All the Way Home…

The sad thing about having another dog at our house as a boarder is that they eventually go home.

The good thing about having another dog at our house as a boarder is that they eventually go home.

Does that make me sound mean?

Let me explain.

Argo has been with us since last Thursday. He’s a sweet little fella whose personality broadened every day.  At first he was shy and a bit out of sorts, but as the days progressed, his playful, jolly, and wiggly self emerged. Today was his last day with us so we took an early morning walk to the little field where we played fetch.

That little guy loves to play fetch, but then again, so do I.

Argo wasn’t to go home until the evening so that meant he got to go to work with me only my work was pretty trim today. Ollie and Gemma were the only dogs on the docket…or should that be “dog”ket?  No matter.

Gemma is still recovering so the only dog Argo got to meet was Ollie and as usual, Ollie was very excited to see us and meet Argo. We headed on a long walk aiming toward the little field for games of chase and fetch, but when we got there, they were mowing the lawn.

What now? We decided to see if anyone was at the off-leash dog park. Generally, we don’t go to the dog park because 1) there are often lots of dogs there and 2) it’s often very muddy, but since we haven’t much rain of late, we decided to check it out. And what do you know…no one was there AND it was dry. So we got to play and play we did!

As you can see, Argo and Ollie got along really well. Ollie chased Argo and then another dog showed up (Vadar) and Ollie got chased. He was one happy guy.

Since Argo had played that morning, he got tired pretty quickly and found a couple places to rest first in the tall grass and then in the shade. Smart fellow!

I played fetch and Ollie stood around waiting to be chased…

Eventually even Ollie got tired and found his own shade in which to rest.

On our way to return Ollie back to his home, we stopped at our house where Gretchen left Argo and me so we could get some rest. We needed it.  Gretchen dropped off Ollie and then walked over to Gemma’s house.

You know how they say a dog’s bark is bigger than his bite? Well, in Gemma’s case the bandage is bigger than her bite. Yes, her ear had to get stitches, but to keep the ear from splitting open again, the vet had to bend her right ear back and strap on a full-headed bandage.

On top of that, she has to wear the Cone of Shame to keep her from scratching out the stitches.

Poor girl.

Though Gretchen reports that she’s still full of energy!  To burn some of it off before their walk, Gretchen took Gemma to the tennis courts to play fetch and race around.

Gemma likes to chase after the ball, but unlike me, she’s not very good at bringing the ball back. This makes fetch kind of a tough game, but Gretchen pulled out three balls, tossed one across the court to get Gemma to chase it then threw the next so Gemma would chase that.

But after awhile, Gretchen noticed that what Gemma really liked to do was jump up after a bouncing ball so they played that game for awhile.

Occasionally, the ball would get stuck in the Cone of Shame. Gemma had a hard time trying to figure out how to get the ball out of the cone. Eventually, she learned to flip her cone and the ball would fly out on it’s own.

Amazingly, Gretchen got a picture of it!  Talk about luck!

But it was warm yesterday and Gemma soon tired out. A perfect time to take an energetic dog for a walk. But first, some rest in the shade and a happy yawn…

They finished their time together with a walk through Judkins park, but Gemma sought the shade every now and then. That’s a tired dog!

The rest of the day, Argo and I hung out together and ended the day with a walk around the park and games of fetch in the backyard. When Argo’s family arrived, it eased the pain of his leaving by seeing how happy he was to have his family around again.  He is a loved dog, it’s true, but we will miss him very much.

Be a good boy, Argo.

The good part about the boarder going home? I get my moms all to myself!!!

Until next time,

Rubin