Kai is still doing very well. He’s lost a lot of fur, for some reason, though. Whether it’s a result of his treatment, or a thyroid imbalance, or just that spring is here, I don’t know, but he’s shedding his undercoat and has lost a lot of his beautiful feathering. As a result, he looks very skinny. If he starts to go bald, I’ll worry, but in fact his coat is — finally — actually growing back on the throat, where he was shaved for his treatment.

Although he’s officially qualified as a therapy dog (and wears a little red tag that says “Hug me — I’m a Therapy Pet”), we’re not doing any visiting yet. We’re in the middle of qualifying to visit at the Kaiser hospital a few blocks from our house. In order to do that, we have to go through Kaiser’s volunteer process, including a background check (for me, not Kai) and a four-hour orientation (also for me, not Kai). We’re hoping to be ready to go in a few weeks.

The little guy with the big ears in the last photo is Calvin. He’s about nine months old and was recently adopted by the family of my former boss at UC Berkeley. We had a meet-and-greet at Point Isabel a few days ago.