Solstice

The shortest day of the year. You ain’t a-kiddin’. It’s like it flew by. Of course, I slept in until 9 (that’s really odd for me), but by the time we picked up Saber at 2:30 in the afternoon, the light was sinking fast. I mean really, really fast!

And the day moved at a lightning speed…even though I woke up late!

It started out with my own walk with Gretchen. A short one, for sure, as we hiked through the neighborhood and then back home. I was left with my brunch while Gretchen picked up an excited Rosie and Tyson. We were all excited today. Gretchen says it’s the changing weather and the wind. It could be because the wind kicked up and brought with it some mighty chilly temperatures. These two didn’t seem to mind, though!

They went for a nice walk down to the Coleman Park Pea Patch though the weather was so cold there aren’t many peas left in the patch. The temperature dropped a good 10 degrees between the time I woke up this Solstice morning to the time Gretchen got back from her walk with Rosie and Tyson. Gretchen said she could feel the temperature change as she tried to get another photo of the siblings at the boulder on the hill. They weren’t having any of it, apparently, but luckily, a really nice woman came by and offered to take everyone’s photo! A nice woman indeed!

Between the time Gretchen left our house, walked the dogs, and came back home, the temperature had dropped at least 10 degrees. On top of that, the wind chill made it mighty cold, but that just made everyone of us really frisky! Gemma most of all!

That’s right, Gemma was next for our Monday adventures and as Gretchen says, she was full of beans today. We went for a nice long walk first, and then picked up Oshi, Perrito, and Ann and headed to the tennis courts. Along the way, we ran into Cecilia who was out walking Lulu. Five dogs, three humans, and a tennis court! What fun is that?

At first, Gemma and Lulu hit it off, but the more Gemma kept poking Lulu (something she LOVES to do) the more agitated they both became. Eventually, Gemma was put back on a leash so Lulu could be free of Gemma’s nose in her bottom! Oshi hung out near Ann while Perrito raced around after anyone he could find!

Eventually Lulu had to go home, which meant that Gemma got to be unleashed. The first thing that little rascal did, though, was run straight to the fence and antagonize Lulu only Lulu thought it was the best game ever. Run along the outside of the fence without Gemma being able to poke her with her nose. We all got into the act racing back and forth along the fence pretending there was no fence there…even Perrito!

Eventually, everyone got tired out. Lulu laid down, Perrito stole my ball and then laid down, I stalked Perrito because I wanted my ball back, and Oshi gave Ann some big sad eyes so he could find the warm spot inside her coat.

We all headed back to our warm house after that chilly adventure, but Saber was still on the docket for this dwindling light kind of day. On Mondays, Saber is usually pretty high energy so we headed straight over to the tennis courts to see if he could release some of his beans.

We went for a walk up to Dog Mania after our romp and I think, though I’m not so sure, that someone (is it me?) got a grooming appointment. Hmmmmm?

We stopped at the boulder to take this photo and the one at the top of this blog…

…but when we came down from the hill, Saber started to do what Gretchen calls FRAPping (Frequent Random Acts of Play). Here we thought he was tired, but he was raring to go, so back to the tennis courts we went until eventually Saber was worn out enough that he flopped down on the ground in exhaustion.

By then, the sun was just a bump on the gray horizon and the temperature had probably dropped another 5 degrees. Brrrrrrrrr.

While today is fun, I’m looking forward to tomorrow when hopefully the temperature remains stable and the light shines just a bit longer than today!

Until tomorrow,

Rubin

Recharged

First, our apologies. Well, it’s really Gretchen’s apology, but since I’m in charge of this blog, I get to make it. The apology, that is. Here’s how it went down:

Every morning we get up. Really early. In fact, too early, but that’s a whole other story. Gretchen makes breakfast — mine and hers — though I refuse to eat mine while she eats hers while reading the news. Then she packs up the dog backpack after she takes a shower and gets dressed. I love watching her pack the bag because all my favorite things go in there — treats, the orange and blue ball, sometimes a tug toy or two, and the camera. Yes, I like the camera because it means we’re going to work and I like work.

