Little Surprises

Last night wasn’t a good night for me. I ate my delicious dinner in a hurry and then threw it all up. I rarely eat anything quickly, but I was hungry and Gretchen gave me some yummy tidbits in my dinner so I wolfed it down and what do you know, up it came. I didn’t feel so well after that and headed straight to bed to sleep it off.

So, while I got to teach at school today, I didn’t get to play as much as I would have liked. That was the first little surprise. The other was that it didn’t rain on us until the last 2 minutes of our last walk. While the vomiting wasn’t fun, the sunshine was and made up for the fact that I spent half the day recovering at home and not working.

Gretchen worked, though, and she started the day with Ollie. I got to see Ollie, too, since he lives close to school, but then they walked me home so I could rest up and make my tummy feel better. While I really would have liked to work — walking Ollie and then Saber — only Gretchen got to do that.

After dropping me off at the house, Ollie and Gretchen walked over to Saber’s house where the excited boy was happy to see them. He likes Ollie very much though Ollie is a bit leery of Saber’s enthusiastic greetings. I get it. I’m not so fond of them either, but once they got to walking, all was well. Because it was such a surprisingly nice day, they walked up the hill for a picture from the view point overlooking the city. The first picture of this blog was the view of the city and snowy Olympics off in the distance and then Gretchen posed the two boys on the lookout. Ollie was freaked out by the grate (another thing we share in common) while Saber had no qualms whatsoever about walking on the grate or looking down through the holes to the ground 10 feet below.

It’s funny because Saber thinks umbrellas are the devil, but walking on air (which is what walking on a grate feels like) doesn’t phase him at all. Go figure.

Saber walked Ollie back home and then Gretchen walked Saber back to his house with the promise that she’d be back with me for an afternoon play date. Then she walked up the street to fetch Rosie who was thrilled by the sunshine and nice weather. No raincoats today!They walked through the park and then headed to a spot where you can see the same buildings that are in that first picture from the lookout. It might be hard to tell, but over Rosie’s shoulder are those tall buildings of the city. The sky’s changed a bit, but still no rain and no wind. What a surprise after yesterday!

As I’ve mentioned before, Gretchen struggles with Rosie in two areas. First, if she lets her leash-drag and tries to take a photo of her, Rosie just follows Gretchen around because she knows Gretchen has tasty treats in her pockets. Therefore, it’s very hard for Gretchen to get a photograph of Rosie, or the ones she gets are always close ups. So Gretchen ties her leash to something in order to keep Rosie in one place.

The other problem she has is getting Rosie to look at the camera. Rosie is shy and would rather look out over the city and the park than into the lens. Therefore, Gretchen has to be very patient and make all sorts of weird sounds to get Rosie to look in her direction. Rosie’s favorite noise is when Gretchen meows. That’s my favorite, too!

Once Rosie went home, Gretchen came back to get me and I got to eat some lunch, which I ate slowly and deliberately so as not to give us both anymore surprises (if you know what I mean!). Gretchen did some work while I continued to rest and then we headed out a little early to pick up Saber. I was antsy and ready for some play time so Gretchen decided Saber would enjoy some extra time for his afternoon outing. Boy did he!

And you never know what kind of photographs you’ll get of Mr. Silly Saber. He was playing fetch, but then Gretchen called his name and he spit out the ball right at the second Gretchen took the photo. Pretty funny!

After we played and then walked up on the hill and down past the museum, we took Saber home before we headed over to the school. On the horizon, the clouds were turning black and moving toward us as if on a mission.We had fun with the student who, it turns out, is quite a good artist. Gretchen had him take photos of me so she could give him the photos for sketching. He took a close up of me, a full body shot, and then one where it looks like I’m climbing a tree after a squirrel. I like that one the best!

I knew the sunshine couldn’t last all day, but we got to spend time with our student before the clouds opened up and started hailing. Luckily, we were a block away from home before the hail pelted us. Whew.

But now, as I type, the clouds have past and the sun is bright and round on the western horizon. Another surprise. My last surprise (or so I hope) for the day is that is that I get to go along and play with my big friend Ben in his big backyard and spend time with his family for dinner. Hope it’s not raining when we do! I love visiting Ben and his family and at dinner, I love lying under the ginormous dining room table and listening to everyone laugh and call my name. “Rubin, you’re such a good dog!”

Maybe the last surprise will be when a morsel from the dinner table falls down to the floor. Or maybe when Stephen, Ben’s dad, decides to feed me some of Ben’s dinner. Yummy! Who knows what surprises will show themselves tonight!

Until tomorrow,

Rubin