I am pretty much convinced that Cleo is supposed to be a therapy dog.  Every time we go to the dog park she has to go up to all the people.  She seems to gravitate to the elderly, people who seem frail, depressed, sad and young children.

Today we were at the dog park walking our laps around the perimeter.  A little boy and his grandmother were walking towards us.  The little boy stopped because he was afraid of Cleo.  Cleo just stopped and waited.  I told the little boy she would lick him if he wanted.  He seemed unsure.   Cleo slowly walked up to him and stood there.  Then gently licked the top of his hand.  The little boy was still a little unsure.  Cleo waited again.  The again moved in slowly and licked the back of his hand.  The little boy giggled a bit.  Cleo wagged her tail and we continued to walk.

There is another old man that brings his dog to the park.  He doesn’t walk around so well.  So he usually slowly makes it over to a bench and just sits there.  Cleo always goes over to him and gets up and loves on him for a few minutes.  It always makes him smile.  There are so many instances that I could go on for pages and pages on things she has done; how she sees someone sad and goes over and leans up against them.

Since I have been home with her I think it has helped her.  I mean we get out and walk and stuff every day.  She is listening better and seems a lot more calm than she was.  I really don’t think she is the type of dog to be alone.  She literally follows me around everywhere and has to be near me all….the….time.   She really has come a long way.  The only thing I get concerned about is her becoming too needy.  I mean she’s already push as hell.  So I have to really make sure I keep the boundaries when she’s pushing it too far.  And let me tell you….boy does she push it!!!!!

Well on another topic.  Pete comes back to visit me the day after tomorrow.  I’m pretty stoked about the whole thing.   Went shopping for food for our Thanksgiving feast on Friday.  People are pretty bat-shit crazy. But that’s  a whole different blog entry.  I think I have everything I need for the feast.   This year because I didn’t want to do the whole traditional dinner…mostly in part because the kids are doing 2 traditional Thanksgivings on Thursday so figured it would be nice to change it up for them a bit.  But also because I didn’t want to go through all the work of what I usually do.  I mean there’s a bit of selfishness going on there.  With the whole house thing wanted to go for something a little easier.  I think we will all survive.  I mean I’m not cutting turkey out completely.  I was going to do the Kentucky Hot Browns in addition to the Fondue spread.  But after talking to my sister in law she brought up to do hot brown appetizers.  Which is brilliant!  I can put them together and then dip them in the bearnaise sauce vs. pouring it over them and baking it.  So that’s pretty exciting!

Thanksgiving is one of my top 3 favorite holidays!  So hard for me to not go completely crazy.