So today, I watched her do all that stuff that she normally does for the morning routine — treats, ball, toys, camera. Check, check, check, check. Off she goes to school and then returns with Ollie and Gemma in tow. Boy, are we all excited to see each other. We head out for a nice long walk, searching for a place to play but the tennis courts are being used by tennis players (the nerve!) and our favorite field at the park is getting mowed. So we head through the tunnel and down by the lake on our way back to Ollie’s house.

Gretchen pulls us off the side of the road for what she thinks will be a really nice photograph — the three of us by some flowers in bloom. We sit, we wait, she pulls out the camera and turns it on. But it doesn’t go on and instantly, we remember — the battery is still in the charger. Darn it. Darn it. Darn it.

Now our apology to Ollie and Gemma’s families. We are so sorry we didn’t get photographs of your canine companions. Instead, we took them for an extra long walk and promise we will take lots and lots of photos when we see them again. Instead, we pulled up two photos from this summer when Ollie and Gemma were playing in the backyard. Enjoy.

Okay, I feel a bit better, but I sure wish we’d put that battery back into the camera.

Live and learn.

We did put it back in once Ollie and Gemma went home and we were on our way to pick up Alice. Maybe because Gretchen hadn’t taken too many photos earlier in the day, she felt compelled to take a lot of Alice –that and Alice was having so much fun at the tennis courts (no more tennis players) that she just couldn’t stop snapping photos. Whatever. We had a blast, that’s all I know, and Alice had a great time playing fetch, chasing me, and letting me chase her. Woo hoo!

Not only did Alice have fun chasing me and letting me chase her, she really had a great time playing fetch.

Only she’s kind of a ball hog. I mean, really.

After Alice went home, we picked up Saber who was excited to see us, too. We headed back to the tennis courts for some fun times before we headed over to the school where we met our good friend, the young student. If you’re counting, that’s three good days in a row. Gretchen says it’s because he gets to use the camera and then, after he takes photos of us, Gretchen prints out the photos and gives him to the next day. “He likes that,” she said, and I think she just might be right. I mean, he took photos of Saber and me, but when Lulu came by with his mom, Cecilia, well, Lulu got her photo taken too. Nice.

When we finished at the school, we took Saber home and then were planning on walking over to Wilson’s house only Gretchen thought that I might need to rest since I’d been on every walk today. So back to the house I went. I even gave her my sad eyes, but she insisted I rest while she walked Wilson. They played fetch at the big field, which Wilson really enjoyed…

…but then Gretchen felt bad that I wasn’t having as much fun so she came back and got me and the three of us headed to the recently mowed field and played more fetch. Wasn’t that nice of her?

And yes, that made me officially worn out. So worn out I ate my entire dinner. That’s rarity around her, but I’d worked hard and really felt like I needed it. It actually tasted pretty good.

Tomorrow’s Friday. I’m pretty excited about that. And tomorrow, we won’t forget the battery!

Until then,

Rubin

How Many Dogs Do You See?

The good thing about Ann (my other mom) having the summer off is that we can take more dogs out to play than normal. Gretchen can usually only walk four at a time, but they have to be really good on the leash in order for her to move forward. Otherwise she’s unwrapping leashes and that is no fun at all. But today, Ann went with us and we walked five dogs (including me), which means it was five times the fun!

Plus (it’s like a math problem) we met our friend Harry (the Wheaton Terrier) at the park and all of the sudden we weren’t just five dogs playing, we were six dogs playing.

Oh how the fun just kept multiplying!

Harry is an older fellow, but he’s very sweet and he really enjoyed all the company. He especially enjoyed playing with Ollie and Perrito who in turn, enjoyed playing with him.

Of course, Ollie enjoys everyone and Perrito thinks any new dog has been brought to the park just for him so Harry had his hands full as you can well imagine.

But Harry handled it all in stride, dividing his play time equally between Ollie and Perrito. They appreciated it, though I personally think Perrito would have liked to have Ollie all to himself.

Take a look at the pictures from this morning’s walk and decide for yourself…

Okay, so maybe it wasn’t how I exactly remembered it, but with six dogs on the field it was hard to keep track of all the activities. Lucy playing fetch, Perrito chasing Ollie, Ollie chasing whoever was running, Harry sniffing the ground, Oshi observing it all (he rarely takes part) and me, lying in the middle of it all hoping someone would notice how cute I am.

