This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:04] Christine Toy Johnson: Welcome back to Conversations From Away.

[0:08] Jenny Ashman: I'm Jenny Ashman.

[0:10] Christine Toy Johnson: And today we're going to be talking about our dogs from away, basically how they make all of our lives better.

[0:20] Jenny Ashman: Especially um, especially during this time of renewal. This is seriously the most dog-friendly company I've ever been a part of.

[0:28] Christine Toy Johnson: We regularly travel with, I think, seven to eight company dogs, and three of them come to the theater every night.

[0:37] Jenny Ashman: Um, you can see the morale of the entire company going sky high whenever we get to see any of these little angels. We're going to talk to three of their people and see what it's like to be on the road.

[0:47] Christine Toy Johnson: So, would you all like to introduce yourself to our listeners? Sarah, do you want to start?

[0:50] Sarah Wade: Yeah, uh, my name is Sarah Wade, and I am the wardrobe supervisor, and my dog's name is Larry.

[0:51] Christine Toy Johnson: Great. Caleb.

[0:51] Caleb Grissett: Hi, I'm Caleb Grissett, and I am the merchandise manager for the show. And my little guy is Weston.

[1:10] Geoff Maus: Hi, I'm Geoff Maus. I'm one of the stage managers on the show, and my dog is Betty.

[1:17] Christine Toy Johnson: And Geoff, you're also, correct me if I'm wrong, uh, also representing the other stage manager dog.

[1:24] Geoff Maus: That's correct. I'm also representing Ruby, who belongs to one of the other stage managers on the team.

[1:31] Christine Toy Johnson: That's great. So um, I want to hear all about your dogs. I want to hear about how they first came into your lives and um and how they have been with you through the pandemic, etc. Um, Sarah, I want to start with you because Larry is really known as the OG uh CFA tour dog.

[1:54] Sarah Wade: He um, you know, he started the trend. So can you tell us how he came into your life?

[2:00] Sarah Wade: I was lucky enough to start the tour out with my husband Chase and our golden retriever Lucy, uh, with me for about four months. And when they left, it was really hard and I was lonely and I wanted a little buddy. Um I searched for like a few shelters and I got denied by a couple of them because they just didn't understand our lifestyle.

[2:23] Sarah Wade: And I kind of had given up and the exact day that I had told my husband, this isn't meant to be. I got a call from a really close friend, and she said, Hey, I have a friend of a friend who's looking to re-home her dog. Do you want him? And of course I said yes. Uh, so Chase picked him up in Richmond, Virginia, which is where we were living at the time, and drove him all the way to St. Louis, where he joined the tour, and I got him neutered two days later, and he just fell right into place.

[2:53] Sarah Wade: And uh thus begins the story of Sarah and Larry.

[2:57] Christine Toy Johnson: Oh, I love him. Tell can you tell us because we can't see him, although I I think we could we'll be able to hear him throughout this conversation, which is awesome. Um, what what um what does Larry look like?

[3:09] Sarah Wade: Larry is a cavachon, so that's a Cavalier King Charles mixed with a Bichon. Um he's black and white and his hair is really curly, and he's the best thing ever.

[3:22] Jenny Ashman: I remember that day that you first brought him to the hotel in St. Louis. I remember seeing you at the elevator, and I thought, oh, who's that? Who's joining us? And it was so exciting.

[3:34] Jenny Ashman: So Sarah, I I'd love for you to tell us what was it like to first integrate Larry into uh into the workspace and and uh what is what is his official job now?

[3:50] Sarah Wade: Um Larry works really hard making sure that I'm an okay person and keeping me happy and on a schedule. Um but integrating him into the workplace was relatively easy. Um I got a great backpack that he fits into and that helped a lot, but I also crate trained him from the beginning and um so during the show he takes a nap in the crate and I was very lucky to have a friend Anne on tour who spent a couple shows sitting in my little office area right beside him, and um while he was in the crate, if he were to make a peep, she would tell him no, and then that's really led to success because that's what he does during the shows.

[4:37] Sarah Wade: He um he gets a little peanut butter and a Kong and he takes a little nap. So he's come to know what places means and he goes into his crate.

[4:46] Jenny Ashman: Amazing. Do you think he recognizes the music too and different places in the show?

[4:52] Sarah Wade: I do because I think he knows like when it's almost over. I think he just he hears his friends every night in the show, and I think that's just a big comfort to him.

