Provincial Advocate's Office, Hot Docs, Double Dates, and Final Exams!

This weekend was really busy and full of exciting new things for Troy!

On Saturday we went to a meeting at the Provincial Advocate's office for Children and Youth. We are part of an advocacy group for youth with disabilities called "I Have Something To Say". We got on the Go Train at 9:30 in the morning (I don't think he was a fan of going out so early on a Saturday... But that's besides the point). When we got to the office, Troy was very excited to see his best friend Rush, and his new friend Basil (Rush is a service dog, like Troy, and Basil is an Autism Assistance dog - they are both from Lions). He said a quick hello to his friends and then settled down amazingly. He laid beside me for the 3 hour meeting with just a few groans of boredom throughout. 

After the meeting, Zak and I went on a double date with our friends / Rush's handler, Tim, and his wife Natalie. It was great to catch up with them as it's been a few weeks since we've had time to hang out. We walked to the TIFF Bell Lightbox theatre to watch a film from Hot Docs. We were lucky enough to get last minute tickets to the screening of Thought Crimes. I'm not a movie critic whatsoever but I highly recommend this documentary if you into crime and psychology. Although, keep in mind that it contains some graphic & mature content. It's definitely not for the whole family to enjoy! 

After our Hot Docs screening, we went across the street for dinner at Hush. I completely forgot that we'd be out past Troy's "dinner time" so he was hungry while the rest of us were enjoying our meals. He usually eats at 5:00 and that is the time that we arrived at the restaurant. He was very well behaved despite being mad that mommy forgot to bring his dinner though! 

We took the train back home around 6:30 and we were home (my boyfriends house) shortly after 7:30. Troy got his dinner and played with Benji (my boyfriends bichon-poodle) before getting a good night's rest. 

Now we are waiting to write our first exam together. Why they schedule an exam on a Sunday, I'll never know... 

I'm just praying he doesn't disrupt anyone with his moans of boredom. I'm sure it'll be fine though...He's cute and that's all that matters! ;) 

Here's an adorable picture of Troy laying on Rush and Natalie's feet at the theatre! 

Walk for Dog Guides - Toronto (High Park) on May 29th

Hey guys! I just want to give you a quick update on something we are participating in next month that means a lot to me.

Troy, Zak (my boyfriend), and I will be taking part in this year's Purina Walk For Dog Guides at High Park on May 29th. If you don't have any plans for that day I strongly encourage you to come walk with us! If you're already planning on being there, I can't wait to meet you! 

Every dog guide from the Lions Foundation is provided at no cost to the client. Each dog costs approximately 25 thousand dollars to raise and train as a puppy. Since Troy was given to me at no cost, I want to be able to pay it forward in some way. The walk for Dog Guides is where I am starting.

My fundraising goal for this year is 500 dollars. We have raised 131 dollars so far and with your help I am confident that we can get Team Troy to $500! I would really appreciate it if you could share our fundraising page or this blog post to help us achieve our goal. 

Here is the link to our page where you can donate:

https://www.purinawalkfordogguides.com/locations/team.cfm?ID=136

Once again, thank you for reading our blog! If you cannot donate, you can still help us reach our goal by walking with us and/or sharing our story with your friends :) 

Canadian Pet Expo: Day 2

Saturday was our second (and last) day at the pet expo. We brought my boyfriend's little sister which is why we went a second day. Friday was very exhausting for both Troy and I so I was a little worried that a second day would be too much to handle. Fortunately, it was much less busy on Saturday compared to Friday. 

We spent most of the morning just walking around and getting more free samples. We also stopped by the Peachy Keen Pets booth to pick up a new collar for Troy. We special ordered it the day before (because we wanted a specific fabric - retro pac man, and a chain martingale style) and it was ready to be picked up on Saturday! Not only is the collar really great quality, the owner of the company is super sweet. I will definitely be ordering all of our future collars and accessories from her. My boyfriend also picked up one of the dress shirt accessories for his bichon poodle. Here are a few pictures of the new collar I got for Troy: 

After visiting a few booths, we had lunch. We ate at the pulled pork food truck again (Hank Daddy's barbecue) because it was so good the day before. I hope we run into them at another expo or festival this summer. I have never had a pulled pork sandwich with as much flavour before! 

In the afternoon we spent a bit of time watching some of the dock diving shows. We also visited the exotic pet section where there was a kangaroo, red fox (which was actually black), and we got to hold a lemur! Here are a few pictures from the afternoon. 

During the afternoon we also stopped at a booth to make Troy a pet ID tag. I haven't gotten around to getting one since we came home so I'm very glad I finally picked one up with his name and my cell number on it. While waiting for the tag to be made I spotted mini cowboy hats made for dogs! I HAD to get one for Troy. I am so excited for him to wear it when we go to see zac brown band this summer (as well as the other country concerts we will be going to in the future). Here's a picture of Troy with his cowboy hat on! 

Here is a picture of everything we got on day 2. Some of these were samples (nutrience was giving out a very generous sample! The day before I thought they were for sale. I wish I picked one up both days!) and some were items I purchased (antler, liver treats, collar, cowboy hat, etc.) 

By the end of the second day, we were all extremely exhausted. 2 days at the expo was sort of unnecessary in my opinion. We could have gotten everything done on the first day (except that zaks sister wanted to come and she was busy on the Friday). We had a ton of fun though and I can't wait to go next year! It was great to see everyone, talk to people, and try out a ton of new products. I wish there were more dog vendors and a larger variety of shops though. There were only a few vendors selling toys, collars, and treats. I was expecting many more shops/dog vendors. The next large dog event we are looking forward to attending is Woofstock. I hope to see some of you there too! 

Canadian Pet Expo: Day 1

Last week I won a really amazing Facebook contest from the Canadian Pet expo. I won 6 weekend passes to the expo and a 3D model of Troy from 3-D Pet Prints!

We started our day off by walking around and saying hi to people who recognized Troy and I from the blog, Facebook, and Instagram (thanks everyone for coming up and saying hi. I love meeting you guys!). Then we grabbed a few pulled pork sandwiches from a food truck before heading to the 3D pet prints booth to get our model of Troy. 

I am so excited to share the 3D model with all of you. I am pretty sure this is the first 3D model of a Lions Foundation Dog Guide to ever exist, which makes it even more exciting. Here are a few pictures of 3D Troy. They're not the greatest quality pictures. I'll post some better ones on our Facebook page when I get home on Monday but here's a first look at the model!

After doing we got our model of Troy we did a little bit of shopping at some of the vendors. We also got a few free samples. Here are some photos of what we got today at the expo. 

The items I purchased were the 3 dental balls (small, medium, and large sizes), a tricky treat ball, a "build your own" bag of 12 gourmet dog treats from Ambers barkery, and a "happy Easter" cookie from candid K nines. All of the other items in the picture were free samples. 

I am very excited to go back again tomorrow to see some of the dog shows and get more free samples. I may pick up a few more treats as well. There were some really good prices on Merrick and Northern biscuits!

If you're going to be at the pet expo tomorrow make sure you come up and say hi to us! Troy still has some trouble with being distracted by other dogs but he did REALLY well today. We even ran into one of his trainers from Lions and she was very impressed by how well he was doing around the dogs and people! :) 

P.S. Happy Easter weekend everyone. Troy hopes your dogs (and cats!) are getting lots of extra cookies and cuddles for Easter!