Category: Blog

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A Day at the Ballpark

   Hello everyone! Saint and Dusty here. We hope you are doing well since our last post, we certainly are! The snow is melting and the temperatures are rising. We can’t wait for warmer temperatures so we can go outside in it!!! Speaking of nicer weather, we wanted to tell you about the baseball scrimmage we attended with Mummy this past fall. It was a blast! We got to watch some of the boys that Mummy has as student play on the baseball field with a ball! It’s like they know that we love to play with tennis balls!! We almost couldn’t contain our excitement as the ball kept moving around the field so quickly! It was like this giant game of fetch back and forth that they were playing with each other the whole time.  

     But that’s not even the best part of the game! One of the coaches was cooking sausages for the team for after the game (how did they know we love sausages too!) and we were soooooo excited because we wanted a sausage too, but that’s when the coach told Mummy, “it looks like we only have enough for the boys tonight”. We were so bummed! How could they cook sausages right in front of us the whole time and not offer us one! That’s just so unfair! It didn’t ruin our spirits though. The game was lots of fun anyway and we had a great time with Mummy as usual!      

     Be on the lookout for our next blog to see what adventures we talk about next and thank you for tuning in this week!! 

Hugs and Wags, 

Saint and Dusty 

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A Day at the Ballpark (again)

Hello everyone! It’s Saint and Dusty again. We wanted to share our time watching the UMPI Baseball team play some home games this week. Mummy had some difficulties getting into the parking lot on Saturday because there was no spot reserved for her like usual! But if you know our Mummy, you know that she finds a way for her family.  

Mummy found a spot and we made our way to the field. When we arrived there was a mesh blocking behind home plate where we usually sit. This made it impossible to see the games from our usual seats. So Mummy tried to move close to the dugout to watch the game. This made it to where we could see but Mummy still could not. There was a yellow thing one of fencing right at eye level for her. We ended up leaving early because Mummy was hurting her back trying to look at the game. 

The next day we went back to try and watch the games again. This time, there was a spot reserved for us and part of the blocking behind the home plate was taken down by our spots! This made us all so happy as we could stay and watch part of the games even though it was pretty cold and chilly. Mummy loves to get to watch her family play baseball and we love getting outside so it’s a win for everybody! 

Thanks for joining us again for this story from us! Take care and be well! 

Hugs and Wags, 

Saint and Dusty 

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The Fruits of Our Labor

Hello everyone! Saint and Dusty here.

Today was such a good day. Instead of going straight to school, Mummy took us and our newest sister, Megan (one of Mummy’s students), to the grocery store. We love going to the grocery store because everything smells so good. We get to smell the bouquets of flowers, the bread from the bakery and anything else we pass.  Mummy had a fruit bowl waiting for her! We always get so excited when Mummy gets us fruit.

Before we left the store, Mummy stopped to see Penny.  Penny works at the grocery store but she always makes time to say “hi” to us. After seeing Penny and paying for the fruit bowl, we went back to school. Class was even more exciting, since we got sweet, juicy fruit throughout the day!

Here is a picture of Mummy feeding us fruit!

Until next time. Take care. Be well. Hugs and wags.

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The Day That Would Never End

Hello everyone! Saint and Dusty here. It has been over six months, but we thought we’d talk about one of the strangest days of our lives! Last summer, Mummy loaded up the van Mummy calls Miracle with all sorts of food and clothes. We weren’t sure where we were going, but we knew it would
be for a long time. We’ve been on long road trips before with Mummy, but knew this one was different. She even packed a little fridge in the back!

After many long days of traveling and staying in many different bedrooms, one day seemed to never end. We began riding on this very bumpy road. Dust was flying up on both sides of Miracle. Mummy seemed a little bit stressed. The little handle on the steering wheel kept popping off and Mummy kept having to put it back on. We knew we would stop eventually, but the day kept dragging on. We were content to spend most of the day sleeping as usual, but we kept waking up and it seemed like we were still
in the same spot of the road. It all looked the same!