[5:02] Jenny Ashman: That's amazing. And I also know he does accompany you on um uh checking the costumes and everything, right?

[5:10] Sarah Wade: He does, yeah. Sometimes I have like a little sling that'll put him in. Um, but lately I've just been using a waist leash, which is really handy 'cause they have both hands ready and I can check all the presets and he just comes with me and does his own preset check right alongside me.

[5:26] Christine Toy Johnson: That's awesome. Thank you, Sarah.

[5:28] Jenny Ashman: Yeah. Caleb, can you tell us about how Weston came into your life?

[5:34] Caleb Grissett: Um yes, absolutely. So, um I got Weston during the pandemic during the start of it.

[5:42] Caleb Grissett: I was at my parents' home, and once we started realizing that it was gonna be a little bit longer than we thought, um, I thought it was the perfect time to get a puppy and I knew that I had always wanted one, but it was kinda hard, especially being on the road.

[5:58] Caleb Grissett: Um, but, you know, having the time to be able to devote uh 'cause having a puppy is like having a child. You get up every two hours in the middle of the night and hope, you know, they haven't used the restroom or that they probably need to or something like that.

[6:13] Caleb Grissett: Um and so I thought it was perfect and I kinda had a similar situation with Sarah. I couldn't find anyone who would adopt to me within six hundred miles of my parents' home in Alabama.

[6:27] Caleb Grissett: I checked every single possible adoption agency and they either didn't like the fact that my hometown was in New York or they didn't like the fact that I would be touring, or they didn't like the fact that my parents had another dog and I didn't want to send dogs to a dog that already had a you know homes there.

[6:46] Caleb Grissett: And so I ended up finding a family friend who um had a litter of new puppies and she was like, Do you you know, we're selling the puppies, do you want one? And I said, Yes, please.

[6:56] Caleb Grissett: And so she sent me a picture of Weston when he was like maybe three or four days old, and I stared at it for six weeks and finally got to go pick him up and he became part of my life and he's my little best friend and I love him so much and I literally could not imagine life without him now.

[7:18] Jenny Ashman: And and can you tell us what Weston looks like?

[7:21] Caleb Grissett: Yes. Um Weston is a King Charles Cavalier Spaniel. He is um Blenheim, so he's tan and white, uh mixed basically white with tan um spots all over.

[7:33] Caleb Grissett: Uh he's got really long hair, he's got a fan tail, so it's nice and long and flowy, and he's just my little stud muffin, you want to call it.

[7:43] Jenny Ashman: And how was it bringing him on the road that how did that uh change your your tour routine and life?

[7:50] Caleb Grissett: Yeah, I was really concerned at first, um, but he has adapted so well to tour life that I I just I could not be more happy with it.

[8:01] Caleb Grissett: Um he when we start packing to move to another hotel, he gets very excited, he goes and jumps in the suitcase and he's like, I'm ready, we're going somewhere. This is exciting.

[8:11] Caleb Grissett: Um when we pull out the travel crate, he's like, Ooh, where are we going? And when I I have a little backpack that I bring him to work in pretty much every day.

[8:19] Caleb Grissett: Um and he gets so excited, he's like, Ooh, we're going to hang out and he he loves it. He loves meeting all the new ushers in the theater 'cause I'm merchandise on front of house and every single day it's a whole new slew of, you know, fifty ushers or something like that who think he's the cutest thing in the world because he is.

[8:39] Caleb Grissett: And um, yeah, it it's great. I could not be happier with how well he is adjusted to tour life.

[8:46] Jenny Ashman: That's wonderful. I love that he makes friends in all the lobbies of every theater he goes to around the country.

[8:52] Caleb Grissett: Every single one. He is he is the star for sure.

[8:57] Jenny Ashman: Caleb, how do or do the audience members interact with him or or how does that work because you're i in the midst of so many people all the time.

[9:06] Caleb Grissett: Yeah, so um since I if if I bring him to work I carry him on my back and he's in a little backpack.

[9:13] Caleb Grissett: Um he actually tends to fall asleep in the backpack. Even when I'm selling merchandise at work, even when I'm really busy he'll um fall asleep.

[9:22] Caleb Grissett: Uh I let like ushers and people interact with him before the doors open. I have no problem doing that.

[9:27] Caleb Grissett: But when um the doors are open and patrons are coming in, I tend to not let them interact with him. I let them talk to him and say hi, but it's one of those things if I let one person pet him I'm gonna have to let the other two thousand people pet him and I would never be able to get my job done.

