Wags n’ Words

A Day With Friends Both Canine and Human

It was cold today, but still bright and beautiful. A perfect day for a walk.  And walk we did.

We started the day with Monty, but on our way we met up with Quillette and her mom, Jessica.  While we had a great walk and a rowdy romp through the park, Gretchen didn’t take any pictures. She waited until the light was just right!

Jessica and Quillette came over to our house and all of us hung out while Gretchen and Jessica worked on something on the computer. Not sure what that was all about, but I did my best to irritate and annoy them.  At noon, we headed next door to pick up the boys — Oshi and Perrito — and as a bonus their mom, Sequoya, decided to go with us. She’s still recovering from the extraction of her wisdom teeth and we were glad to have her spend some time in the sunshine.

Of course, this meant that Oshi was hesitant to leave his mom’s side.  While he chased around a bit, he mostly hung out with Sequoya. Eventually, just about all of us decided to join in, lounging around the tennis courts after playing some fetch, chasing each other, and playing keep away.

Of course, it didn’t take long for us to cool off and race around a bit more…

The more we played, the hotter we got and eventually Perrito, who has more energy than all of us combined, found a pine cone, laid himself down, and gnawed away at it. 

That was a sign that maybe it was time to head home…oh, and the fact that Gretchen had to go to her other job.

When we got home, Monty and I hung out and barked at the mail carrier, passersby, and random ghosts and shadows that often haunt me. Okay, I’ll confess. I barked. Monty just looked alert.

When Gretchen came home, you know what we did? We met up with Quillette and Jessica again and this time headed up to the scary grate park. Jeez!  How much stress can a guy take?  For this next photo, we had to sit really still and remember, I’m sitting on a grate!  You can’t see it, but I’m shaking in this photo! Good thing I was surrounded by my best friends!

After the picture, we met Jake.  Jake was a baby in a stroller and he obviously LOVED dogs.  Monty, always the first to greet anyone we meet LOVES kids, so they got cozy on the grate, while I looked for a way off that silly thing.

Yeah, that’s Monty snuggling up to a giddy Jake.  I was a little less enthusiastic, but Jake didn’t seem to care.

Once we got back to our house, I had my way with Monty — which means I punched him over and over again with my nose to get him to play with me.  Eventually he relented and we played like wild men!

We get pretty rowdy, it’s true, but then, as you can see from the last picture, Monty waits for me to race around the yard. He knows how to conserve his energy that guy. But don’t worry, once it’s conserved he’s all over me!

Yeah, it’s been a busy day, but it’s been really really fun. I like hanging with the canines and the humans and I really like hanging with them on a beautiful sunny day!

See you all tomorrow!

Rubin

Mud: The Natural Consequence

I shouldn’t have been surprised by all the mud today.  With the weather we’ve been having, I should of expected vats of the stuff on our walk today. As it was, the mud was equal to the amount of rain and snow and sleet and hail we’ve been experienced of late.

Usually mud doesn’t bother me, but today it was kind of funny because we took out two of our “jumpers” — Ollie and Lucy. They are significantly different types of jumpers, but they are jumpers nonetheless.  Lucy jumps up to beg for a tennis ball — a ball to be pulled from the backpack, thrown across the field, or simply placed in her possession.  When she returns with the ball after speedily retrieving it, she leaps up on Gretchen with such a force, if Gretchen’s not prepared she can be knocked backwards.

Ollie, on the other hand, leaps for no apparent reason other than pure and simple joy.  Seriously. He can knock Gretchen in the chin if she’s not careful. The boy was born with springs for legs.  When he sees us coming he pogo sticks himself up and down in sheer delight. Once we enter the gate, he’s all over us unsure who to enthusiastically greet first.

So today, as we were playing fetch at the muddy park, Gretchen did her best to take a photograph of her muddy pants.  The camera doesn’t really capture the extent of the mud, but you get the idea anyway.

Ollie’s leaping was contagious today. We all got into the act. Well yes, Lucy is obsessive about fetch and predictably chases after the ball, races back, throws herself on Gretchen, and begs to do it all again.  Meanwhile, I play fetch, too, but I love to grab my ball and leap around with Ollie. We play by throwing ourselves in the air and at each other.  It gets pretty silly, as you can see.

