Reika is one of the Camelot RRRs (Ridgeless Rhodesian Ridgebacks). Her dam is Monroe, one of the Camelot house dogs. Her sire is Eddie, who lives with Greg Castillo and David Bueno (Westwood Rhodesian Ridgebacks). Here is the link to the Monroe-Eddie puppy blog. Reika's owners are Susan Taimura and Rudolf Mueller. The following description of Reika's therapy dog career was written by Susan:

To update you on what's been going on w/us -we just got Reika's therapy dog vest today - if I can take a decent picture from my phone I'm sure I'll be sending it to you. I'm still waiting to receive my Delta ID#. I can't start taking Reika on visits without it. Rudolf is set. He's got his badge w/ID#. BTW, on the back of the Delta Society ID badge is a list of restrictions such as, must be: only dog, little distractions, supervised, etc. Rudolf & Reika have no visiting restrictions! It's pretty surprising to pass with such a young dog, a RR on top of that AND on the first attempt. They were evaluated by the President of the Orange County Chapter, so to have her place no restriction on a first timer is really saying a lot about Reika's temperament & predictability. I won't know what score Reika & I received until I get my badge.  

Once Reika & I get my ID# we'll be going to a program that helps children who are having difficulties w/reading. I'm also looking into visiting a couple of elderly people who are house bound. One woman has a daughter who can only visit once a week and is worried that her mom gets very lonely. The other woman doesn't have any family that visit her. There's a neighbor who checks in on her but she's reached out to the Delta Society to see if a therapy team can visit.

Once Reika & I get some experience, we will visit retirement homes &/or special needs children. Then I really want to visit hospice patients. My ultimate goal is to visit the pediatric oncology or oncology wards at two nearby hospitals (which I've probably mentioned a couple of times). I say all this with the understanding that Reika's happiness comes first. The moment she doesn't seem to enjoy visiting people, we'll stop.

On a different note, Reika & I just finished taking our first agility class. We were lucky that most of dogs in the class were larger than usual. Reika isn't the largest either - we had a Bernese Mountain Dog in the class!  Reika loves agility so much I signed up for the second class which starts in two weeks. You might be shocked because I don't have plans on competing! It's just fun time for Reika & me.

This weekend I'm going to volunteer at a lure coursing event & we'll have Reika do a couple of fun runs. She really did love running the course back in April during the hound show.

This web page address is http://camelotrr.com/reika.html
Last modified on Wednesday, June 8, 2011