Zeus IV graduated today at the Dublin Recreational Center in Dublin Ohio.
He was matched with the nicest, very intelligent young man named Joshua. Josh is from Minnesota, so I won't see much of Zeus, (unless of course Josh decides to go on vacation and chooses to leave Zeus three states over from home. =] ) but it's alright, because I know that my boy will be bringing SO MUCH joy and independence to Josh's life.
Josh will be attending college in Minnesota this fall, just south of his home town. And believe it or not, he will be living in a dorm room, wih Zeus. =]

We got to visit with Zeus for twenty-five minutes by ourselves before the ceremony. I couldn't help but cry when I first saw him laying there with his graduate cape on. He didn't remember us at first, but once we started to pet him and hug him... and cry.. his tail started wagging.

We had to give Zeus up again so we could go have breakfast with Josh and his mother and father. They were such NICE people. There was no awkwardness with just sitting down and talking with them, they had questions and stories about their experiences with Zeus over the past two weeks. We made them a photo album with a timeline of Zeus from puppyhood to turn-in. There were quite a few pictures of Zeus and Sam together, and I thought that they wouldn't like it much cause they have no idea who Sammy is, but they thought it was great to compare Zeus in size against Sammy over the year and a half.
Zeus' 2nd birthday was on Monday, so of course we had to get him a gift. You see, my brother used to call Zeus, "Mr. Moose", so while my mother and I were shopping one day we happened upon a Moose squeaky toy. Of course we got it. =]

After breakfast we went and gathered Zeus again, along with Carlos.
Oh, forgot to mention that Carlos came with for the ceremony. (He received his public puppy cape just the other day. Yay!)
But anyway, Zeus and Carlos got to meet and it was adorable. Sophisticated prim and proper Zeus was more interested in Carlos than Carlos was in him.

During the ceremony I held onto Zeus (of course) and he spent the whole time before he was called up in a "lap" command. He was pretty much laying across my mother and my laps. "Lap" is obviously his most favorite command to perform. Josh comfirmed this later. xD

We were eventually called up, and I handed over Zeus' leash to Josh, officially beginning the rest of their lives together as a service dog team.

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Out of the 25 dogs turned in for advanced training on the 17th of November, only 5 graduated today. This is one of the reasons why I am SO VERY VERY PROUD of my VERY GOOD boy. =]

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Josh kept a blog about the past two weeks of team training. If you would like to read all about the process of matching the correct dog for the job with the person and what happens in these two weeks, you can read all about it here: [link]