Eventually, very very late at night, we woke up and heard Mummy talking to a man. “You’ve still got four hours to go!” we heard the man say. Finally, we had an idea how much time was left. That’s only about three classes worth. We knew we could sleep through the rest.

When we woke up again, we heard Mummy talking to another man who spoke like he was very important. There were huge fences with big round circles on top of them. We haven’t seen anything like that in Maine. We heard Mummy say she was trying to find the hotel, and the man tell her this was a military compound. All sorts of other men we noticed were holding big guns! Suddenly, the day went from long to strange. Eventually, the man was nice and helped give Mummy directions to the hotel. Finally, the day that seemed like it would never end, ended. We knew Mummy would get us wherever we were going, and we never worried. That’s Mummy’s job!

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Exploring the Whitehouse

Hello everyone! Saint and Dusty here.

Mummy took us on another adventure today — Tuesday, March 15, 2023. It was a great day in Washington, D.C. We waited in line to tour the White House, which started at 11 a.m. It took time to get inside, but we made it! We went with many of our friends who are usually in Mummy’s classes. We took many photos with Mummy and the group while inside the White House.

There was so much to see! We saw the state dining room (yum), the blue room, the red room and the green room. We saw that the library has over 2,700 books. That is a lot of hours spent reading!

Because of Mummy we even got to see exclusive areas of the White House such as the part of the building that has scorch marks from when the British burned it in the War of 1812. It was a day to remember! We cannot tell President Biden’s dog this, but we even urinated on his lawn, which means we technically own part of that lawn now, if we are using dog rules.

The fun did not stop at the end of the White House tour. The next place we went was the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. We saw so many bones!! Although these bones were too big to chew on because they once belonged to dinosaurs! We ended up staying until they shut down the place.

Here is a photo of us with the whole group spending time in the White House!

Until next time. Take care. Be well. Hugs and wags.

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Flying to D.C.

Hello everyone! Saint and Dusty here.

Today –Monday, March 13, 2023—was such an unusual day. Mummy woke us up very early so that we would be out of Presque Isle by 1 a.m. We had a goal to get to Washington, D.C., with 11 of our friends who wanted to come with us. For us this meant catching two flights on time. Good thing we really enjoy catch!

We arrived at Bangor and caught our first flight. We flew in style when Mummy got us moved up to first class. We got many smiles as we greeted each person walking to their seats on the plane. All of the passengers loved us!

There were also many good smells and crumbs surprises under each seat.
Our second flight took us to Washington, D.C. There were not as many crumbs under these seats as there were on the first flight. We got to nap the rest of the way there. When we woke up, we had done it! We were in D.C.
From then on it was back to riding in a vehicle. A nice man in a wheelchair accessible van drove us to our hotel.

Teri was waiting at the hotel for us! Teri has helped Mummy and us many times. This time she is attaching wheels to a big kennel so that Mummy can pull us around in it. This will be great for our journey through Washington!

Here is a photo of us spending time together inside in the airplane.

Saint and Dusty sleeping on the airplane.

Until next time. Take care. Be well. Hugs and wags.

Saint and Dusty

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The Ramp to the Hair Salon

Hello everyone! Saint and Dusty here.

Mummy took us to a special place in town on Tuesday, February 7, 2023. It was –7 degrees, but we ventured out in Miracle –the van Mummy drives– anyway. The drive was quick. We pulled up to the building and got inside from the cold with ease.

For five years we have been going to Salon 207 because this is where Kim works. Kim is a beautician who cuts Mummy’s hair. Kim also makes sure that Mummy always has access to the ramp to get into the building even when guys in Jeeps think the accessibility ramp is a parking space. That has happened often. It’s good to have Kim looking out for us!

Mummy’s haircuts aren’t long, but we make the most of our time by sniffing around. Kim lets us explore the room while she and Mummy are busy. Sometimes there the sun shines through the windows onto the floor and that makes for a great spot to lie down. This time there was no sunny
spot to lie in, so we spent time together, by Mummy’s side, until her hair was all cut.

