Meant to post last night to at least say that we had indeed arrived safe and sound, but instead I decided that sleep was more preferrable. Which is not to say that I’m not bone-tired at this precise moment, but I’m hoping to eliviate the super huge post-vacation write-up post (or posts, as the case was last year).

Anyway, yesterday Yara and I headed off to Connecticut via the Springfield, MA train — as we did last December — since it cuts my travel down by more than half. It was, thankfully, a very uneventful ride. I sat across from some very adorable Latino children who melted my heart with the fact they were playing with DCAU Batman toys. I spent most of the trip watching Star Trek and then ended up falling asleep, while Yara watched the little kids intently the entire trip. Had the most friendly help at both stations, which was very surprising and quite a welcome change from most every other train experience I’ve had. I even got a tram ride to the station from the train at the Springfield station. Raechel and James met us at the station, along with Yancy. Both of the dogs were quite excited to see each other.

We headed off to Red Robin for dinner. Other than the crowd of smokers congregated outside the entrance, it was a very pleasant meal. Neither of the dogs seemed bothered by the other and we didn’t have any trouble with them. Well, unless you count Yancy’s habit of taking up ALL the room possible under the rather large booth. But Yara just squished herself into the remaining space and commenced with some more people-watching.

After we’d filled our bellies, we set off for the house. Initially, we had intended to have the puppies and Yara play, but since Yara had to have her dinner and it was so late, we just blocked off part of the kitchen and had the puppies playing by themselves while Yara halfheartedly ate her food. Nerys and Yancy are quite a sight to behold when they are playing; they really go at one another and they are LOUD! Yancy is really good with the little puppy, though, and she’ll lay down and just let Nerys crawl all over her and bite her.

Anyway, after the puppies had exhausted themselves a bit and we’d done the “take out all the doggies” routine, it was off to bed.

Today was pretty laid back. I woke up about the same time as James, who was doing the morning “take out all the doggies” routine. We fed all the dogs and Yara actually shocked me by eating all but a small mouthful of her food. (If you’ve been around this blog for any length of time, you’re well aware of her refusal to eat at times. But whenever we’re away from home this “issue” becomes an absolute battle at times.) This is even more intriguing given that I started the food transition this morning and mixed in about 1/4 of the Nature’s Variety Instinct Grain-Free Chicken Meal into her EVO kibble. Right now it’s too early to tell how she’s doing, but at least she’s not adverse to eating the new food. At least not as yet.

So, anyway, James went off to work and after Raechel and I had done our morning bathroom things and had our breakfasts we let the Yara, Yancy and Nerys play in the kitchen. Here’s a video:

Nerys was almost painfully adorable to watch during this playtime. She’s used to Yancy taking every toy she gets so to get the girls to play with her she’d go off and get a toy and drop it at one of the others’ feet or just hop up and down in place (“Play with me! Play with me! Play with me!”), but Yara and Yancy would mostly just ignore her in favor of playing with each other.

Once playtime was over we did some pedicures on Yara, Yancy and Nerys. I was very shocked that Yara was so very good about having her nails done and even Yancy was totally fine with it. Nerys didn’t seem to care much either, since I was distracting her with string cheese. She did end up biting the heck out of my thumb, though.

Later, we met James at UConn for lunch with both Yara and Yancy. We sat inside with some of James’s colleagues and had a particularly nice chat with one who has adopted several rescue dogs. Then, we headed over to the Husky statue to take yet another round of photos by it of the girls. After, we went back to the house to hang out for a bit before the Fidelco Graduate Banquet and, you know, “take out all the doggies” and the etcetera.

At the dinner we were meeting up with both Patty and Tom, Yara’s fosters, and Ellen, Spock‘s new handler. We all sat at the same table, along with Ellen’s retired guide dog, Xoni, and her fosters Gail and Scott. Gail works in the kennel at Fidelco and is actually the person who orders Yara’s EPI enzymes. Both she and Des were very pleased with how well Yara’s looking. It was actually kind of funny, though, because Des also commented that Yara’s nails needed trimming since Raechel had just cut them that very morning. Oh, well.

Anyway, the Banquet was pretty much like every other year. Ellen went up and got her certificate for “graduating” with Spock last June and there was a raffle for a bunch of different things. One person won a HUGE dog bed and all I could think was I hope they aren’t traveling far because that would be a pain to cart on the train along with a dog and luggage. The food was okay, but I wasn’t really hungry. I was pleased that dessert wasn’t cheesecake yet again, but birthday cake in honor of Fidelco’s 50th anniversary. All in all, it wasn’t a bad night and it was pretty cool to see Spock again. I know Raechel and James were very excited about that!

For now, though, it’s time for bed. By the way, photos will be sporadically uploaded to this Flickr set for those of you interested. There’s already quite a few on there.