Pettin' Puppies!

In 5th grade, Kendra's Junior Girl Scout troop elected to work on their Bronze Award - the highest service project award Juniors can get. They started talking about what to do. They decided to pack Puppy Suitcases. Small items that new puppies who will be trained to be service dogs, would need. Poop bags, small bowls, paper towels, baby wipes, items the trainers would need for maybe a day at the mall – to assist in cleaning up any accidents. They were going to have garage sales, car washes and bake sales, to raise money to pay for all these. In the process, t hey were earning badges that applied to this project. It was a lot of work. Well – apparently too much work for some, because a few months later, they voted not to do it anymore. Two of the girls were heartbroken – Kendra and Abby.

So these two girls scaled back the project, and did it anyway. We got in touch with an organization – AZ Power Paws – who breed the dogs, send them to their trainers and place them with a person in need. They had a list of toys and things they can use. Well – we earned our sewing badge, and made sheep skin toys for the puppies. Round ones, square ones, and bone shaped ones. Kendra designed the patterns, the two went shopping (using their cookie money to buy the material) cut them out and sewed them. We spent many hours on them over the summer. Well, AZ Power Paws finally had puppies!

We took the toys over to the house this morning. Cindy – the mommy dog – had 6 puppies 3 days ago!

We got to go over and pet them. This organization found that if you start gently handling puppies from about day 2, they are calmer dogs. They’re used to being handled by different people, and become socialized earlier and are just plain calmer. Perfect for a service dog. Some of these puppies will grow to be full blown service dogs – doing everything – to companions for those who just need a little bit of help – some deaf or hearing impaired people just need someone to hear for them. And, sadly, some of them won’t graduate, but they give it a good try! So - here we are petting the puppies. And we’ll be back – helping out with other things they need help with. Tough Service Project! I’m glad he girls wanted to finish it!