Gamay, the Guest Columnist

(Note from Kelda: Gamay is writing this week's blog because she was me for a week! We traded Puppy Raisers. Fun!)

My name is Gamay! If you're old enough to remember a face soap called Camay, you won't have any trouble with my name. I'm a beautiful black Lab, the only CCI puppy being raised in Buena Vista, Colorado. My PR mom writes for the local paper, so I fill in for her sometimes. (It's nice to be needed.)

A few weeks ago I came to the Big City, and attended Zebrina's birthday party while I was here. My mom thought it would be good for me to get more learning outside a small town, so she asked if Kelda and I could trade places for a few days. So Kelda went off with my mom, and I got to stay here.

Kelda had told me about her MEE-YOWs, so I couldn't wait to meet them. It turned out they were perfectly willing to wait to meet me. They would have waited much longer.

All I wanted to do was play! After all, they don't seem to play with one another - why shouldn't they play with me?


This is Nonny. He's kind of old. He didn't want to play. He growled and hissed.





All of a sudden, out of the blue came Mr. Grey! He got between Nonny and me, and started using his claws on my ear. OUCH!

I never dreamed the MEE-YOWs stood up for each other!







(There's another MEE-YOW named Cetty but she wouldn't give me the time of day.)

I did other things, too. Kelda's mom was looking for flowers...

...and I helped her.


These smell good. Taste good, too - oops. You didn't hear that.


I took Kelda's dad for walks.




I made sure Kelda's toys didn't get lonesome.

Here I am talking to Gus, who lives next door. You can't see him. And this isn't really my best side.

And, over time...


I can't say the MEE-YOWs and I became friends, but they started to put up with me. A little.

The big city is really a lot like a small town, because you can only be in one place at a time. The CCI commands we learn are the same wherever we live. So we can practice anywhere. With Kelda's people I went to Home Depot, to Walmart, to church, to the grocery store. It was interesting seeing all the different people.

Kelda's mom took me to a thrift store. There were lots of nice smells and lots of nice people. But I couldn't figure out why that monkey was hanging around up there on that person's NECK. Was it waiting to jump on me? Yikes!






When the cleaning gals came, it was fun. They like dogs.


They also have noisy machines.







I had a great week! Kelda and I had the chance to talk (and sniff) when we traded people back.








We'll be going to puppy college together in August. But I hope we'll have some fun before that. Colorado Springs, like Buena Vista, is a good place for a CCI pup to be!