Audrey, our current Seeing Eye® puppy, is full of personality.  She’s sweet, loving, and smart.  Most of all, she is funny.  She pretends she wasn’t doing anything wrong when we tell her no by picking up a toy and innocently playing with it. Her clear implication is that we must have been mistaken.

Since she will be returning to The Seeing Eye® for training in a few weeks, I could not resist buying her one last squeaky toy.  It is the silliest one yet—a bright pink plush purse with a turquoise handle, yellow “clasp” and it is embossed “Princess.”  Audrey really loves it, even more than socks, and she carries it all around.  I think she might have preferred a clutch, though, since she rarely uses the handle.

Audrey has a way of figuring things out.  The latest was when Bambi was in the way, fast asleep, and Audrey couldn’t get past her.  She did not want to jump over her (I can understand her reasoning) so she put her feet on the arm of the couch and looked at us, as if to say, “Could you help me out?”  We looked back at her, challenging her to figure something out, and she did.  It was a fine solution, although it did involve jumping onto the couch and going off on the other side.  Problem solved and, while we did chastise her appropriately, we were also laughing.

Misty is a great favorite of Audrey’s.  She hates to go anywhere in the house without her and will use whatever means she can think of to get Misty to go with her.  She’ll try pushing from behind, or, if that fails, she will find an available body part to use to drag Misty along with her.  It could be her tail, or more often an ear, reached from over her back (Audrey is taller than Misty) and pulled along at a run to the destination.  Misty puts up with it, but, then again, she’s put up with eight puppies chewing her ears as if they were gum, biting her legs as if they were drumsticks, and stealing her food.  Sooner or later all the dogs fall in love with Misty and they hurry to sleep next to her. 

Bambi doesn’t like anyone but Misty, but she has been nearly won over by Audrey’s charm and will even allow Audrey to sleep on the same dog bed.  The cat is the same.  He rubs his face on her, marking her as his own.

We are really going to miss Audrey.  But she has an important job ahead of her.  Unfortunately she won’t be able to carry her pink purse.