This is one of those rare weekends when one of us is out of town and one of us is home. This weekend it was Hubbs turn to go out of town and hang out with his buddy's and my turn to chill at home. Since it was just Annie, Paul, and me, I decided to make sure we had a fun filled weekend.
We started Friday afternoon and evening with a trip to the dog mall where we walked 2 laps around the place (so about 2 miles). They've got a promotion going on right now where you let guest services know how many laps you walk with your dog each time you're at the mall. At the end of the summer season (October 31st in this case), they tally up the laps and award you prizes for how many laps you walked. Last year we got a poop bag dispenser. Even though we have 2 of them already, it's one of those things I somehow forget about once a year. (The last time I was outside our vets office and was able to ask for a bag). Because of my forgetfulness, having 3 of them comes in handy.
This was followed by a rare night when Annie and Paul didn't have to just sleep in their room, but got to sleep in bed with me. (I put a gate up in the hallway so they can only go into the bathroom (they never willingly go there), their room, or our room.) Annie was the only one who took me up on that offer, so she got extra snuggle time with me all night.
Saturday morning started at 4 with a shower and what I thought would be a dog walk. Annie, however, decided the route I wanted to walk wasn't good enough and refused to walk. I learned a few years ago with Anne that if I start jogging, she'll jog with me. So the 2 mile walk turned into a 2 mile run followed by a 2nd shower (yea humidity) and a quick packing job to get to the market on time. I started selling dog cookies down there. Being a vendor at the market is completely different from being a patron at the market. If I'm a patron, it's a 1 to 1 ratio of dog to person so that everything is manageable and I'm not wondering how to get a tree into a car (Paul peed on a tree for sale last year at the market, so I was left with the challenge of getting a maple tree, 2 dogs, and me into a honda civic coupe.) Luckily, our farmers market allows dogs (not every market in every state does, so check out your local one for all of their rules before you take your pup with you). As a vendor, I try to leave Annie and Paul at home so I'm not totally focused on them and their behavior while trying to talk to people.
About noonish I came home and crashed out for a few hours and then woke up to run up to Carytown with Annie and Paul. Carytown is a pretty hip section of town with lots of little independent shops (as opposed to the big box stores of the dog mall). Unfortunately, I slept longer than I wanted to so by the time we got up there we literally ran Carytown in an attempt to get to the stores I wanted to get to. However, I did discover that if you show up at the end of the day, after all of the bread is made, you can take your dogs into Montana Gold Bread Bakery. I grew up in Pittsburgh, PA and one of the biggest things I miss is all of the bakeries. So whenever we go up to Carytown, I still get a bit overly excited over the 2.5 real bakeries in the area.
Sunday morning, I was expecting Anne to be stubborn again for the morning walk, and she did start out that way. She firmly pulled and leaned away from our "normal" walking area. I started the jogging method to get her to go with Paul and me and not be so stubborn. But about a block into our walk, this backfired on me. I'm still not sure what Annie did exactly, but she suddenly started limping. She wasn't crying or walking completely off of the paw, but she was kind of picking it up a bit oddly. The walk ended there. I stopped and picked her 70 pound body up and told Paul to "go home." Paul and I walked the block home and stood in the yard for a few moments so that they'd both have the chance to do their business. Annie got picked up again and brought inside (so she didn't have to walk up the stairs at the front of our house). She's been limping today, but she's trying to put weight onto the paw (and even standing with all 4 paws on the ground when she sees a squirrel out the window. So I'm pretty sure it's not a break. She's let me squeeze it, and move her whole leg, shoulder, ankle, and paw around (and thought I was playing a fun game with her by the looks of it). Our plans for a 2nd trip to the dog mall had just gone out the window, but after all of the running around this weekend, it was nice to just relax and sleep Sunday.
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| Paul likes to eat the decorative grass at the dog mall. |
We started Friday afternoon and evening with a trip to the dog mall where we walked 2 laps around the place (so about 2 miles). They've got a promotion going on right now where you let guest services know how many laps you walk with your dog each time you're at the mall. At the end of the summer season (October 31st in this case), they tally up the laps and award you prizes for how many laps you walked. Last year we got a poop bag dispenser. Even though we have 2 of them already, it's one of those things I somehow forget about once a year. (The last time I was outside our vets office and was able to ask for a bag). Because of my forgetfulness, having 3 of them comes in handy.
This was followed by a rare night when Annie and Paul didn't have to just sleep in their room, but got to sleep in bed with me. (I put a gate up in the hallway so they can only go into the bathroom (they never willingly go there), their room, or our room.) Annie was the only one who took me up on that offer, so she got extra snuggle time with me all night.
Saturday morning started at 4 with a shower and what I thought would be a dog walk. Annie, however, decided the route I wanted to walk wasn't good enough and refused to walk. I learned a few years ago with Anne that if I start jogging, she'll jog with me. So the 2 mile walk turned into a 2 mile run followed by a 2nd shower (yea humidity) and a quick packing job to get to the market on time. I started selling dog cookies down there. Being a vendor at the market is completely different from being a patron at the market. If I'm a patron, it's a 1 to 1 ratio of dog to person so that everything is manageable and I'm not wondering how to get a tree into a car (Paul peed on a tree for sale last year at the market, so I was left with the challenge of getting a maple tree, 2 dogs, and me into a honda civic coupe.) Luckily, our farmers market allows dogs (not every market in every state does, so check out your local one for all of their rules before you take your pup with you). As a vendor, I try to leave Annie and Paul at home so I'm not totally focused on them and their behavior while trying to talk to people.
About noonish I came home and crashed out for a few hours and then woke up to run up to Carytown with Annie and Paul. Carytown is a pretty hip section of town with lots of little independent shops (as opposed to the big box stores of the dog mall). Unfortunately, I slept longer than I wanted to so by the time we got up there we literally ran Carytown in an attempt to get to the stores I wanted to get to. However, I did discover that if you show up at the end of the day, after all of the bread is made, you can take your dogs into Montana Gold Bread Bakery. I grew up in Pittsburgh, PA and one of the biggest things I miss is all of the bakeries. So whenever we go up to Carytown, I still get a bit overly excited over the 2.5 real bakeries in the area.
Sunday morning, I was expecting Anne to be stubborn again for the morning walk, and she did start out that way. She firmly pulled and leaned away from our "normal" walking area. I started the jogging method to get her to go with Paul and me and not be so stubborn. But about a block into our walk, this backfired on me. I'm still not sure what Annie did exactly, but she suddenly started limping. She wasn't crying or walking completely off of the paw, but she was kind of picking it up a bit oddly. The walk ended there. I stopped and picked her 70 pound body up and told Paul to "go home." Paul and I walked the block home and stood in the yard for a few moments so that they'd both have the chance to do their business. Annie got picked up again and brought inside (so she didn't have to walk up the stairs at the front of our house). She's been limping today, but she's trying to put weight onto the paw (and even standing with all 4 paws on the ground when she sees a squirrel out the window. So I'm pretty sure it's not a break. She's let me squeeze it, and move her whole leg, shoulder, ankle, and paw around (and thought I was playing a fun game with her by the looks of it). Our plans for a 2nd trip to the dog mall had just gone out the window, but after all of the running around this weekend, it was nice to just relax and sleep Sunday.
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