Oh yeah, and Lucy showed her acrobatic side….leaping up for a ball and then back down to the ground. Phenomenal!

Of course, after awhile, it was time to take everyone home and for me to get a nap while my moms ran off on errands. Don’t worry, they came back (they always do) and Gretchen and I headed out to retrieve the Retriever, Mr. Wilson! We walked around the park, across the other park, and then met up with MORE DOGS!  It was totally unexpected, but there they all were…Lulu first, then Gemma came along, and finally Gus.

How many dogs do you see?

Well, there were five of us (plus parents making a total of nine bodies ion the field). We played fetch…chase…and stood around looking beautiful…

And then Gus decided he really liked Gemma and the two of them went at it…very cute, don’t you think? Of course, Wilson and I were all about fetch and luckily, Gus’ dad was into throwing the ball for us!  Good dad!

As you can see, it was all about dogs today…lots of them. Gretchen and I had to laugh, though since all the dogs (except for Lucy) were some shade of brown. It was the brown dog day plus Lucy.  She didn’t seem to mind.

Me either.

Until tomorrow,

Rubin

A Wednesday in Chapters

Chapter One: Cecilia’s Operation

We went for a walk this morning and on our way we picked up Monty and continued on north toward the park. We passed the house of my dog friend Lulu and her mom, Cecilia who was dressed in what can only be described as a surgical outfit.

Turns out she was performing surgery. On her garage.

At first, she was kind of scary, but then when I heard her laugh I realized she was the same Cecilia I’ve always known and despite her outfit, was my friend. Because she’s my friend, I begged Gretchen (and Ann, who came with us again now that she’s on summer break) to ask if Lulu could go on our morning walk, which is exactly what ended up happening. So while Cecilia performed surgery, Lulu, Monty, and I had a lovely morning stroll up to Powell Burnett Park, along the ridge, and back home to Cecilia’s Operation.

Gretchen posed us all in the park…first Monty with me (because Lulu wouldn’t sit still) and then Lulu with Ann reassuring her that the camera was a good thing (though I have my doubts these days!).

By the time we got back to Cecilia’s house, well the garage was still under anesthetic and Cecilia was up to her elbows in the bowels of the garage. It was going to be a very long surgery indeed.

Chapter Two: The Difficulty of Posing

Monty and I got to hang out at home after that while Ann worked on some house projects. She organized all the “stuff” going to Goodwill, she got some things ready for our camping trip this weekend, and she wiped the counters in the kitchen.  Gretchen took care of some billing, gave me a brushing (yuck!), and packed up her bag for a walk with the boys next door — Oshi and Perrito. 

Because I was out of dog food, Gretchen hiked the boys to the top of the hill to Dog Mania (one of the places where we shop) and along the way did her best to pose the boys. If you think Lulu has a hard time sitting and staying, the boys are worse. They want to pee on everything and they want to venture off despite the lack of accompaniment by an adult…mainly Gretchen. But at the top of the stairs where Gretchen likes to take photos, she got a few good ones of Oshi and Perrito, but only a few as the boys were anxious to get going. You can tell that Perrito is anxious because he lies down. Seems oxymoronic, but that’s what he does. Lies down and looks at you with those plaintive eyes.

Oshi’s a bit more cooperative, but not too terribly much so Gretchen has to be quick about it or she’ll miss the opportunity to snap some expressive photos of the boys next door.

Once posed, they all headed up to Dog Mania where they bought my dog food (yummy) and then headed back home. Oshi and Perrito got a drink at their house right away because it’s a hot one today.  I watched Gretchen from our window and I thought she would come get us for another walk, but no. While she came into the house, she did not leave with Monty and me in tow.

Chapter Three: Swallowing Disappointment

Gretchen dropped off the cans of food she hauled down from the hill in her backpack, gave Monty and me a pat on the head and then, much to my disappointment, walked out the door to fetch Gemma. Wait…why don’t I get to go?

“It’s a big day, Rube,” she explained. “You played very hard yesterday and there are lots of dogs to walk today. Rest and I’ll be back soon.”

