Today was a long day for Felix! I’m getting him ready to be going all day long at the upcoming convention!
We started out meeting Sabrina at Cherry Park. I got there about 20–30 minutes before Sabrina did, so it was good I brought my parasol. I was just hanging out with Felix in my lap enjoying the sights and sounds of the park. I was in the parking lot, so I may have looked a bit strange. One family in a Jeep waved at me as they drove by, then turned around to come back and ask if I was OK. Very sweet of them!
Sabrina brought Chicken Salad Chick for lunch! We ate in the pavilion again, though there weren’t any tables set up for two wheelchairs so I just sat at the picnic table and Sabrina stayed in her chair at the end of the table. My food was very good!
Felix did a good job lying next to me. He got up about four times while I was eating, which wasn’t great, but is understandable since this is a park and has lots of really good smells. But by the time I was done eating, he had really gotten into the groove and stayed chilled out on his mat on the floor while we talked for a while. I was very proud of him for that!
I got a picture of him wearing his new PSDP vest (lavender vest with PSDP logo on the back), lying on his rainbow mat next to the table.
After we ate, we decided to roll around the trail at the park. Felix and Indy had a great time walking along and sniffing things! It is such a beautiful trail. About halfway through, I noticed that Felix was starting to lag, so I picked him up and he finished the trail on my lap.
We passed a couple dogs, and I put Felix on my lap for them just for safety’s sake. Indy did a great job of ignoring them and walking by.
After our walk, Sabrina wanted to go to Walmart. So we headed on over. I parked and got out of my van and waited outside the store. It seemed like Sabrina was taking a very long time and I hadn’t seen her car arrive, so I started looking around at the accessible spots and saw her van. It didn’t look like anyone was in it, so I looked her up on Find My and it looked like she was in the store!
So I went in the store to try to track her down. I chased her little dot all over the store but even when it said I was right on top of her, she was nowhere to be found! Eventually I was going down an aisle and I heard Sabrina calling me! It turns out her phone had been incorrectly saying her location and she had been getting out of her van when I went inside the store! Oops! At least we found each other LOL!
We started out in the nightgown section, and I got two very cute pictures of Felix against the wooden floor. In one of them, he’s sitting and looking very cute with his tongue hanging out. In the other, he’s lying froggy style on the floor.
Next we headed over to the eye drop area. I got two good pictures of Indy in the eye drop area! In one, she is putting her head on Sabrina’s leg. In the other, she was standing between Sabrina and the shelf and looking at the camera while Sabrina pets her.
Felix was doing so well in Walmart! He was doing all his turns really well, heeling beautifully, and doing a good job leaving all the pieces of leaves that were coming off of Sabrina’s wheels all over the store (she went offroading in the park!). I was so proud of him!
Sabrina took two videos of him in a messy craft aisle. In the first video, I have Felix do a sit in front of me, then I back my wheelchair up to the end of the leash and call him to me. He did it perfectly! This is one of the things on his upcoming public access test.
Then in the same aisle, Sabrina got a video of Felix turning the corner, which he did perfectly, then doing a leave-it of some of the leaves from Sabrina’s wheels, then walking past a piece of black cloth on the ground. He did great at ignoring all those things!
We had to get a few food items, so we headed to the food section of the store. That required walking down some freezer aisles. Felix hasn’t had much exposure to freezer aisles when he’s walking on the floor next to my chair. Usually I either order pickup, or if I am grocery shopping I have Felix on my lap. He did so well walking on the floor in the freezer aisle!
Finally it was time to check out. Sabrina wanted to do self-checkout, which I have never done with Felix before. I only had tortillas for Brad, so it wasn’t too difficult. But it is hard to self-checkout and pay attention to all that stuff while also paying attention to your dog! Felix did a good job hanging out next to me while I checked out. He did try to play with a piece of trash on the floor, but stopped when I told him to. I got a picture of him in self checkout. And I got a picture of him and Indy lying next to each other in the checkout area while Sabrina checked out.
When we left Walmart, I saw that someone had parked a store electric cart right in front of where my wheelchair ramp deploys in the van! There was a woman in a wheelchair trying to transfer into the electric cart. I asked her if she could move, and she was having trouble transferring and said she couldn’t move the cart. She was able to get herself out of the way and move next to wherever the cart was, and I got out of my wheelchair and drove the cart out of the way of my ramp. Then we had a nice conversation about wheelchair accessible vans.
I hope she was able to transfer into the cart. I thought about trying to help her, but she was a rather large lady and I’m not very strong. I didn’t think it was wise for me to try to assist her and probably cause her to fall because I was not up to the task.
You would think we were all done with our day of shopping, but no! There was a craft store nearby that Sabrina wanted to visit! So we headed there. We were just browsing in the store, looking at whatever caught our eyes. Felix did SO well! About 40% of the time in the store, I didn’t even have to hold onto his leash. He was just heeling beautifully!
We did a loop around the store, and noticed we were starting to get pretty tired. So we decided to call it quits and head home after that store.
Overall it was a really fun day and great training opportunities! I only used half a stick of string cheese for treats the whole entire day! I’m really weaning off the treats well with Felix! He doesn’t really need them for anything he does… I just like giving them to him LOL!
When we got to the car, Sabrina gave me her Christmas gift, and it is wonderful! It is a blanket with a picture of Brad and me on it from Disney World! Sabrina embroidered Tinkerbell and Mickey on it, and some cute sayings that go with each of us.
Then we drove home, and as soon as we got home, Felix plopped down on the couch to take a nap LOL! Get used to it, Felix, the convention is coming up!