At first, we had Ollie off-leash and he raced around chasing me, but then he got kind of nervous — different sounds make him stop and stare — so to be safe, Gretchen had him drag the red leash around.  He doesn’t seem to mind.

And where’s Lucy?  You guessed it.  Like a bullet train!

Determined. Tenacious. Persistent. There are a ton of words that fit Lucy’s personality (dogonality!), but she’s having fun and that’s all that counts, yes?

Of course, Gretchen can get us all to stop with the promise of a treat!

Ollie’s there, too, but he rarely holds still so he moved himself right out of the picture.  Gretchen tried again, but as you can tell, Ollie was focused on something else — an odd sound in the distance.

After treats, we all got back to playing — Ollie and I got silly with each other playing WHO CAN BE THE MOST FEROCIOUS and Lucy does what Lucy does best…race after tennis balls!

We walked down through the park and back up through the trails just in case we didn’t have enough mud on our paws. Lucy and Ollie were both dropped off at their respective homes and then Gretchen and I headed down to pick up Quillette.  Quillette didn’t feel like getting muddy, so we just walked through the park and down by the museum.  It’s nice to have an older dog to hang with.  Quillette also stayed with me at the house today.  We both enjoyed the sunshine on the back deck!

I love to soak up the sun on our deck. I’ll often “woof” just to get them to open the door so I can position myself just beyond on the door.  Quillette was jealous, as you can see, and wanted my spot, but I hung onto the prime real estate!

While Quillette and I lounged in the sun, Gretchen headed to the top of the hill to pick up Chloe.  Chloe got a solo walk this afternoon and she seemed particularly pleased with herself!  Apparently, they walked down to the lake (lucky Chloe) and Gretchen couldn’t resist a nice couple of portraits of Chloe.

Gretchen’s decided that Chloe used to be a monk in her former life.  She’s very contemplative on their walks.  While she smiles whenever Gretchen picks her up from her house — bounces around and barks a lot, too — on her walks she’s all business!

Gretchen says Chloe has a way of taking in the beauty of the world stopping on occasion to just look out at the panoramic views every now and then.  She’s also very well-behaved so when asked her to sit and wait, Chloe does just that while Gretchen frames the photograph.

She’s pretty cute…Chloe that is!

Perhaps all this sunshine is a sign that Spring just might appear this year.  While along the lake, Gretchen saw more signs — the turtles sunning on the branch in the water and the waterfowl lapping up the edibles on the beach.

It’s been a good day.  Now Gretchen’s off to her night job and Quillette and I get to hang out until my other mom comes home. Good thing because I could use some rest from today’s mud!  Quillette’s pretty happy about it, too!

Until tomorrow!

Rubin…and Quillette!

I’m Walking on Sunshine

I’ve never heard of Katrina and The Waves, but for some reason, their song (I’m Walking on Sunshine) has been in my head all day.  Odd because there has been very little sunshine today.  We’ve had just about every other kind of weather — hail, sleet, snow, clouds, wind, blizzard! — but it’s been meager on the sunshine of late.

That didn’t stop Perrito, though, from showing me how cool he can be.  That’s some kind of vertical, buddy!

It was a slow day (and cold as well) since it was just me and Gretchen in the morning. We went for a long walk through the trails and down to the lake and then we played some fetch in the bike tunnel.  I love it when the ball bounces off the tunnel walls.  I have to use some serious geometry to catch the ball on the bounce, but I’m getting pretty good at it.

Gretchen had to work most of the morning. She’s taking a class on birds (of all things) and she keeps promising me that we get to go watch some birds, but I don’t think the weather has provided the perfect setting for such an activity.  But after she’d put in a few hours completing the first of her seven assignments, we walked over to get the boys — Oshi and Perrito.  Their mom had her wisdom teeth removed and has been healing slowly, so taking the two rug rats out is probably exactly what was needed on her road to recovery.

We went for a walk through the park, to the tennis courts, and then around the neighborhood. The attempt was to get the boys good and tired, but that’s sometimes hard to do.  While Perrito will run around in the cold weather, Oshi just gives that look — “You’ve got to be kidding…take me home!”

Can you see those clouds in the background, just above Oshi’s head?  Well, that’s what I’m saying — the weather is unpredictable. We went out in sunshine and in just 45 minutes, it rained, it snowed, the sun shone some more, and then the wind picked up. At one point, hail bounced off the tennis courts. I dropped my ball I was so fascinated by those white balls of hail bouncing all around.  I even chased them.

