Not about sewing so much...

I'm kind of bummed. As you know, all last winter, I lay around the house feeling like death warmed over from the chemo. It was while I was lying on the couch, watching reruns of "The Dog Whisperer", that I conceived the idea of a reward holiday. I said, "I want a reward for going through this slow motion hell and I want to go to California and meet Cesar Millan!" And so our trip to California in August was born.

I wrote Cesar a letter, explaining my circumstances and wondering if I could meet him, or just his dogs if he wasn't going to be there. I wrote it on real stationery with a fountain pen, so it would stand out as well as look sincere. If nothing else, I AM sincere! I wrote it on the computer first, so I could redraft parts, so I'll include what I wrote at the bottom here. I had even seen that episode with the teenaged girl who got to see him about her dog because she went through the Children's Wish Foundation and since I am way too old for that, I determined that I would grant my own wish.

After a while and no answer, I went to his web site and to the "contact" page and sent my letter as an email. It was interesting that the contact pages asks for fewer than 500 words and I had only written about 360 to begin with (it was small stationery). At the contact page, there are drop down menus to identify the subject matter of your inquiry. The first one I choose was "The dog psychology centre" and the second one that arose from that had "Can I visit the D.P.C.?" as an option.

The next day, I got this response by email:
"Thank you for contacting the Dog Psychology Center. This is an auto-reply.
We appreciate your interest in Cesar and the dedicated staff at the Dog Psychology Center. Unfortunately, at this time, the center is not open to the public, and no visitors or tours are permitted on the grounds."

Well, I do understand that he must get millions of inquiries every year and that there are lots of crazies out there (I have seen some on his show!). But this is why I am bummed, because the entire impetus for going to California (as opposed to say, Spain to watch Lance on the Tour this year) was to see Cesar and tell him how much his show meant to me last winter. *sigh*

Here is my original letter:
"I am writing to see if I may visit the Dog Psychology Centre and meet you. I checked your web site and there are no "public tours" that I can see, so I realize this sort of visit would have to be arranged particularly for me.

This last winter, I was having chemotherapy for breast cancer and I found myself lying on the couch every day at 5 pm, watching "The Dog Whisperer" on the National Geographic channel. I'd seen all the shows before but I watched them again anyway because I love the message that is in each episode and I think you are a genius when it comes to dogs. I also had finally come to understand what you mean about the energy that people have and how it affects dogs. When I was first diagnosed and I told people, I would often feel a wave of negative energy coming off them, in the form of fear and pity. It was very interesting to see how I became so attuned to feeling energy and that's when I clicked with your message in the show.

So there I was, lying on the couch, enduring until I finished my treatments, and I turned to my husband and said, "when I am done this, my reward will be to go to California and meet the Dog Whisperer!" I know kids can get such things through the Children's Wish Foundation but as someone past 50, I will have to give this wish to myself. Now we have booked our tickets and we will be spending some quality time with wine and food in Napa, seeing San Francisco, driving down through Monterey and ending up in Los Angeles on August 17-19. I am hoping you will be in town at that time because I would love to meet you. But even if you are not, I would like to visit the Centre and meet some of the dogs I have seen on your show, like Junior, who must be fully grown now!

Please let me know if it will be possible for us to visit the Centre in August."


I'm only posting this because I'm a bit blue about the results of the inquiry and I hope by getting it off my chest (pun?) it will make me feel better.  It would have been great to visit with Cesar, or his lovely wife, or Daddy or Junior. I know, I should just get a dog already! Soon...

More sewing shortly!