[9:45] Caleb Grissett: So I just tell people no not right now. He you know he's busy but um yeah it's it's very interesting because he he loves it.

[9:54] Caleb Grissett: He gets all the attention and he just sits there and loves it it brings people over to the booth. They come over and walk over and say hi. They ask is that real is he a real dog?

[10:05] Caleb Grissett: No. I'm like no he's just asleep. Yeah he he's very comfortable.

[10:14] Geoff Maus: Yeah, I think it's kind of a similar story to Caleb's. I got Betty during the first part of the shutdown. Um and at the time obviously we didn't know how long we were gonna be out of work and you know nationwide and globally we didn't know what was happening with COVID-19. I had wanted the dog for a couple of years, and there were a lot of reasons not to. Every step of the way, you know, lifestyle, job, even when you're not on tour, our job demands a certain level of commitment and long hours. But you start to realize there isn't gonna be a perfect time for this kind of thing. And I thought, you know, maybe it's not a great time to introduce her to what our life is going to be, but it's a great time to lay a foundation because we had nothing but time when we shut down.

Now, of course, sort of joke was on me because I kind of thought, like everybody, we might be back to work in a month or in six weeks, and it was 18 months. So now we've had to readjust, but we're getting there.

[11:11] Christine Toy Johnson: I love that. How did so w where were you when you got Betty? Were you back home?

[11:16] Geoff Maus: So, uh I live in New York, but when we shut down, uh I chose not to go back to New York because New York was one of the epicenters of COVID, certainly. So I ended up flying to Pittsburgh to go stay with my parents who live about an hour outside Pittsburgh where I grew up. So I was very much in the country when I got her.

[11:39] Geoff Maus: So for the first couple of months of her life, she was a country dog, and I was sort of like, well, I hate to break it to your sister, but our life's gonna be very different at some point.

[11:50] Geoff Maus: Well, and she has a buddy at work, because I know that you bring her to the stage management office every day. So can you tell us about her partner in crime?

[11:58] Geoff Maus: Yeah, so her little best friend is Ruby, who, as I said earlier, belongs to one of the other stage managers on the team. And my biggest concern bringing her on tour was going to be, would she get along with Ruby? And would they be friends? Would she connect with her? Because obviously that would have been a deal breaker. I don't know what I would have done because we share an office a big part of the day every day on tour. But after the first couple of days, it was I could not have been happier, I could not have felt luckier. They run around, they chase each other, they tire each other out. Ruby's a little smaller than Betty, so she can hide from her and bark and growl so Betty chases her and they play little games. It's very cute. And they actually tend to share a crate sometimes during the show, so we'll come in and they'll both be curled up in Betty's crate, despite the fact that Ruby has her own crate. It's really cute.

[12:49] Christine Toy Johnson: That's very sweet. I think they're also the unofficial or w we'll ask you official gatekeepers of the stage management office because they will groom up.

[12:59] Geoff Maus: Well they certainly think they are.

[13:01] Jenny Ashman: Yes, they will.

[13:03] Christine Toy Johnson: And I think, uh I'd love to know. I think Jenny was about to ask this, sorry I interrupted you. Um, what kind of what what kind of dogs are are Betty and Ruby besides very special and angelic?

[13:15] Geoff Maus: So Betty is a Shih Tzu-Bichon Frise mix, so she's a tiny little gay dog, is what I tell people. Um and I'm currently she's a little shaggy because I'm experimenting with grooming her myself, which is a work in progress. But she's mostly black, she's got some white on her and some sort of silverback gorilla-esque highlights on her back, is what I say. But Ruby is a full Bichon Frise.

[13:42] Geoff Maus: So between Weston and Larry and Ruby and Betty, we have the same couple of breeds. We have Bichons, we have Cavaliers, and we have Shih Tzus, which is kind of funny.

[13:53] Christine Toy Johnson: I love that. So I have a question for Geoff and Caleb, because Betty and Weston came into your families during the pandemic. How did they impact your quarantine in pandemic time?

[14:03] Caleb Grissett: Um, I'll start. So it was definitely a complete change. Um I went from sleeping until two, three o'clock in the afternoon and being up, you know, four or five in the morning because I had nothing else to do to our days would start at like six AM. He would cry. Uh and that's when he got into the schedule where he knew that he was allowed to get in my bed when at 6 a.m. Anytime he cried before he had to go back into the crate. Um but then we would cuddle and it really created a scheduled lifestyle for me, which I did not have at all. It's kind of going from, you know, summer break as a child where you don't really have to do anything to literally going right back to school and everything is on a set schedule and you have to do things.