Unfortunately, the scared Perrito a bit and he hid under Gretchen’s legs.  She had to do some backward photography to get this shot!

It turns out, Perrito wasn’t scared at all. He just knows that if he goes between Gretchen’s legs, she’ll give him lots of rubs and pets so while I chased hail balls, he got some loving.

We ran a bit more before we headed back through the park, down by the museum, and up through the neighborhoods back to home.  By the time we got home, the sun came out again, but since then, we’ve had sideways snow, a bit of rain, and a windstorm that made me think someone was trying to break into the house.  I barked until Gretchen informed me that it wasn’t a burglar at all — it was the weather!

Wrestling with Sunshine!

There’s something about the smell of spring and the flavor of sunshine that gets under my skin…in a good way.  Apparently, I’m not the only one who feels this way.

We started the day with ice on the windshield and ended it with swimming in the lake.  Go figure! And despite the picture of Gemma climbing all over Uncle Monty, we actually started (we as in me and Monty) with Oshi and Perrito. So let me begin there.

Oshi, as you well know, is not fond of venturing outside much, especially when the weather is challenging.  Oshi, I supspect, thinks he’s a cat and so it’s difficult for him to comprehend why anyone would go outside in the rain or the snow.  But when the sun comes out, Oshi remembers his canine roots and is all over a walk!

So we walked through the park over to the tennis courts and were surprised to find no one playing tennis.  Oshi was surprised by the blue sky. He smiled and romped with glee all around the courts chasing both Perrito AND Monty.

Perrito did the same, but soon tired. Sun is beautiful, but it’s also warm and everyone got hot and tired pretty quickly. Perrito demonstrates the heat with tongue out and legs sprawled!

Monty was please as well and played fetch with exuberance!

But even we got tired and ended up resting for awhile…

But our day had just started so we took Oshi and Perrito back home, piled into the car and headed to Gemma’s house.  We’re both so glad she’s feeling better and with her new-found energy, we headed through the tunnel and down to the lake. Gemma’s too young to let her run off-leash, so while Monty and I played chase through the woods, Gemma watched and learned.

Do you see us up on the hill?  That’s how we play. We chase each other — well, Monty chases me — round and round and then we stop and box. High up on our back legs we growl and bark and slug each other. It’s great fun.

Gemma was a tad bit jealous so when Monty came by her that’s when she jumped on his back (see the first picture of this post).  He was very patient, but soon was off after me. Gemma somtimes got in the way (can you see her), but not often!

Well, we raced around so much that I got really hot. Little did Gretchen know, but at the bottom of the hill there was a mighty fine mud puddle.  I cooled myself off there…see my legs? My belly was just as muddy. Ah, it felt wonderful!

Gretchen didn’t think so, but it just meant we had to venture back down the hill to my next favorite thing about warmer weather!

SWIMMING!

That, of course, isn’t me in the water. That’s Monty. At first, he didn’t really go in very deep, but after I went out after a ball, he thought, What the heck! and waded way out there…he’s not the best swimmer, but he sure loves to take a nice long dip.

Yes, the water was chilly, but it didn’t matter.  We were hot after our game of chase through the woods and slightly muddy (slightly?) and the water was very refreshing!

Gemma thought we were crazy…and watched and smelled with great intensity…

She’ll learn. Water is as much fun as chase, chase is as much fun as fetch, and fetch is as much fun as wrestling with the sun!

Have a great weekend everyone,

Rubin

Leaping in the Rain!

What a day. It was wet and wild and wet some more and then, all of the sudden, out came the sun!  It made me leap for joy for some reason, though I think when Gretchen took this photo, I was leaping away from my pals, Gemma and Ollie, because they wanted to chew on me!

Gemma is feeling better and we are all happier for it. Well, it makes her all the more spunky, but we’re glad she’s healthier.  She lead the charge today, pestering Ollie into a game of chase. What was I to do? Join in, of course!

She’s gotten so much faster, that Gemma. Ollie and I have a hard time keeping up.  In my younger days, I used to be the fast one, but now these young whipper-snappers are showing me up. What’s with that?

