dogs I’ve ever known, and I have one of the most unsocial and unsweet dogs that I’ve ever known. Otterpop likes 5 whole people in the whole world. 7 if you count 2 girls at the barn that are winning her over. Gustavo LOVES everyone. Timmy and Ruby fall somewhere in the middle, but I don’t think they’d want to do this. Gustavo is made for it. I am not even going to complain about having to wear the t-shirt and use the purple leash and put a scarf on the dog. You’ll see. No dog scarf complaints, not a one.