A Long Time Gone

All week long I felt as if I were waiting for Friday to arrive. We’ve been busy this week and while Gretchen has made certain that neither Monty nor I had to work too much, we were both pretty tired by the time today (Friday) rolled around. But what could we do? We can’t call in sick now, can we? And we’re not really sick, we just, like most humans, were looking forward to the weekend.

Monty’s really looking forward to the weekend because his mom comes home Saturday night and he’s really, really missed her. He hasn’t said anything, but we can all tell that he wants to go home, lie on the bed with his mom, and get back to his normal routine. I imagine his mom wants the same thing after two weeks in foreign countries. Saturday night, when they reunite, will be golden for both of them. I can hardly wait to see it.

But meanwhile, there’s work to be done starting with walking Gretchen to her teaching job each morning. Since Ann, my other mom, starts teaching later, she goes with us as we make our way through the neighborhood. When Ann leaves for work, Monty and I wait for Gretchen to return though today she came later than usual, which was nice because we really got to sleep.

For Gretchen, the first dogs on the docket were Gemma and Saber. I think I’m glad I was sleeping through their time together.

They run around for the first five minutes, but since Saber is young, he gets a bit more tired than Gemma so he lies down. Gemma, on the other hand, races around and around him poking at him every now and then as if trying to find the ON switch.

Saber watches and watches and watches and Gemma runs and runs and runs.

Eventually, Saber gives in to Gemma’s taunting and off they go again chasing and wrestling for another five minutes.

Until finally, Gretchen says “Look, treats!” and they both come running, happily sit down, and wait for a snack. In 15 minutes of playing with Gemma running five times as much as Saber, they are both ready for a cool down walk and they make their way through the park and eventually back to Saber’s house. Gemma gets another half hour and that’s when she gets to visit us at home. Though rain is predicted for the weekend, it was a warm, sunny day and surprisingly, instead of wanting to play with us, Gemma sat in the cool grass of the yard under the shade of the cherry tree content to just rest.

Next up was Rosie AND Tyson. Tyson often goes with Maureen on park trip play dates during the week, but she was on vacation today and so Gretchen got to walk the two big boxers by herself.  They were thrilled to see her and enjoyed their stroll through the neighborhood even smiling for their photo shoot.

These are two very big dogs. It’s hard to see it when they stand next to each other, but when Gretchen walks them, Tyson’s (on the left) head is right at her hip. He walked there the whole way except when he had to do his business and then he politely asked if he could pee on a bush or poop in the grass. Rosie obviously loves Tyson and wanted to walk right by his side, but since Gretchen’s left arm isn’t that strong, she asked her to walk on the right. Rosie was happy to comply.

After Rosie and Tyson were dropped off at their home and given a few treats, Gretchen walked up a block to pick up Bella. Surprisingly, we have four dog clients all living on the same street just a few blocks away from each other. Nice, very, very nice.

Bella struggled a bit with “heel” on Thursday, but today she was a new dog walking right by Gretchen’s left side and paying close attention to her commands. They walked north toward the park and then winded their way through the neighborhoods learning to stay focused even with distractions. Bella did a stellar job on the entire walk and earned a well-deserved play time with me in our back yard!

Monty was with us, but he basically tried to stay out of the way observing our wild play from a distance.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that Bella leaves him alone. She’s definitely respectful of Monty, but every once in awhile, she gets a little more courage and tests the Monty waters.

But then she runs back to me and we continue to play while Monty looks on, his nose slightly in the air.

I got to walk Bella home after our play time and again she behaved like an almost adult dog, not pestering me or nipping at me as we walked. Gretchen was impressed and thankful. A wild Bella is a workout for both of us!

On our way home, we picked up Oshi and Perrito. I used to think these two were wild…well, Perrito for sure, but now that I’ve played with real puppies — Gemma, Saber, and Bella — I’ve come to realize how relaxed these boys are. We went for a long walk through the neighborhood and then visited the other tennis courts, the ones we don’t visit very often, to play some fetch.

It was hot, though, so the game soon ended and Oshi begged to go back home for a cool drink of water.

Gretchen had to go back to school after this for some performance, but when she returned we all headed over to pick up Wilson — Monty, Ann, and me. Boy was he thrilled to see us all! We walked for awhile and then played some fetch at the little field.

As I’ve said, Monty and I were pretty tired, but Wilson was ready for action!  While Ann gave me a belly rub, Wilson pestered her to throw the ball again and again and again, which she did making Wilson one happy fellow.

Ann walked Monty back to our house and I helped Gretchen escort Wilson back through the neighborhoods to his house. By the time I got home, I was ready for some dinner and to curl up on my bed in the TV room while Ann and Gretchen watched a movie.

It’s been a long week and soon I’ll be sleeping in on a Saturday, the beginning of my well-deserved weekend.

Have a great one!

Rubin