Abundance

Okay, enough of the serious conversations about how much is too much and overdoing it. Let’s talk about the abundance of life because I have a lot of it for which I am eternally grateful.

Friday’s are always a great time to reflect on my abundance. Reading Gretchen’s new pedometer, I was shocked to see that we’d logged 33 miles of walking this week making it abundantly clear why our legs and paws are tired by the end of the week.

But I’m not going to complain because today was really fun, marking the end of a really fun week.

Today started with a romp and run with my two best friends, Quillette and Monty.

As you can see, we had a great time in the sun not just playing fetch, but lying around on the tall, cool grass. Usually this field is well-maintained, but for some reason, they grass is growing longer every day. This means that the morning mist hangs out between the blades almost the entire morning so after a great run, when we’re feeling hot, we just lie down and get cooled off. Ahhhhhhhh, that makes for some happy buddies!

We got to rest after this while Gretchen walked with Oshi and Perrito. She’d planned on heading to the same park, but ran into three new friends and Perrito was very happy about that!

See the black little dog? Gretchen forgot her name, but she was a young whipper-snapper who ran circles around everyone. Perrito tired to catch her, but according to Gretchen, she was so fast it was almost impossible to catch her in a photo!

The other two dogs were not as lively. And Oshi, well Oshi hung out where he could find some safety and some loving. That is so Oshi!

Not as many photos of Oshi and Perrito as Gretchen would have liked, but she reports that they had a great time meeting their new friends!

Next up, the siblings — Tyson and Rosie. They were very happy to see Gretchen arrive and headed out up the hill to see if they could get a nice photo of the two dogs together with Mt. Rainier in the background. Only it didn’t really work like that.

Try as she might, she couldn’t get the dogs to just sit and wait. They knew Gretchen had treats (that’s how she got them to sit), but when she backed up to take the photo, they scooted on their butts, still in a sitting position, and got closer and closer to her.

It got to be kind of comical after awhile. While they know how to wait at the front door and not go out before given the okay, they haven’t got any idea that wait can mean to sit while Gretchen takes a photo.

No matter what she tried, she’d put them in a sit, give them a wait and even a stay command, take one step back and sure enough, they’d scoot forward saying, “But you have the treats! Why should we wait here?”

Good point.

Tyson, apparently, was the worst. While Rosie loves treats, Tyson is keenly focused on Gretchen’s pocket during the walk (where she keeps the treats) and is ever alert of when a treat might be given. “He stuck to me like glue,” Gretchen told me later, “and didn’t even show the least bit of interest in a small dog that walked by with its owner.” Wow!

Gretchen finally gave up with the Mt. Rainier shot and instead, walked across the ridge and down the steps to take a photo of the dogs with the changing fall trees in the background. That didn’t work either, so she finally decided to tie them up to a railing and get the best shot she could. Very cute, don’t you think? Though notice, they are at the ends of their leashes as Gretchen steps away from them. “Wait! You have treats!” they whined together!

After Rosie and Tyson, it was time for Bella. I didn’t get to play with Bella today because I was resting with Monty and Quillette. Did I mention how hot is was today? 82 degrees. Resting in a cool house seemed like a good idea. Poor Gretchen, though. She was one hot puppy!

Gretchen and Bella went for a nice training walk and ended up at the big field where Bella got to run around on a longer leash and play some fetch. In between, they practiced sit and down and being beautiful (a particularly easy command for Bella to achieve!)

Yes, that’s the beautiful shot, but you gotta love the clumps of dirt on her tongue. She may be a potential show dog, but she still likes being a puppy!

I also didn’t get to walk with Gemma. Not because Gemma didn’t want to play with me, but because Gemma is still in recovery with her broken toe. The broken toe is really crimping Gemma’s ambitious style. She has to walk slower, she’s not supposed to run, and when she gets to an open field, she’s not allowed to race ahead to check out the soccer players. Poor girl.

Instead, she curls up next to Gretchen and says, “This is a bummer!” whereupon Gretchen rubs her belly and behind her ears to comfort the poor little girl.

Finally, after a lot of rest, Gretchen came and got us after she got Saber. Well, she didn’t get Quillette because, as a senior citizen, Quillette was really tired after a week of dog walking work. So, Monty and I went to fetch Saber and take him on a special adventure.

Swimming!!!!!!

Since Saber had shown interest in the kiddie pool, Gretchen decided to take him to the lake. Monty and I love the lake, so we were happy to show him what to do. Saber, as a puppy, is all floppy and crazy when it’s time to play. He runs around, flops on the ground, and has very little control of his rapidly growing body. That’s when he’s on land. It doesn’t change much in the water. He flopped and frolicked and often ended up as much under water as on top, but finally, FINALLY he figured out how to use his legs to swim and swim is what we all did on this hot, hot Friday! I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves!

As you can see, it was a perfect end to a perfect week. We took a very happy Saber back home, picked up Quillette at our house, went for another short walk, ate dinner, and while Quillette fell fast asleep, I decided to finish up this blog. Now I’m ready — more than ready — to close my eyes and enter a well-deserved dreamland.

Have a great weekend!

Rubin