We’re So Lucky!

Even though my legs and paws feel as if we’ve walked (romped and run) to Florida and back, even though I can barely keep my eyes open tonight, even though every time I get up from lying down I feel as if my body is as stiff as wood, even though we walked almost all of our clients today — I can’t believe how lucky we are to be doing the work we’re doing. I mean, I get to hang out with some of the greatest dogs in Seattle. None of them are mean, none of them are outrageously disobedient, none of them growl at strangers or chase little children. Nope, these dogs (and their owners) are special and that makes me one lucky dog!

Our busy day started with a solo walk when Ann and I walked Gretchen to school for her morning of meetings. I spent the morning with Ann and when Gretchen got home, she brought with her Gemma and Monty — our first two “clients” of the day. If that wasn’t enough dogs, Ann came with us and fetched Oshi and Perrito from next door. Two women and five dogs made their way to the little field with our happy tails waving. At the field we played and played — Monty and I playing fetch, Gemma and Perrito chasing us, and Ann trying to get Oshi to do something other than pull her back home.

I know I should probably write more about each photograph, but frankly, it’s been a very long day and even though the above photos represent only the beginning of the day, you’ll see that by the end, I have every reason to be quite tired.

We took Oshi and Perrito home followed by Gemma. Monty spends Fridays with us and starting tomorrow, he’ll be staying with us for two weeks. See how lucky I am? My best friend gets a sleepover 24/7 for two weeks at my house!

Next up was Bella. Gretchen took me over to Bella’s house to pick her up. Monty got to stay home and rest (he is older, you know). Bella was thrilled to see me, but it probably wasn’t the best idea to bring me along since she has a hard time focusing on her obedience when I’m around. So Gretchen wrangled us over to the tennis courts so we could burn off some of Bella’s excited energy before we worked on her commands. Let’s just say, Bella has a lot of energy and most of it is released out of her ears!

Of course, she loves me and despite the fun I have, playing with Bella (much like playing with Gemma) takes a lot of energy on my part.

Bella has an interesting habit. She likes to stalk me. I chase after the ball, she gets really low to the ground and then springs up to jump on me. I hate to break the news to her that I can see her coming, but I’m a good boy and play along, acting surprised when she pops up.

Surprisingly, it didn’t take too much running around to get Bella to focus and that’s when Gretchen decided to work on her commands. Being an older role model, I must perform the commands as well demonstrating to the younger dogs how to sit, lie down, and wait patiently.

When we first picked Bella up, there was no way she’d do any of these commands least of all wait, but after a nice play time at the tennis courts she was a bit more attentive. Though it might look like this photograph demonstrates a quiet and patient Bella, it took Gretchen about 5 minutes to get the shot. I’ll point out, not to sound arrogant or anything, I sat like this for the full 5 minutes until Gretchen finally got Bella to rest and look at something other than me.

Good girl, Bella!

After this, we worked on some more commands as we made our way through the park back to my house. I really wanted Bella to meet Monty because I know how much Monty likes girls. The two of them hit it off right away!

But Gretchen didn’t want two dogs at once to be too bit much for Bella, so she put Monty back in the house and Bella and I got to play together some more.

And once again, she stalked me while I played in the pool and I pretended I couldn’t see her and I acted very surprised!

Gretchen took Bella home and then Gretchen headed back to school for yet another meeting. Monty and I got to rest, but when Gretchen got home, we went on one more jaunt to the park to play some fetch. There we ran into Sydney, the neighbor’s dog who LOVES to play fetch, too. Monty and I were kind of tired so while we played a little fetch, we also rested and watched Sydney play by herself. She’s very, very fast!

Sydney eventually got tired, too and spent time posing for Gretchen’s camera and rolling around in the green, cool grass.

After this fun time at the park, we took Monty home (though we’ll pick him up again Saturday morning for our 2-week sleepover!) and Gretchen dropped me off at home as well. I’d had enough, she said, and even though she was tired, too, she visited the last dog of the day — Wilson. I wish I hadn’t been so tired because I would have liked to play with my young friend, but Gretchen made the right decision. As it turned out, Wilson was kind of tired, too, so they set out to the field to play fetch, then walked up to Bradner Gardens for an obligatory pose at the tractor, and then back down through the neighborhoods to Wilson’s house.

Yes, the day has been long, the week even longer, but when I look back, I realize that not every dog gets to do what I get to do…spend time with really fun dogs of all ages, breeds, and genders. I get to walk through different neighborhoods, smell all the pee-mail along the way, play in large open fields, and romp and wrestle with some very happy dogs.

My life is full, but in a good way. So when I rise up from this computer, I know I’ll feel my tired legs and stiff paws crackly and strain to support my weary body, but you know what?

It’s all good. Yep, it’s all super good!

Thanks to everyone — canine and human alike — who allow us to spend time together. We appreciate you very much and are extremely thankful you are in our lives.

I’m off to bed now, but here’s a wish that everyone has a wonderful weekend!  I’ll be ready to go at it on Monday. Hope you will be, too!

Until then,

Rubin