Friends: Old and New

One of my goals for Kozmo is to expose him to as many different people and situations as possible so that he can be able and welcome to go everywhere I go. Well, almost everywhere, I still can't change the huge institutional policy in place to keep him from coming to work with me or being allowed in restaurants. I had to take my car to the garage for tires and an alignment. The garage is very close to Kozmo's groomers. I decided to take him with me and walk over to the groomer's for a quick nail trim while we waited.

I should have known that nothing is ever simple. Turns out my alignment was more involved so Kozmo and I had about 2 hours to kill waiting at the garage. He was such a good boy. He never once barked. He sat politely each time he met a new person. Most of the customers wanted to pet him. By the time we left he was the unofficial garage mascot.

We walked over to the groomer's and Kozmo tried hard to be a good boy. He is still not happy having his nails trimmed and he struggled a bit more than at his last appointment. The groomers still gave him a treat and told me he is a very sweet boy. Back at the garage, Kozmo was even offered a bottle of cold water from the fridge from one of the mechanics. Kozmo seemed to like the tile floor in the waiting room and happily chewed his bone until our car was done.

I wasn't sure about our last stop of the day, but am really glad he went. I took Kozmo back to the shelter where I adopted him from. I entered Kozmo in a contest to possibly have his photo in a calendar printed to raise money for the shelter. I thought it would be fun for him to go with me and drop off his application and donations. It wasn't until I pulled in the parking lot that I started to second guess my decision. I was worried I could traumatize Kozmo by taking him back to the shelter. He didn't seem to recognize the place and happily walked in with me. The overworked and underpaid woman at the desk took one look at Kozmo and said, "please don't tell me this is another stray". I felt bad stressing the poor woman out. I quickly told her why we were there and you could visibly see the relief. I asked if she remembered Kozmo, I had to remind her that when we got him and that his temporary name was Kirby.

All of a sudden every volunteer was saying "It's Kirby" and Kozmo was the center of attention. Everyone came out to see him and couldn't believe how big he got. It was funny, several people also commented on how calm he was. I don't think of Kozmo as a calm dog, but when I think back to our first meeting at the shelter, I guess he has really calmed down. I'm glad I took Kozmo back to visit. He made lots of people smile and took the whole experience in stride.

Kozmo had a great day making new friends and visiting old friends.