2026 Reading Dog Fun
September – December
11/5/26: Hopeful began doing Reading Dog with the Special Ed students at Sheridan High School. The students took a little while to become comfortable with Hopeful, but she waited patiently. The teacher took a photo of a particularly moving moment, when Hopeful cuddled with one of the students, resting her head on her leg for a long time. The girl normally moves around all the time, flailing her arms, but she settled down next to Hopeful for a good 15 minutes. The teacher was amazed. I was very moved. We will go every Thursday morning. I’m excited about this.
10/2/26: Justice got to do his first Reading Dog session at Tongue River Elementary on Monday afternoon. He had kinderboosters (pre-K) through 4th graders and LOVED it. I waited this long (he’s 5) to try him because I feared that if the kids bounced and went wild, he would happily bounce with them. But he’s really matured recently so I thought he might be able to do it. And he did!
Sometimes teachers forget to send kids at their scheduled times and we have times of no kids, then times of two different grades at the same time. Justice thought we waited FOREVER for our first kids and was a LITTLE excited with them, but soon settled down and thoroughly enjoyed himself, though he was not happy when we had a lull between kids. He kept trying to ooze past me so he could see the kids sooner when they came.
I took some cell-phone photos of several different groups of kids, though they’re not great because I couldn’t get good angles or much distance. That, of course, was after Justice calmed down. I was too busy keeping him from overwhelming the kids in the first couple of reading sessions to even think of picking up my phone…
See all of Justice’s Reading Dog photos from October 2.
10/12/26: Pascha wore a T-Rex costume for Reading Dog at Tongue River Elementary.
See all of Pascha’s T-Rex costume photos
10/19/26: Hopeful wore a Wonder Woman costume for Reading Dog at Tongue River Elementary.
See all of Hopeful’s Wonder Woman costume photos
10/26/26: Justice got to do his second Reading Dog session at Tongue River Elementary. He wore his Bat Man costume, which the kids loved.
See all of Justice’s Bat Man costume photos
January – May
May: See photos of Jamboree doing Reading Dog in Sundance, WY
4/30/26: Hopeful celebrated her 6th birthday with the Holy Name School kindergarteners. I made Snickerdoodles and the kids sang Happy Birthday to Hopeful before we feasted. Then we did Reading Dog. What a fun morning!
2/9/26 & 2/12/26: Hopeful doing Reading Dog in her Valentine’s Day costume with the Tongue River Elementary kids and the Holy Name School kindergarteners
Exciting News from Sundance, WY and Jamboree, who is Mercy’s sister (10 years 3 months old):
4/11/26: “Logging in Jamboree’s 400th. visit from Thursday, which earned her the AKC Distinguished Therapy Dog Award (THDD).”
CONGRATULATIONS, JAMBOREE & LAURIE!!!
Here are a couple of photos
Jamboree at 10 years 2 months
Photos1-4: “So wish I could get through one day without receiving sad news. One of Jamboree’s elementary students was killed in an ATV accident yesterday at his home. Just lived right down the road from us. Karen works at his parents’ board and groom facility and his dad pumps our septic tank. So heartbreaking.”
Photos 5-8: “Tough couple days. Top right is the 3rd Grade student Slade who tragically was killed in ATV accident over the weekend with funeral today. Jamboree will be working closely with subs and counselors all week offering extra emotional support to his classmates who are unable to attend.”
Photos 9-10: “Jamboree and Kiddos loving the new Giant Comfort Bear added to our room today.”