REST? What is she kidding?

But I was forced to slumber in the living room while she took Gemma through the park, around the Judkins loop, and then finally back to our house for a visit.

Gemma’s a funny girl. She’s recently realized how fun birds are and on her walk with Gretchen, she focused on the crows and swallows hanging out in the open field.

She particularly likes swallows and if you look closely in this next picture, you’ll see them. Gemma certainly sees them!

Watching for birds makes Gemma very, very happy.

But it also makes her very hot so Gretchen brought her by the house to cool off a bit and I showed Gemma exactly how cooling off should be done! First you fill up the pool and then you dig in it. Digging makes the water splash up on your belly and that is very cooling indeed!

Try it, Gemma!

Yep, that’s the way…play bow in the water just like this!

And then, because now you’re all cooled off, race around the yard, get wild, and tackle each other!

Whew, that’s exhausting but oh so much fun!  Gemma went home after that — exhausted and refreshed — and Monty and I continued our rest.

Chapter Four: A Long Farewell to Teabiscuit

While we’ve been walking Teabiscuit now for over a month, she is not really one of our clients. We’re covering for another dog walker who’s been out on the road, but soon he will return and so today was our last time with the ‘Biscuit for awhile. Because of that, Gretchen went to her house, let her out to play some fetch in the park, and then brought her home so we could spend some time with her.

First, the game of fetch was fun but short-lived as it is very hot today.

Teabiscuit seems very demure, I know, but when the ball comes out, she can get demanding. She often barks to have the ball thrown and Gretchen is very obliging…

Eventually though, that ball got too hot to carry and the shade looked mighty appealing…

…so Gretchen packed up the camera and the balls, loaded Teabiscuit into the car, and headed to our place where Monty, Ann, Teabiscuit, Gretchen, and I all went for a walk through the park, but boy did we get hot!  So we came home for a cool drink and some time in the shade.

Until we meet again, Teabiscuit!

Chapter Five: Skinny Dipping with Wilson

You wouldn’t know it by this picture, but Wilson, Gretchen, and I headed to the lake this evening. Because of the hill behind us, the sun no longer casts light on the part of the lake where we swim, though off in the distance, the sunshine is still visible…and warm. It was a warm one today. It’s now 8:15 pm and it’s still 75 degrees outside, so it seemed important that on our evening walk with Wilson we walked to the lake.

Wilson is, if anything, ball obsessed. He, too, has a passion for the squishy orange and blue ball and he brought his along today. Gretchen actually uses it as a motivator to keep Wilson moving forward since he likes to walk all over the place and occasionally lie down and not get up. She keeps a ball in her hip pocket and Wilson gets the ball when he walks calmly and by her side. But once we get to the lake, Wilson has no limits to his ball and let me tell you, a limitless Wilson is a sight to watch.

First, let me explain that it’s hard to distinguish one orange and blue ball from another so when Gretchen threw one out for Wilson and the other out for me, we had a moment of panic on our hands.

She threw Wilson’s first and then mine, but once I saw Wilson going for both of them, I didn’t see the point of my getting in to get the one thrown for me. Only Wilson apparently can’t hold two balls in his mouth (nor can I) so instead he kept pushing the balls farther and farther out into the lake.

“Great,” were the words that came out of Gretchen’s mouth and then she sat on the bench, took off her shoes and socks, emptied her pockets and started wading into the water.

“We’re ALL going in?” I asked. Who needed an invitation…I jumped right in, swam right out to Wilson, snatched one of the balls (he snatched the other) and into shore we swam.

“Good God!” were Gretchen’s last words. Her feet wet, her hands thrown in the air, she could only praise us for being good dogs.

Oh, and throw the balls again and again and again (and again, in Wilson’s case!)

Talk about fun. Gretchen laughed at us because while Wilson is three times my size, he’s probably about the same weight — all skinny especially when wet.  She said we were skinny dipping at dusk and if that’s what it’s called, I’m all for it! So is Wilson!

The mountain, better known as Mt. Rainier was still bright in the sun while we swam in the shadows of the lake.  It made for a nice backdrop and a great way to end my little novella on Wednesday…

Until tomorrow,

Rubin