[15:12] Geoff Maus: Sorry he's eating the curtain.

[15:13] Caleb Grissett: Yeah, I think similarly it certainly gives one a distraction and a sense of purpose when everything that they know has sort of been ripped away from them, which is what we all kind of experienced when we shut down. You know, and it was a nice way to get routine into your life again because while we're touring and on the road, our life is nothing but routine for the most part and everyone always tells us where to be and when and we don't get a lot of choice in that matter, which is kind of nice in some ways. But then when we shut down it was the polar opposite. I was in my 30s. I was living with my parents and my 91-year-old grandmother again, who I love very much, but it's just not what my life had been.

So I was kind of spiraling. And so it was nice to have something to really anchor me and I suppose it sounds kind of cheesy, but really give me purpose in that way, knowing that it was also this little creature that was then going to become part of my life when it finally does return to some sense of normalcy. So it was a nice way to remain hopeful in a lot of ways I think.

[16:17] Christine Toy Johnson: So great. I'm going to ask Sarah about returning to her home but we're first we're going to take a little break.

[16:26] Christine Toy Johnson: We'll be right back.

[16:36] Christine Toy Johnson: And we're back. Sarah, so you had a different experience than Jeff and Caleb in that of course you already had Larry in your life and Lucy and of course your husband Chase before the shutdown and then we were all set home and I wondered if you could talk about what it was like for everyone to be reunited and spend the year and a half together again.

[17:05] Sarah Wade: I think we all really enjoyed being home and together. Uh Lucy and Larry of course had already met a few times that they had come to visit and already were had a very very tight bond. Um the only thing that really was a struggle was how much our routines changed. Um and I was worried about that at first and how we would get back into it and that was like a constant like is he going to be able to go back to tour and deal with what you know so different from what we're doing now but uh luckily Larry is very easy and he will just roll with it whether we're having a busy day where we have two shows or we're having a lazy day he's fine with it. Um and I'm very lucky that that um so when we went back he just fell right back into place um which was really really lucky.

[17:54] Christine Toy Johnson: And so does um Lucy get to visit um sometimes when Chase visits?

[18:00] Sarah Wade: Yeah so um I actually took a little time off a couple weeks ago and met up with Chase in Richmond, Virginia. We went to a wedding that we were both in and they were reunited then which was the cutest thing ever and um I'll get to see them again next week which I'm looking forward to.

[18:18] Christine Toy Johnson: So that's great.

[18:20] Sarah Wade: Yeah.

[18:21] Christine Toy Johnson: What's it like traveling with the dogs and having them? I'm sort of like what are travel days like for all of you? Are there like highlights, are there challenges?

[18:31] Caleb Grissett: Oh okay. Um he did really really well on airplanes. I was very impressed. I also am, you know, the person who freaks out and was panicking and was like he's gonna be the dog that gets him kicked off an airplane like before we had our first flight and it was amazing. He immediately fell asleep in his travel crate, had no issues. Every now and then he would like start you know wiggling around and he's like, can I come out? Yeah. No, okay fine. And he would say I could not have been happier. Um but as of this week actually we are starting to drive the rest of the tour because my um assistant that travels with us her husband is one of our audio guys. She and her husband have a great day. And um her uh Jenna is her name.

Jenna and Weston are best friends, and so we are actually going to be driving the rest of the tour together. So they have a new minivan where Jenna's got out of bed because she's about 150 pounds now. I think she's gonna get a little bit more too. Um she has a whole bed that lays down in the back seat because the teeth go in, and Weston and her will hang out back there, and we will be driving. So it's gonna be one of those things we're going from having to be in a tiny little travel crate to having a giant minivan to roam around in. So it's gonna be fun for sure.

[19:55] Geoff Maus: Jeff, how is it for you? I know that you and um you and McKenzie are their stage manager that um who's pro who's the person of Ruby, that you the two of you um travel a lot together, whether it's in the car to the theater or on oh, that's Larry, I think.

[20:13] Geoff Maus: So uh welcome to the podcast, Larry. I think that's awesome.

