001hello and welcome to Around the Clock I'm your host Yolanda Greaves and we are back here with Rich Powers Rich welcome back to Around the Clock and his newest puppy Timmy Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy how do I say that my wife calls him Timmy his newest puppy Jimmy uh Rich how old is Jimmy Jimmy's about four and a half months and how long have you had him uh we we received him uh first week of May and he was actually donated to us oh nice he was donated to us by a charity group uh called goofy dogs golden opportunities for Independence and they raise uh resource dogs for police departments in school um and when we lost Spencer and Penny together they reached out to us and they offered us a dog and I thought my
002goodness so you know I don't know how much they cost but okay let me talk to you um and she said no we're we want to give you this dog we love what she did with Spencer and Penny we want you to continue the mission so we were extremely grateful we did make a donate donation to go free yeah um so so remind people of Spencer and Penny's story uh Spencer Penny were a couple of therapy dogs that um you know pretty much visited uh you know schools hospitals assisted living and um also became world famous over the marathon um you know they've been out there since 2015 15 but in 2018 they they got noticed specifically because Spencer was holding the flag and the most gruesome conditions for that was a tough I remember
003and he just was so proud to hold that flag he felt the energy he knew it meant a big deal and as long as they were running as he would hold the flag and when the Rhinos were you know in between the waves he would just wet rest and wait for the next one um you know it was interesting because every time you know we went every single year the minute they got out of the car he'd jump out of the car and I would just hold the flag he would jump up right take it out of my hands and trot down the street with it so that's so cool did enjoy it he definitely knew it was a big deal and Penny would hold in in like when Spencer was taking a breath break
004but she was just more interesting um so Spencer and Penny were therapy dogs correct and our is the plan to do the same with Jimmy yes yes um and and and I forgot how much work it is to train these um I did find it easier with training chew dogs because you had an older one to help train the other one and then um so not having an older one now it makes it a little trickier because the older women teach the younger one but he's doing extremely well which we're working extremely hard with him and bringing him into social situations um we'll bring him to you know not crowded restaurants and that sort of thing we try to bring him into any any dog friendly establishment like um uh TJ Maxx or Home Goods
005right right places and he does very very well with that we're actually bringing him to a trainer as well so he gets exposure to other dogs you know not just us so and it's really helped him you know be quite a calm calm Pop I mean this this is pretty good he's doing really well for four months I would put him like as far as training goes I would put him at like 100 when he's not distracted yeah if he's distracted I would still put him above average not just a puppy just above average for the average dog so I think his training is coming along pretty well and I think he's going to make a fantastic therapy dog um he's very very gentle very very um loves loves attention and you know and I
006think that's just a perfect recipe for and he's highly intelligent yeah very intelligent well it's it's funny I I'm no longer a dog owner I was a dog owner and every once in a while people are like oh no you shouldn't have I don't we don't seem to eat that buddy we're still learning you should get another dog and and I go you know it's just to what you said it takes a lot of time and energy and a lot of work so yeah they're not just decorating people like you yeah they're not just decorations so if you don't have the time it's a wise decision you got to get them yeah um on the flip side of that I don't know how you can live without a dog but but that's just me um
007you know because when we lost our two it was very difficult for my wife and I it was very difficult to be without them because we you know we had been like I myself had had a dog for 33 years straight yeah because Spencer and Penny weren't your first therapy dogs and they had a cocker spaniel before that so this is basically since 1990 I've had at least one dog since 96 I've had two or more so right to go from two to zero was very very difficult so it was very difficult for us come here buddy hey bud what are you doing um and you know he he's he's got the puppy Zoomies he's pretty he's he's an ordinary puppy when he when he needs to be but right but he's he's very chill
008and and not non-reactionary which is great for a therapy dog so like a loud sound or something isn't he doesn't jump out of his skin right um we've exposed him to vacuums and you know lawn mowers and you name it the blender and you know we just it's good it's good you know just positive reinforcement and he's doing fantastic that's great he does like to eat stuff too yeah well he's a puppy right every everything looks like food yeah so uh so before we let you go and it's been so fun to meet Jimmy and it's great to see that you're continuing your work so Spencer passed away this March and he was he was about he's 13 in seven months okay um and then is that normal for a gold in that it's actually
