Growth

Hello everyone!

I hope you’re having a great day.

I’ve been looking through my pictures and videos recently, trying to clean up space on my phone. I think Mom has been doing the same, because we’ve both found pictures from back in March when I got Cor, my li’l pandemic puppy, and oh. My. gosh. Look at this difference, you guys!

Then:

Now:

That was me?

I’m so BIG, now!

Yes, you are. And guess what? It’s only been six months, and that’s the difference there’s been. I knew dogs grew faster than humans, but there’s one of us who has changed more than the other in those pictures, isn’t there?

Yes, Hooman. Will I grow more?

Yes. Dogs tend to grow up to two years old. You will be eight months old on September first.

You have definitely grown and changed the most out of the two of us.

Not to say that I haven’t. Or that the blog hasn’t. Over this quarantine I’ve leaned in rather heavily to classes and learning things. After all the dust settles, I will know more and be able to do more than I did–and could–going into quarantine. 

Like me?

Like you.

It’s just kind of fun to learn new things, isn’t it? Who doesn’t enjoy something new every now and again?

I do, Hooman!

I know you do.

How have you grown? You seem the same.

Well, to be honest, if it weren’t for the pictures, I would probably say the same about you.

One big thing that’s changed for me is that we’ve switched doctors recently. 

Oh, yeah! I remember. That place had new smells.

I imagine it did.

The doctor we now go to uses acupuncture almost every visit to help what we’ve done… stick, as it were. (Sorry for the bad pun.)

What’s Ack-poo-punch-er?

Acupuncture. Needles that poke into you to help boost your immune system, release muscles, and several other ways of stimulating your body.

They poke you? Like the vet sometimes pokes me?

Exactly like that.

Here’s the thing. Ever since I was little, I’ve HATED needles. One of my doctor’s visits to get a childhood vaccine was a bit… traumatic (read: at five years old I had to be pulled out from beneath the table and held down in order to be given said vaccine) and that kind of memory tends to stick in your brain. …And then I had an adverse reaction to that vaccine, and here we are. Fifteen years and hundreds of seizures later.

That’s scary, Hooman!

I certainly thought so. Still do–I can vividly remember pushing into the corner trying to get away from the doctor. I could describe how the room was laid out for you, even.

And, ever since, I can’t stand doctor’s needles. It scares me to hold them in the package.

The thing is, though, with everything in my body Dr. Kim has helped me balance out, I’ve been able to do the acupuncture. 

Okay, I haven’t sat with the needles in for half an hour, but they’ve gone in and come out multiple times with no hysterical meltdown. I’m able to see him get them out, and keep my muscles from tensing. I don’t immediately go into fight or flight when I see him grab the package. 

Which is good, because no one wants to see a 20-year-old woman hiding under the table, sobbing and screaming like a child at the sight of an unopened needle.

…I didn’t know you got scared, Hooman.

Oh, believe me, I do.

Oh, and our allergies have gotten so much better, we can have a lasagna-ish meal again!

Over the past six months, you and I have been growing–individually and as a team, and, as a result, so has this blog.

Really?

Absolutely. You want to know something?

‘Course, Hooman!

Service Dog Story isn’t my only online presence.

Really?

Really. The others are also getting bigger–I have some mentors to thank for that. And I do thank them, a lot. Service Dog Story and the others have gotten far bigger than I could have ever imagined. 

Yay!

Big yay.

However. Growing pains are a thing. Mistakes are a part of life, and no child learned to walk without a few bumps onto their butt, right? I don’t think even Jesus did.

…I wonder if that would fall under ‘fully God’ or ‘fully human’… I’m guessing fully human, but don’t quote me on that. 🤔

Anyway. All that to say, having more than one online platform to run is getting to be a bit… much to handle. So we’re moving!

We are?!

Wait, what’s moving?

It’s when you normally live somewhere, and then you decide to live somewhere else.

And we’re not moving. Service Dog Story is. Not me and you.

Although…

But that’s another story.

What? 

Another time.

Starting on Wednesday, this site will come down. I will send an email to everyone on the email list with the new link once the new site is up and running, so, readers, if you haven’t signed up for that yet, please do so! Our goal is to get the new site up, running, and functional by next week’s post. However, I do have a lot (10 topics off the top of my head, and several little aspects in each topic) going on at the moment, so please forgive me if we end up missing a week. 🙂 

Reminder: if you sign up during quarantine, you’ll get Cor’s book How to Survive the CORentine: A Puppy’s Guide to Keeping your Humans Moving free. For more information on that, head on over to this post. 

It’s a good book, friendos!

Especially for being written by a puppy.

Do you want to tell them your idea?

Well, friendos, like Hooman is saying, a lot has happened since I wrote that book. I was so little then! But now, I’m big. So I think I will write another one with the new things we do to keep Hooman moving.

(…11 topics.) 

What?

Nothing. 🙂

That will be coming out after the site relocates, so keep an eye open for that as well as everything else on that new site. Remember–it’ll be all our online presences on one domain, so get ready for a lot. 🙃

Who’s ready to join us in Fields of Favor because… 

💜 You were not born to fail! 💜

Woof!

Lauryn

And Cor!🐩

MORE PUPPY PICTURES