There is no rest for the weary this Labor Day weekend!

Labor Day weekend is upon us, a weekend known for lengthy driving trips, sometimes a feverish attempt at squeezing the last delicious drop of summer from the season, whether it be the beach, the boardwalk, or in my case the high desert......

Friday found me, Gabriel, and Sally dressed for service. We had received word from an area Hospice contact, that our services would be very much appreciated this weekend. I checked our collective calendars and there was an opening mid morning on Friday, and so we three set out in my big brown Subaru across Santa Fe in search of two of our friends and patients at Hospice.

When we arrived we went directly to our first friends room. Her bed was stripped and there was no sign of her. I feared for the worst, but upon reaching the nursing station I was informed that she was being bathed and showered with no appropriate completion time offered. Gabriel Sally and I set off to visit another friend. Our gentleman friend was particularly perky and jovial and got his pets and prods from his two friends. I steered Sally and Gabriel down the hallway to leave and in the vestibule ran into a tall attractive woman with a lilty southern drawl. She asked, "our theeeeeese your two dawgsssssss?" "yes, I replied" in my accent less voice. Why is it that I feel so utterly sterile when speaking to the british or the southerners? This lovely woman then kindly asked if we three might not visit her sister in law that she was visiting from Austin Texas. "She just loves daawwwwwwgs" came her plea. And so we three gathered our leashes and our collective paws and proceeded to her sister in laws room. With one look at the face of this dear woman, I knew why we had come. Her bright ruddy face burst forth into a trans formative smile. Her eyes widened and she uttered ahhhhhhhhhhhh. Then came the questions from her and her other family members. What kind of a dog is Gabriel (Great Pyrenees), and Sally? A 1 1/2 year rescue dog from the Los Alamos shelter lab mix who I affectionately refer to as night light because she glows in the dark (no, not really, its a silly reference to her former nuclear neighborhood). Smiles and treat giving and canine saliva and human hands and petting all the way around left me feeling oh so fine and oh so alive, grateful for this gift of life and for the love I share with these two terrific long tailed creatures of service that I call Gabriel and Sally.

This morning, through face book, I received a video of a sixteen year old dog who acts as a hospice therapy dog much as Sally and Gabriel do. The essential difference is that the dog is no longer mobile. His owner, a lovely and gray haired-women transports her dog on a bed on a cart of sorts. When she reaches the bedside of a bedridden hospice patient, she lifts her dog on his comfy pillow to comfort and visit the patient. All of the video footage is accompanied by the heart wrenching sounds of Sarah McLaughlin's.....rendition of "In the arms of an angel". It's a true tear jerker, but it reminded me that once again, My Gabriel can be an angel just as he name would suggest.

For those interested in Gabriel's behavior, I have to say that he has been very well behaved and not in the least cranky since his transgressions of last weekend. We, however, are avoiding the Dog Park like the plague and this morning enjoyed a cool morning walk with Sally and Dakota down the dirt roads of our area and alongside country singer Randy Travis' beautiful adobe walled estate. We never see Randy, but we do occasionally enjoy the belows of his handsome Angus Bull's and the view of his barns and fields below his home.

After the morning stroll, Sally and I climbed in the Subaru and drove out to a area Eventing Barn called Goose Down Farms where we and two other Assistant Dogs of the West Employees demonstrated the power of Assistance Dogs! I parked my car down by the barn which had once housed a Thoroughbred named Nairobi I had ridden. Sally became aroused when she caught glimpse of a gosling in a cage in the center of the barns courtyard. Horses humongous necks leaned and nuzzled me in search of treats. At one time I came with candy canes and sugary snacks for the horses here, now, my waist belt held freeze dried beef liver....something repugnant to the herbivores here.

Amid a steady stream of sixteen plus hand steeds and fashionably dressed dressage and jumping riders we stuck out into the center of the jumping ring. In years past I had ridden in clinics in this very ring with my former instructor Jerfray Ryding's well seasoned eyes providing me direction. But now I was not astride a steed, but rather accompanying my much smaller four legged friend Sally. Sally gathered ground and smells from the sand of the arena. She generously offered sits, and downs, and down stays.......and she even retrieved a larger rubber sandal to the ohhhhhhhs and ahhhhhhhhhhhs of the crowd. Her most fantastic feat was the gathering of her lovely black and white braided leash from the ground which she two times perfectly presented to me with her entire back end wagging in refrain!

As we left the gorgeous grounds of Goose Downs Farms, I felt the warm recognition, that life is a series of experiences upon which we develop a constantly evolving perspective. My perspective has shifted from astride a horse to aside a hound in the very same arena. The one constant in this labor day weekend was companionship, with people, with canines, and with horses. Spending time this labor day with animals is a labor of Love....