What a Difference

Last week Noah was gathering wood to build another ark. Today, who needs an ark! It was beautiful today — warm and sunny with amazingly blue skies. I guess that’s the benefit of all the rain. It washes the skies clean and makes everything smell like fresh laundry.

When we first got up, we were worried that rain was on its way as some seriously gray clouds sat on the southern horizon threatening to send Noah out for more wood. While it did spit on us a bit, the clouds passed and the sun shone and we were all the happier for it…as you can tell from Tyson’s smile.  (Yes, that’s a smile!)

Rosie and Tyson were the first walk of the day, which occurred earlier than usual. Since Gretchen had a dentist appointment in the middle of the day, we had to make a few adjustments to our schedule. She went to walk Rosie and Tyson first thing in the morning while I stayed at home with Ann who had the day off. Rosie and Tyson were as thrilled to be out in the warm sunshine as much as the rest of us today and they wandered around the park just basking in the warm rays.

See how the sun glimmered off Tyson’s coat? How his large body casts a dark shadow on the bushes behind him? These are the little things we’ve missed since our rainy excursions these past months. Even Rosie gave a lick (yes, that’ her tongue) of approval!

Next up was Saber. Gretchen picked him up though he was fast asleep in his kennel surprised by Gretchen’s early arrival. Of course, Gretchen says he wasn’t surprised at all. She, in fact, had to call his name and tap on his crate to wake up the sleepy giant, but once awake, Saber was ready to rumble. Unfortunately, since he’s still recovering from his snip snip snip surgery, there was no rumbling on the agenda, but he tried…let me tell you!

They walked over to our house where we were leashed up and ready to go. We didn’t go too far, though, as Oshi and Perrito were going to head out with us too, so we headed next door and got everyone ready to roll.

Saber and the boys have never met, and it took everyone a bit of adjusting to get ready for the outing. But once we got halfway through Judkins Park, Saber was no longer that interested in smelling Oshi and Oshi had stopped scurrying away from the big guy. In fact, after much wrangling, we even got this photo! (Thanks Ann!)

As you can see, Oshi wanted to be as close to Gretchen as he could get in fear that Saber might eat him. But Saber’s not interested in eating anyone. Nope, the big, silly puppy would rather jump on me or take off his gentle leader or romp the big grassy field he’s staring at in the photo. No, that guy only wants to love the world, but unfortunately Oshi didn’t trust him yet! Still, we all made it home safely and soundly. No one got eaten and no one really romped.

Gretchen headed off to the dentist, I stayed home where I was supposed to eat my breakfast, but I wasn’t interested. I was only interested after Gretchen came home so she waited for me to chow down before we headed back to Saber’s house for one more outing.

The weather was still magnificent with the temperature almost reaching 60 degrees! My word! It’s the middle of January and it’s almost 60 degrees! And everyone around here thinks that makes it almost summer time or at least, that’s how they dressed. We picked up Saber and decided to go for a long walk down the by lake. There were so many people wearing shorts, riding their bikes, running, and yes, walking their dogs it was amazing. Where were all these people the past few months?

Fair-weather walkers!

But I shouldn’t complain. January is Walk Your Dog Month so it was good to see everyone out enjoying the sun, though both Saber and I got tired pretty quickly since it’s a lot warmer than it’s been of late.

As much as Saber wanted to jump into the lake, (me too) Gretchen had to keep reminding him that he’s still recovering from his surgery. As you can tell, he was kind of bummed about it all, but he rallied and we headed back to his house so he could get a nap before his parents came home.

While I’ve never intended this blog to be all about the weather, it appears that the weather of the past few months has determined the direction of my writing. With more inclement weather predicted for the rest of the week, I’ll do my best to write about something else for a change. Maybe that will keep Noah happy and he can forget about the two by two thingy he once had to do!

Until tomorrow,

Rubin