You can see by the photograph, the courts were very wet, but in the middle of the rainstorm, the clouds parted and the sun came out.  We dried up really fast, which was a good thing because we were getting kind of soggy. Both dogs begged to go home…well, not really, but that’s what it looks they’re saying, doesn’t it?

We took the soggy doggies home and then fetched up Quillette.  She’s much mellower and after a walk, all she wanted to do was hang out in the kitchen just in case something fell off the counters and into her mouth!

When Momma Ann got home, she knew exactly where to stand to get her lovin — butt lovin that is!

We got Gemma one more time because she needed to be fed (she’s on a special diet because of her upset tummy) and we took a walk at Volunteer Park. Gemma loved that.  I’m not sure if she’s ever been there before, but she adapted well.  Gretchen had another “assignment” so she took Gemma to the playfield where kids were playing soccer and ultimate frisbee.  Gemma LOVED watching the kids play and even tried to join in at one point.

As you can see from these last pictures, the rain disappeared though the clouds stayed threatening.  At one point today, there was actually SNOW mixed with the rain, but not enough to stick and therefore not enough to play in. Oh well, there’s always hope for tomorrow!

Until then,

Rubin

A Blur of Activity

Wednesdays are always busy partly because Gretchen teaches a class in the afternoon, and today must work at her night job.  Therefore, all dogs must be walked in the late morning.

Today, we started with Monty as we do every Wednesday. We went through the park where Monty and I did our predictable romp and game of chase. As you can see from the photographs, it was a blur of madness and fun!

We came home, exhausted and happy, and rested while Gretchen took out Oshi and Perrito.  They went for a long walk through the neighborhood and then Perrito pulled Gretchen to the tennis courts. Apparently, when I’m not there, Oshi becomes all the more frisky, doing his best to pester Perrito.

Gretchen told me later, that Oshi makes her laugh.  She says that he looks so innocent and then bursts into these frantic games of chasing Perrito.

This makes it difficult for her to take photographs as Oshi (and Perrito) are racing by so quickly she ends up with only their back ends in the frame thusly…

But they are happy pups (Butt?) and it’s clear from this picture how much they enjoy each other and how much they enjoy the chase!

We were supposed to walk Gemma today, but she had to go to the doctor to help her upset tummy. We missed you Gemma and hope you feel better soon!

Onward,

Rubin

See how happy I am?

Getting Frisky!

I woke to rain this morning and instantly worried I’d have to wear my dreaded red raincoat.  But guess what?  It never rained!  Hallelujah! Instead, it was sunny and warm and beautiful!!  Quillette (to the left) was all smiles about the weather and so was I. Gretchen was ecstatic as well, though she ended up carrying her rain gear in her backpack all day long. Maybe that’s why it didn’t rain!

Our day didn’t start with Quillette — it started with Lucy and Ollie.  Lucy was super happy to see me when we picked her up, but Ollie takes the cake for enthusiasm. He bounced himself silly while Gretchen attempted to leash him up and Lucy whined impatiently for the walk to begin.

It was a long walk, up to the gardens for the tractor pose.

"Don't look down, Ollie!"

Ollie is kind of afraid of heights. I understand, so am I.  He refused to look at the camera, instead focusing on the ground beneath the tractor. Shortly after this picture was taken, he walked off the back of the tractor to the safety of the ground.

Lucy stood atop the tractor patiently, but on three legs.  This is her “ready to go” pose and man, was she ever ready to go…probably because she knows a game of fetch at the tennis courts was coming up next!

"Uh, it's time to go, isn't it?"

That Lucy is kind of funny. Gretchen was trying to get Ollie to chase a ball and Lucy just kept shoving her ball into Gretchen’s legs. At one point, Lucy got so upset, she pushed the ball between Gretchen’s legs and barked loudly.

Gretchen was kneeling on the ground and in rather a precarious position, but she still got this shot of Lucy underneath her pushing the ball into a visible position.

"It's right here. Do you see it now?"

Meanwhile, Ollie and I played chase…

"Can't catch me!!"

"I'm too fast for you!"

"He has my ball!"

Ollie is pretty funny. He hops up, he hops sideways, and at one point he hopped right on my ball and raced away with it.  He was feeling frisky, I tell ya, and it was really fun to watch (and chase after!).

Fetch, it's all about fetch!

