Notes from prison

Note: I originally posted this on Tumblr the day Montana came home from boarding at the prison program, but almost a week later I still haven't gotten over how tragically sweet it is, so I'm reposting it here. Enjoy.

In the prison program, the dogs stay with the same handler the whole time. They sleep in their cells and they’re with them 24/7. The handlers keep extensive daily journals of the dog’s progress. When we first adopted Montana we loved reading her journal and learning more about her. This time when we got her back from boarding, reading the journal was equally enjoyable but in a different way—it was funny to see her handler observing things that we already know about our dog. And it was also very touching to see how much the handler obviously cared about the dog.

Some of my favorite notes:

• “While Montana and I were on our walk, she kept looking around, and at first, I couldn’t figure out why. Then it hit me… she’s scoping the area for bunnies!”

• “Montana trotted away and put her twitching nose to the ground. She had all kinds of fun cruising around sniffing all the new, interesting smells. I got her attention. Once she looked at me, I gave her the ‘come’ command, and to my surprise, she did!! She came right to me! I was so proud of her!!”

• “This morning was my first group training session with Montana and her first training session since she’s been back. Montana did very well! I was very glad to see that she still knows all of her obedience skills very well. You did a wonderful job keeping up with her training! My job is going to be pretty easy.”

• “I love just hanging out with her and spending time with her. She is so much fun to be around. You can’t help but be happy around her.”

• “Because of her cough, she gets the ‘princess bed’ with four blankets folded up just her size so it’s nice and comfy for her. She always kicks the other dogs off her princess bed, and she lays on it every chance she gets.”

• “Since she’s going home tomorrow I want her to look her best, so she got a bath today. She wasn’t very pleased with it, and she almost had a fit when I brought out the blow dryer.”

• “I’ve loved working with Montana. She’s one of the sweetest, most intelligent, and best behaved dogs I’ve ever had. Thank you for letting her come to visit, and tell her I love her and not to forget to write and send pictures. (She may need your help on that one.) I’ll miss you Montana!”