I’m not writing a recap of this insane year, or scientific or medical information or even about parenting. This post will be all about my adorable, helpful, awkwardly weird service dog whose paws are too big for his body.

He’s called Oak, he’s wired haired lab mix. He’s beautiful, smart, weird and charismatic. He knows he’s not supposed to be touched my people (other than me) when he’s working so if he gets bored and desperate he’ll wink at someone watching him, trying to get them to break the rules.

If he doesn’t get to go somewhere with me (usually my mom’s house because he’s tried to eat her cat) he will ignore me for the rest of the day.

If he gets to go to an appointment with me and work, he’ll be very well behaved, but when he gets bored he’ll try to hand me his leash because he’s ready to go. Then it’s like gambling, he’ll either be happy he got to work and be close to me all day or be tired of me and go lay in the other room.

When we go to the pet store I use my cane and he doesn’t have to wear his vest so he investigates all the tanks, curious at the swimming turtles and makes pig noises at the ferrets. I’d like to believe he would just play with them if given the opportunity but I’ve learned with past animals smaller than him, he wants to hunt them.

When we’re at home, he’s good about noticing when I need extra help and will stay nearby, especially since I’ve been using my cane and now walker inside the house too. But he also gets to be a dog, that’s one of the main things people want to know.

They run outside, knocking each other around and racing back and forth. Then they attempt to catch the squirrels that taunt them daily from the top of the fence posts.

If I yell down loudly to let everyone know something he complains with a weird sound that’s not a whine but definitely an “I don’t like that sound” noise. He’s adorable and is getting a little more gray as he’ll be 6 in March! So there you go, he needs some reminder training from being in lockdown most of the year but he’s super amazing and cute and you’re welcome for his delightful photos. 🙂