Lucy never gave up though, on her beloved game of fetch. While Ollie and I chased each other round and round, Lucy ran back and forth, back and forth fetching her ball and placing it at Gretchen’s feet over and over and over again.

No wonder her nickname is Lucy Ball!

After we dropped Ollie and Lucy back home, we headed down to Gemma’s house with a stop at the coffeeshop so I could get some water. It was warm out there today and I appreciate Mezzaluna Cafe’s bowl of water outside their shop.  Ahhhhhhh….

Little Ms. Gemma hasn’t been feeling well. She’s had an upset tummy of late, so we were banned (by Gretchen) from romping and wrestling.  Instead, we walked through the water parks and Gemma looked longingly at the big playfield she wasn’t able to play in.

"Are you sure we can't play, just a little?"

She sure has a funny tail. It kind of looks like a racoon’s tail, only it points straight up!  It’s like her own special compass.

We walked, but Gemma really, really wanted to play so at one point, I just stopped in the park, rolled over and let her chew on my neck and ears for good measure.  I think playing with me is the best medicine!

We’ll see if she’s feeling better tomorrow!

After we took Gemma back home, we walked up the street to retrieve Quillette. Q’s mom is a student and must spend long hours at the library writing papers, reading and studying. That means that sometimes Quillette spends long hours alone at home.  We fetch her, she hangs out at our house, and then, we take a long afternoon walk together.

Today we went through Frink Park and we both got a little Frisky!

"Come on! Chase me!"

Since it rained last night and early this morning, the park was really, really muddy. I don’t know about you, but mud gets my juices flowing and I raced up and down the trail, round and round Quillette, and did everything I could to get her to chase me. She did for a second or two, but mostly she just smiled at me and woofed loudly when I passed.  That’s how Q shows off her friskiness — she sounds really ferocious!

But instead of chasing, she posed for Gretchen and smiled away!

A perfect way to end a perfect day — with happiness!  Until tomorrow,

Rubin

Is that Spring? Or Just a Business Opportunity?

The shadows of Spring

We walked in a new park today. Traveling south, we headed to the network of paths that connect three different parks. If we wanted to, we could walk to downtown through this network, but today we didn’t have that much time.

It was warm out, amazingly warm. The sun made great shadows on the path and both Oshi and Perrito (the only dogs we walked today) raced ahead on the leash to frolick in the sun. This is rare for Oshi. He usually hangs back and waits for us to turn around and head back home. But not today.  He loved the sun as much as I did.

Lots of people were out — power walking the paths, playing with their kids at the playground, or walking their dogs. We met up with Wilson, a very young Golden Retriever, and got a chance to hand out a business card. Hopefully they’ll call because I think Wilson and I could be good friends. We’ll see. We continued walking and smelling and greeting whomever we met.

Of course, we got kind of warm on our walk and Gretchen made us rest on a bench. We’re not used to this warmish weather.

Resting uneasily

Oshi and Perrito got to sit on the bench. I, on the other hand, had to sit/stay BY the bench.

One minute we were walking in the warm sun, and the next minute it was raining. Where’d that come from?  When I looked up, a big, dark cloud hung over us and if you look closely at the front of the bench and the patterned bricks, you can see the splatters of rain.  From my face you can tell I was none too happy.

We walked shortly after our rest and met up with some more dogs, but by this time the camera was put away (to protect it from the rain).  Of course, the rain didn’t last long and soon Gretchen was snapping pictures again and Oshi and Perrito were in the lead once again.

Oshi and Perrito were our only clients today, but Gretchen and I were still busy. We went around the neighborhood and dropped off business cards to the new pet store on Jackson (Immortal Dog), the vet’s office (Four Paws), and another pet store across the street from the Co-op (Ideal Pet).We’re doing what we can to drum up business.

Later, Gretchen and I went for a long walk down to the lake where she let me go swimming! It was great fun — for about 6 swims — and then I just got too cold and refused to go in.  I lost a tennis ball to the lake (I wouldn’t go fetch it!), but I think Gretchen understood. While it felt like Spring, the lake still needs to warm up a bit before it’s ready for swimming.

On our way home, we met Lily, a large Golden Retriever and her family. We got to hand out a business card to them, too.  It got colder later in the afternoon, but still there was this feeling that Spring was lurking just beyond our reach.

Soon, I sense it, soon the warm weather will be here. I can smell it!