009older than the average Savvy and it's it's in recent years I think the longevity of dogs in general not even just not even just purebreds but a lot of mixed breeds are they do find cancer is is rampant um you know in Spencer Penny's memorial page actually raised over forty one thousand dollars for cancer research in canines um so you know he continues to make a difference even though he's gone and um you know and they're they're they're discovering some things that might actually help either either isolate some genes or you know what yeah I I think it's genetic but I also think there's a lot of outside forces here too I don't think it's one thing or the other I do my personal thing is I question what we're putting on The Lawns but
010that's just you know so um I don't put anything in my Lawns but it's still out there the other thing in with Spencer you're in the process of raising funds you have a GoFundMe site to do we have a girlfriend new Memorial yep in honor of Spencer how's that going uh pretty good it's uh we have a couple of locations um you know they're 100 committed that they want the statue um so um when he passed away the enormous outcry for a statue on the route um you know somewhere along the Route was was was enormous and you know and and of course I felt the same way but I said well everybody wants one we're going to get one right so we researched a local artist he's out of Canton um he's actually worked
011in Hollywood and everything else uh half the funds are there already we've already made the deposit uh we're you know the he's the construction is underway our goal is to have it there for the marathon this coming year that's our that's our goal it's a hefty lofty goal um and it's you know and I think it's doable and if people people wanted to go to the site and figure out how to support what is where would it be um it's a it's a GoFundMe site you can just if the easiest way to do is just find Spencer and Penny and go on their Facebook page and there'll be some links in there and stuff like that you're certainly really happy that anybody can email us for a direct link okay um but it you know
012it's it's it's Spencer's stature memorial statue fund and GoFundMe you might be able to search it that way okay um and you know we're halfway there and you know we're gonna sell some um t-shirts and some prints and stuff like that event coming up we do we have an event uh a celebration of life for Spencer and Penny uh last year we had that uh we had the birthday party for them yep and five to seven hundred people came wow to their birthday party oh my goodness I'm not sure if we'll have that kind of turnout this year but I wouldn't be surprised if we and when is that Celebration of Life July 29th it's a Saturday it's uh three to seven in the afternoon at the happy retriever in Holliston it's rain or shine
013because it's a it's a huge training facility so we can do everything inside if we had to so there's no reason last year we had and this year again we'll have antique cars there we have vendors um last year I read the Lobster food truck this year we got Snappy dog is coming this year that's relevant yeah and uh TC Scoops is they they have an event in the earlier on but they're going to come after five so there'll be some ice cream there and we had long games it was a lot of fun last year we had the DJ and everything and we planning this similar similar experience this year wonderful um and there's a suggested donation of five old dollars um or ten dollars a family so and then we're not turning anybody
014away either and where is the happy retriever 126 in Hollister okay uh great yeah and it's so if people want to meet Jimmy in person it's a meet and greet with dreams um coming out party people you would be surprised how many people are so anxious to meet him so yeah so well he is a sweetie yeah he's coming too they're a small chain that based out of Boston and they they raised a lot of money for Spencer's cancer fund and they're coming again and they're going to donate proceeds to the statutory fine so nice they're thrilled to have them as well and any any local vendors who would like to come would like to have you okay we'd love to have you any evening The Bagel Train the bagel bagel table yeah yeah yeah
015uh any anybody's welcome if they if they wanted to set up a table you can just contact us we'd love to have you because it was a really fun fun event and it was like the way just blown away by the turnout last year it was like it was just amazingly fun great well rich thank you for coming and chatting with us thanks for having us to Jimmy he's a good boy what a good boy you are he's a good boy and we're thinking he's probably gonna all be able to hold the flag okay you know next year no pressure Jimmy no pressure maybe a lot of pressure for one year old but you know but he's already holding things he's already holding signs he's already doing updates right so that I think there's hope
016good well thank you so much Rich good luck with the event good to see you it was good to see you and thank you for allowing us to introduce to Jimmy yeah we love we love sharing him with the world so great well that wraps up this segment of Around the Clock thank you so much for watching boy