[20:17] Sarah Wade: Um, or so whether you're traveling in the car to work, as I said, or on the plane with all of the airline restrictions and they're very small dogs, so that's probably uh helpful in traveling.

[20:31] Christine Toy Johnson: But um I also know you've had some challenges uh getting through the airports and stuff, and I wonder if you want to talk about that a little bit.

[20:39] Caleb Grissett: Yeah, so I mean, all things considered, it's been it's been a lot better than I sort of feared it might be. But yeah, there are certainly challenges. I think when you're on tour in general, you sort of always feel like you're carrying your entire life on your back at all times, right? And you sort of wonder why why am I sore? Oh, because I pull every muscle in my body lugging my suitcase every Monday. Um so add a dog to that, right? And whether it's you know in a bag on your body or on a leash wrapped seven times around your carry-on because you haven't been paying attention, that takes some getting used to. You just run out of hands pretty quickly. But I'm really lucky with Betty in the car, she's been pretty well behaved and she's okay on planes too, but with some of the changes in the airline policies, that's been kind of a drag.

You know, previously, if a dog was considered an emotional support animal, they could fly for free and they could be out of the bag sometimes. That's no longer the case. So I have to travel her as a pet, as does McKenzie with Ruby. So I often worry more about the length of some of the travel days than the act of traveling itself. You know, if we have an early morning rental car return and then a one hour and fifteen minute flight with a one-hour layover and another almost two hour flight, I you know, that throws the bathroom schedule off a little bit. But so far, Touchwood, it's been it's been pretty okay. But yes, certainly now logistically it's a little more complex. You know, we're lucky on tour that we have all of our travel taken care of for us.

It's for the most part booked and paid for for us. But with pets now with the new airline policies, you have to call the airline and manually add the dog every single time. And sometimes we fly every week. In fact, mostly we fly every week, and there's a fee now, it's roughly 125 bucks, depending on the airline. And some airlines are easy to deal with, and some are more complicated, and there's wait times on the phone and all of that. But I think you know, we all agree that it's better than not having a dog, certainly. But yeah, there's been some growing pains. I now have a whole new checklist every week of did I do this to get Betty to the next place instead of just making sure I'm all squared away at the end of the week. So there is a whole other little mental checklist I have to do, but again, I do think it's worth it. But yeah, it's been a learning curve for sure.

[22:52] Sarah Wade: Anyone have any uh travel tour hacks for traveling with pets?

[22:56] Caleb Grissett: I try to figure out having if I have to have a layover, one where I have enough time to take him outside uh and go through security again, which is kind of a drag, but he will never go in those like pet relief areas, which I don't blame him. If you've ever been in one, you'll understand why immediately when you open the door. Um, but yeah, I try to just go through security, you know, take him out to to some real grass if I can find it, and then back through, which is kind of a race, but sometimes nice I'll have a buddy to leave my carry-on suitcase with and Larry and I go.

[23:36] Jenny Ashman: And how is Larry uh uh traveling wise?

[23:39] Sarah Wade: He seems to he's pretty mellow. Is he does he go roll with the punches a little bit?

[23:44] Caleb Grissett: He does. He he will just kind of sleep the entire time, which is great. Um he's always been really easy with that, and I was really stressed on our first flight when we left St. Louis. Um, but he really surprised me and he just hung out, so very lucky with this little guy.

[24:02] Christine Toy Johnson: So great, yeah. And I I wondered if um Geoff, you might know the answer to this about um how the venues respond to the knowledge, or I don't know, is it announced that um by the way, um we have uh 48 adults and three dogs that will be with us every day in the building. What's that like?

[24:25] Geoff Maus: Well, we've been pretty lucky so far since we relaunched, and I think in general, you know, as you said, we've had some dogs with us before the before the shutdown as well. It is something that is sort of I wouldn't say it's formally advanced in the same way that we advanced the tech of the show and everything like that, but it is something that is mentioned, and it does, I think, surprise a lot of the venues, because if you have one dog on most tours, that's kind of an anomaly, and or maybe a cat, you know, and we have, like you said, between seven or eight dogs at a given time. Um, I think overwhelmingly, a lot of people like dogs, we've gotten very lucky. Occasionally you will have a venue that's concerned about their their new carpeting and things like that.

