Here’s a Mixed Up Tale…

Gemma has always been a very active dog. From the moment I met her, about 10 months ago, she’s been a go-getter from the get-go. It’s true, she fell in love with me the moment I met her and Gemma will always have a warm place in my heart.

Why? Because she’s tenacious. She’s steely. She’s lovable and she never, ever gives up. She enjoys a good joke and has an innate sense of playfulness unmatched by any dog I know. Yes, even Bella or Saber or any other puppy I’ve come across. Gemma is almost a year old and what I hope for her birthday is that she can be cast free. Yep, she’s still in her cast and after admonishments from the vet, she’s now under house arrest.

What this means is that she must only go out in her backyard. No walks. No romping around. No play times at our house, the little field, and for dog’s sake, not the tennis courts.  Instead, she must continue to be lifted up and down the stairs, stay on a leash while in her own yard, and not be allowed to frolic in any way.

For me, this would be difficult. For Gemma, it must be pure torture. I can’t even imagine. Worse, I can’t even see her nor she me because, well, we’d start right in with our wrestling and romping and that would make her doctor even more upset.

Gemma wasn’t our first walk of the day, but because she’s feeling down, she’s going to be our first blog of the day. Gretchen had to go by herself to visit little Gemma. She was happy to see her, but really bummed when all they did was hang out in the back yard. She stood close to Gretchen the whole time hoping that the leash on meant they’d eventually go for a walk. Poor girl!

Gemma did a lot of stretching and even some barking in hopes that Gretchen would take pity on her.

Finally, Gretchen pulled out some treats and started to teach Gemma a trick. They’re working on “shake” or shaking paws and so far, Gemma is doing really well. We’ll see how she does tomorrow. Can she retain the trick? Stay tuned.

Our day started with Monty and Saber. In fact, we had two walks together – one in the morning and the other this afternoon. My leg is a little sore (too much playing) and Monty’s leg is still a little stiff, so we decided to go for just a walk — no romping, no fetch, and no wrestling. Saber was cool with that! Saber’s pretty much cool with anything. So’s Monty. In fact, he was more cool with getting his picture taken for the umpteenth time on the steps overlooking the trees all started to turn to their fall colors.

As you can see, I was not so patient. I wanted to get a move one, but Gretchen feels this need to capture the changing of the seasons with her camera so we must wait patiently while she gets the shot just right!

After Saber, Monty and I hung out at our house while Gretchen took out Oshi and Perrito. Perrito just had his SURGERY and yes, that should be capitalized because IT’S THE YOU-KNOW-WHAT surgery and that deserves all caps! Because he had the SURGERY he had to go for short outing, but once Gretchen put him back in the house, Oshi was reluctant to go anywhere. In fact, after he did his business, Oshi laid right down and refused to go anywhere except back to his house. No time for photos…though Gretchen went back later in the day to take the boys out one more time (for which they were eternal grateful) and got a few photos of them in their own backyard (after their short and slow walk around the block!)

While Oshi rolled around on the cement patio, Perrito sat by the leashes hoping for a longer walk.

Okay, now I’m all mixed up. Walking Saber twice and Oshi and Perrito twice has got me thrown for a loop. In between all of these tales, Gretchen walked Bella. They went over to the park with the big open field and played tug. Apparently Bella loves tug and particularly loved my red tug toy!

Bella will do anything to play tug. She’ll sit, she’ll lie down, she’ll stay…and Gretchen’s working on roll over, but regardless, if the tug toy is out, Bella is alert and ready for action.

In fact, Gretchen laughed a lot with Bella who throws herself down on the ground when Gretchen gives the “down” command.  She tried to capture it on film, but it looks like Bella’s lunging forward. In actuality, she’s throwing herself on the ground!

And then they practiced “stay” and Gretchen said that Bella did really well, but kept staring at the tug toy, obsessed with it’s tattered red fabric and squeezed out squeaky sound.

Even in that last photo, Bella’s not quite looking up. She knows where the tug toy is and has no intention of letting her sights wander too far. Eventually Gretchen held up the tug toy so Bella would, in turn, look up. And then they played tug and Bella was extremely happy to be reunited with the toy!

I just realized that Gretchen didn’t take a lot of photos today. Um. I wonder why? Probably because she had her hands full with two walks for three dogs, an injured and disappointed terrier, and the shenanigans of Monty and me.

Until tomorrow,

Rubin