BHRR’s Windsor and BHRR’s Potter came with me to Holy Cross PS yesterday to watch my son do a school project presentation of which he had decided to do on BHRR. He called it ‘the amazing work my mom does’ and I could not have been more proud. He ‘brought’ the house down with his emotion and heart. Sean also attended and this was the first time Sean has attended one of our community awareness opportunity speeches and it was just perfect! By an unanimous vote; Mason was chosen to now present in front of his whole school on March 2nd. Last year, he did a speech on myself and showing Great Danes and I am really touched that he has a true empathy and appreciation for the animals here. BHRR’s Windsor was not so happy with the car ride but the yummy treat plus toy he was given during Mason’s presentation plus all those kids loving on him more than made the trip worthwhile I bet! 😛 Other than one moment when he and BHRR’s Windsor want to ‘get it on’ with the playing, both were awesome. BHRR’s Potter is becoming quite the pro in attending such events and he plus Windsor shall both be at our February 25th BHRR Presentation at W.O. Mitchell PS in Kanata. Two of our approved Volunteers are going to also be in attendance and that will be wonderful to have their hands to love on the dogs while I talk. I also hope they will be open to answering questions! We really feel blessed at BHRR by the support given! The only thing I forgot is our camera to take a picture of Mason and the dogs together at his school. I am looking for one approved BHRR Volunteer to attend with me on March 2nd at Holy Cross PS in Kemptville, Ontario, Time yet TBD and if you are interested, please email me. I have quite a few new pictures of Potter to add! Some have been added to our BHRR FB group already. One wee girl said she was so sad about Potter being deaf plus losing his leg and I asked her does ‘Potter look sad, unhappy, not well?’ and she said ‘no’ and I explained about how deafness seems to bother people rather than the dogs and that Potter is doing great without his leg and that he now has a great chance of quality of life plus since his rescue he is now happy and has a home. I showed her plus the class how we communicate with Potter and the surprise on their faces was clear to see. I explained how deaf people have names and jobs and they are ‘normal’ and the same applies to deaf dogs. For some reason, some of the kids felt that being deaf meant ‘stupid’ and I said that deafness is not related to brain power. These dogs as with so many deaf people are brilliant! We talked about names giving them identity and how important it is to be able to communicate with any dog, deaf or not. They saw how Potter knew when I was talking to him vs Windsor and how he responded to when he name was used. I told her how we live in a multi-deaf dog household and how each dog knows, hearing or not; when we talk to them over another. She felt so much better after this and I mentioned that often when people adopt dogs they ‘try’ to make it up to them that they were abused or neglected and that is a big mistake. You can ruin so many dogs that way and love is only part of the essential ingredients to having a happy, healthy rescue as part of your home. We see quite a few of our dogs that have been adopted become extremely overweight as their owners give them treat upon treat and so much food and I know I have blogged about it before; you are not doing them any service. You are shortening their life span and hurting their hearts plus joints. Great Danes should be on the lean side and you should faintly see those last two ribs. Or to stop the NILIF training and to allow the dog to run ranshank over your house because you ‘feel’ bad for what they went through, is not good. When we adopt our dogs, they are happy, healthy and doing fantastic. One only needs to carry on with the strong foundations created here to ensure the best life they can for their adoptive pets. They do not need people’s pity. They need understanding, consistency and structure plus the proper care which yes, of course includes tons of love. YET there is so much more to it than just love. We could not live in our sizeable multi-dog home if we took the approach that quite a few do with their dogs. We would be the ones sleeping on the dog beds and they in our kingsize bed! 😉 This little girl really ‘got’ the message and thanked me for taking the time to explain things. She said that she wants to rescue when she is older and would like to volunteer for BHRR! 🙂 On my part, I walked away yet again loving how honest and straight forward kids can be with their questions and if you answer them just as candidly plus truthfully; a great dialogue can be had! Some adults feel that kids asking certain questions are wrong or disrespectful. To me it is ‘how’ the question is asked and most kids have no ‘hidden’ agenda. They are just simply curious and want to know. We also discussed cancer a bit and I am sure that we could have been there for hours if it were not for the kids requiring to attend their French class.  🙂 I love the open dialogue that a q&a presents plus letting the kids touch the dogs and experience some of the wonderfulness of these creatures that I do every day. Thanks being sent out to our son Mason and his class plus his teachers for allowing us to participate in his school project.