When we were getting ready to leave, some other costumers were just coming in. We greeted them before heading back outside, going down the ramp, and then into our seats inside of Miracle. What a good day.

Here is a photo of us spending time together inside Salon 207 during the hair appointment!

Saint and Dusty spending time together at Salon 207.

Until next time. Take care. Be well. Hugs and wags.

Saint and Dusty

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Going to an UMPI Basketball Game

Hello everyone! Saint and Dusty here.
It has been a while since we were able to go watch a basketball game. The gym looks so very different now! Although we could smell some dry wall that we remember from when they worked on our house years ago. So we think that there must have been some big construction since the last time we went.
This time we were able to sit in the bleachers! Mummy had a spot all picked out for her
that happened to be right next to the opposing team’s players. This felt a little weird since we knew we were there to root for the Owls. We recognized some of the players warming up before the game started from one of Mummy’s afternoon classes. We could tell by their scents because
they all look the same in their uniforms. We could sense that Mummy wanted to go right out on the floor to ask them about their progress reports. (That has been a big topic of discussion we remember from that class when we aren’t asleep)
The women’s game was pretty easy going, as people in the crowd seemed to be happy throughout. The women’s team was playing really well. Once the men’s game began, however, things started to feel much tenser. Players were getting really rough out there. The student section kept yelling at one individual player from the other team. We think it was because he was
scoring a lot. Toward the end of the game when things were really tense he came flying across the floor right next to us. He almost slid right into us! He didn’t, thankfully, and wasn’t hurt. The game went right down to it, and unfortunately the Owls lost. The energy in the building was a little deflated. But we know there will always be more games to be played.

It was awesome watching a basketball games again, with all the people in one big room cheering the Owls on. We can’t wait to attend more!

Hugs and Wags,

Saint and Dusty.

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Maine Veterinary Medical Center: A Very Caring Place

Amy Hodshon, DVM, Dusty's Neurologist, Cuddles and Plays With Us on the Floor at MVMC, 8.31.2022

Hello Everyone!  Saint and Dusty here.  BEYOND LIMITS believes that although we all have limits in our lives, there are often ways to transcend them.  Sometimes we impose the limits on ourselves when we don’t see the opportunities that they can yield.  We had one such great opportunity on August 31, 2022, when we went to the Maine Veterinary Medical Center.

Saint will be 14 at the end of the year, which would be like 98 in people years.  So she can’t hear or see so well anymore.  Although Dusty is still a baby at 5, she has developed a seizure disorder.  Our local vet is wonderful.  He is not a specialist, though.  So Mummy decided to take us to MVMC where they have specialists who could work with us and perhaps give us some help.

MVMC is a wonderful place.  It’s in Scarborough on a beautiful spot.  The people who work there are lovely and kind.  It’s sort of far from where we live, so Mummy took us most of the way there the day before so that we would be in plenty of time for our appointments.  We’re pretty expert at staying in hotels by now.  :>).

There are no magic cures for either of us.  There are some things that Mummy can do for us that may help us be more comfortable, though.  The folks at MVMC will keep track of our progress.

We don’t want to be immodest, but all the doctors and staff at MVMC thought that we were the best girls.  Several of them wanted to keep us.  That was really flattering.  But we wouldn’t consider it. Who would take care of Mummy if we weren’t with her? 

We are including a photo of Dusty’s Neurologist, Amy Hodson, DVM.  She is on the floor with us, cuddling and playing. 

Our next blog should have more trip memories.  We’re Mummy’s babies, so we don’t let anything stop us.

Take care.  Be well.  Hugs and wags.

Dusty and Saint

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If You Can, You Must Podcast: Episode 1

Hello everybody and welcome to the If You Can, You Must podcast series.  In our first episode, we will meet Dr. Lowman from the University of Maine at Presque Isle.  Dr. Lowman has two service dogs and is an expert on the Americans with Disabilities Act.  She makes the perfect first guest for our service dog and social justice podcast.  Listen as we share stories, and discuss the ADA.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDK0z8z_0KQ&t=1s