Elvis on FOX News

It is spring break week for  Hope College, and my brother Tim and his corgi Elvis are on a speaking tour up the East Coast.   They were on FOX News last night and will probably be flying to NY next week to be on the CBS Early Show.  Here is the direct link to the FOX news story.

http://www.comcast.net/video/dog-does-calculus/1449285442

http://www.hope.edu/hopetoday/ has additional links to the CNN Story that ran in 2008 (now on YouTube), the FOX story above, a longer version of that story on local FOX television in Virginia and an interview on Public Radio in VA.

A Look Back .....October 21, 2000

Today is Princess' 11th birthday, and I thought I would post my journal entry from October 21, 2000 - the day she came to live with me.   She was a year and a half old, a little thinner, a little more spry but with the same confident, feisty personality she has today.   Little did I know, eleven years ago today, that in Sarasota, Florida a litter of puppies was being born - one of whom would change - and enrich - my life with more joy than I could have ever imagined.   Happy birthday, sweet Princess!

October 21, 2000

Princess' and my first day together could not have gone better if I'd ordered it straight from heaven. She really seems happy here, and Barb says we are a perfect match. I think we are. I picked her up about 9:00 and ran a few short errands so she would get used to riding in my car and having me disappear for a few minutes and come back. After the first time, she didn't seem to mind. Never barked or whined at all. Then we came home and she was happy in the house for about 1/2 hour - just as she was the other evening. I fed her, she ate well and then suddenly got very skittish on me - wouldn't let me approach her, ran and hid behind furniture. I felt so bad for her - could tell she was just very bewildered and scared. I finally lay down on the carpet and gingerly she approached me. When I could reach out my hand to rub her neck and tummy, she relaxed and lay down beside me. Ever since then, she's been fine. We were outside most of the afternoon. It was a perfect autumn day - sunny, in the 60's and I had a lot of raking to do. Laurie came over for a while to help me and she thought Princess was the cutest dog she'd ever seen. My next door neighbor has a black lab and when she came out, she (Sadie) barked at Princess but Princess just looked at her and didn't bark. However, Sadie kept barking so I finally went over to pet Sadie and Princess got very agitated. She barked at me (she has a high pitched irritating bark but fortunately rarely uses it) and when I came back over into my yard she was jumping at me and obviously very upset. It was kind of funny. My neighbor thinks she is beautiful and she said "Mike will be so jealous." The rest of the afternoon we raked and Princess had so much fun romping in the leaves. Denise Larson and her girls stopped by to meet her and the girls enjoyed playing ball with her. After a few minutes she was retrieving the ball. When we're outside she loves to romp and play but when we come in, she is pretty mellow. She loves to lay next to you on her back and have her tummy rubbed. She cuddles right up to you.  Princess is alert and responsive - comes when you call her. She does jump in the bathtub if she gets a chance. I was told that she LOVES to have a bath. She barked at the vacuum cleaner (I decided she might as well get used to it because I vacuum every day) and when I ran the mop over the floor she got behind and tried to "herd it". FUNNY!! She likes to be with me, but she doesn't follow me everywhere now that she is used to the house. I am setting down a few ground rules - no begging at the table, and she must stay on the passenger side of the car. I have signed up for six weeks of training with her, beginning November 1st (more for my sake than hers). She was pretty tired by tonight. It was a big day - lots of new places and new people. I have her little travel kennel, and when I opened the door she went right in, lay down and went to sleep!! I couldn't have hoped for anything better.  I was told to have her sleep in there and stay in there when I'm at work. Even though the space seems confining, they feel secure in there and do better if you leave them in there. Gradually, after a few weeks, I can try letting her have the run of the house for short periods while I'm gone.  All it all, it's been a great day. 

We're Baaaacccckkkkk ....

I owe a huge thank you to the Google technical support team for restoring our blog!   Two weeks ago, in the process of changing my Email address, I accidentally deleted my Google account .... and this blog went with it .... disappearing far into Cyberspace somewhere.     CorgiTales is not a blog that makes any profound contribution to society, but I've had a lot of fun with it and we do have followers ... so I was pretty devastated at the thought of losing it.   Realizing that I was a mighty small goldfish in a HUGE ocean, I started posting requests for help on every site I could find, without a whole lot of hope that I'd get any.   But several days ago, I received a message that our blog had been restored!!!    Yeah!!!    The only problem is that my photos were not restored .... so gradually, over the coming weeks and months, I will upload those again.  I figure if I do a couple of posts a day, it shouldn't be too painful.   I learned a couple of important lessons .... 1) back up your posts in a Word document and 2) don't start deleting things when you really don't know what you're doing!!!    (I think I have learned that lesson before .... why didn't I remember it?!)   So anyway, we're BACK!    And CorgiTales, by the way, originated as the name of our scrapbooks ... now on Volume Six ... and counting!!