But once they understand that the dogs are trained and that we do keep an eye on them and that we very much keep them in our space unless it's requested otherwise, it's that it won't be a burden. I think that certainly does help. We did have a venue in year one of our tour that was an absolutely no dogs theater, and that was rough, I think, for the few people that had dogs at that time. And you know, I always kind of joke, it's always the theaters who who have carpeting from 50 years ago that are concerned about dogs, and you know, most places are I find though overwhelmingly um welcoming to the dogs.

[25:42] Sarah Wade: Geoff, you must have been there uh with Larry at that that venue. What did you do when you found out that that Larry was not allowed to be in the theater?

[25:52] Sarah Wade: I actually didn't have Larry at that point.

[25:54] Geoff Maus: Oh, okay.

[25:55] Sarah Wade: But I was still traveling uh with Chase and Lucy then. Thankfully we had a great Airbnb, and um I didn't normally take Lucy to work every day anyway. Um she's a lot different than Larry. She's quite big and she sheds a lot, so it's not great for the wardrobe department.

[26:16] Geoff Maus: Understood.

[26:17] Christine Toy Johnson: I'm gonna wrap us up with one last question. I'd love to know what's the best thing you've learned from your dog. Anyone want to start?

[26:29] Caleb Grissett: I'll start. I this is actually really easy. I think if nothing else, every day she teaches me that there is a certain amount of things in life that are out of your control. And I think because my job is very much maintaining some semblance of order in most cases. That's something I had to learn from day one. It's like, you know what, I can't stage manage the dog. She's not gonna go potty every time I want her to. She's not always gonna be perfect. And I think that that's something I've had to learn three different times now because I learned that when I first got her when I was living out in the country with my parents, when we moved back to New York in July, I had to relearn that she's not gonna know what her surroundings are, and she's gonna take some getting used to, and I need to give her a chance to acclimate in the same way that we need all need to be patient with ourselves as we re entered society, you know, so to speak.

And then again, when she came on tour, I had to realize that it's not every day is gonna be perfect, and that it has to be okay. And I think I'm really sensitive to that because of what my job is. But I also think that once again, at the end of the day, there's a dog in the office, which is better than having no dogs, in my opinion.

[27:37] Jenny Ashman: That's fantastic.

[27:39] Sarah Wade: Caleb, did you have your hand raised?

[27:41] Caleb Grissett: Your virtual hand raised?

[27:42] Sarah Wade: My virtual hand was raised. I I think that Larry makes me more of a social person than I would be without him. I'm quite introverted, as you all already know. Um, but Larry really brings me out of my shell and is the perfect conversation starter, and I'm really thankful for that. I feel like I've got tighter bonds with everyone since Larry showed up in my life. I've been able to get to know all of you lovely people much more.

[28:07] Christine Toy Johnson: So I'm thankful for that.

[28:13] Caleb Grissett: Um, honestly and truly, uh having Weston has taught me more about um having patience really than anything. Um I didn't realize how much of an impatient person I was until I got a puppy and learned that they don't do everything when you want them to do it. And you know, you are now on their schedule. They are exactly like having a new baby or a child, and um people joke with me all the time um because he doesn't do two shows. He can't. Um, and people will get upset with me. They're like, why is he not here for the second show? I'm like, because he's he's a ta basically a toddler. He gets grumpy, he gets annoying, he gets mouthy, and it's like, you know what, he's gonna do much better during the second show if he stays in his crate at the hotel than if he were here with us tonight. Um so but yeah, he is he's just taught me that I really need to just have a lot more patience and it it's happened, and now he's chewing on my hand and it's adorable.

[29:14] Christine Toy Johnson: Um, but yeah.

[29:18] Jenny Ashman: Yeah, I think that's great. You know, there's uh I travel with my Westy Joey sometimes, and uh he reminds me all the time there's this pillow someone gave me, you know, that says um, you know, let me be the person my dog thinks I am. And I think that's that's really true for all of us. It's stay curious and stay open to to what adventures may be right behind that closed door that's gonna open any second. So um yeah, I'm I'm we're just so grateful to have all of the dogs from away and um all of the joy that they bring us.

[29:53] Christine Toy Johnson: Jenny, is there anything you want to add before we wrap up?

[29:56] Jenny Ashman: No, I'm just I'm so grateful you're all here. I wish everyone could meet these uh amazing pups because it really is the best thing having them backstage every night and having them out in the lobby. It is it is pure joy. And that's what we're aiming for at all times these days, right? Pure joy.

[30:11] Christine Toy Johnson: Absolutely. Thank you so much everyone for joining us, and we'll see you next time.