Monday, June 30, 2008

KIDS

Some are small, some are big, some are sticky, some are loud, but one thing’s for sure – I love kids! And kids love me!

So you know I go to work with Tammy; and you know Tammy works with kids sometimes. Well, last week we had a few kids come to her office as part of their youth philanthropy project for their high school socials class. They had to do research about Tammy’s organization, which included interviewing her about her work.

I quietly sat under the desk, even though those researchers were my favorite kind of people – young, energetic boys! I really wanted to play, but all I did was a polite paw-shake.

They came up and spent the day with us, cleaning the office, re-organizing stuff, and just generally learning how to be bossed around. It was fun to watch, and lots more interesting to see than the usual sitting around at a computer. For once, it wasn’t me being bossed around by Tammy!

They got pizza, though, and I don’t think that’s very fair. They didn’t even offer me any. I do more work around there than they do, and I don’t get offered pizza. Those boys were nice, and I bet they’d have given me a piece if Tammy hadn’t been there… I love pepperoni!

We see people all the time in our travels, and so I’ve gotten to know lots of people and they’ve gotten to know me and Tammy. (In fact I get the distinct impression that sometimes she wishes I was invisible, because I get so darned much attention! Well, that’s the price of celebrity, I guess.)

There’s this one little boy we meet just about every evening at Poo Corner: he’s only about one, just getting steady on his feet, and he rides a big Tonka truck along the path. I probably look scary to him, but that doesn’t stop him from babbling “doddie, doddie!” whenever he sees me, and when I go to say hi to him, (the official greeting) he tries to pet me. His hands are so little, and he’s not quite sure how to pet me yet, but he’s learning, and what he lacks in skill, he makes up for in enthusiasm.

So I’m a translator now, too, ‘cause even though his mom doesn’t speak English, she stops to talk to Tammy and me every night. And I can tell by the smiles on everybody’s faces that they’ve all gotten over the language barrier. Cool, eh? I don’t speak English, and I don’t speak Cantonese, but whenever I’m around, we all understand each other!

That’s really a bonus in Tammy’s other work, too. She works with disabled youth on the weekends, and some of them can hardly speak, but after a few weekends with me, they learn to communicate somehow! They all remember my name, and some kids that hardly participated at first are now helping out by giving me water in my travel dish. It’s one of their favourite activities.

Next week we’re taking them to the beach! That ought to be fun for them, but I have to stay out of the water. And I’m a golden retriever! You know what I was born for? Getting stuff out of the water! I shoulda been a lifeguard dog….