New Adventures with My dog
This morning, I decided that I would do my trail run with my dog. It was already later than I had planned, so, this would keep her off of the hot asphalt and keep her paws from getting blistered. Have to be able to take care of my dog. We took off with our water and our will to conquer this run together. What a adventure we ended up having.
We took off for the outdoor classroom. It's a nature preserve place of sorts. When we are young, they take us here in school to learn about that different kinds of biology that live there. We did a loop through the area and then, we went off to the lake. It's nearly 4 miles there and back, so, about an hour I think. The beginning of the run is wonderful. See some beautiful sights, look at the water, get some water, mostly goes to the dog. I am loving this run. Thinking a lot about my family at this point. My parents and sisters and the like. I have mixed feelings about all of these things.
I love my family and my sisters, but, wow, somedays, they make me crazy. Just like any family does I'm sure. It's like not we are special and everyone gets along. We have our own sort of dysfunction, and I like it like that.
Got over to the lake, it's one of my favorite spots to go. I came up on the Hitching Post side of the trail and thinking I will go over to the boat dock and let the dog play in the water, head around the lake on the walking path to the bathrooms and get some water out of the drinking fountain over there. I stop and see a little family of ducks. And I soon realized these were ducklings. A little bigger than baby ducks, but, still fluffy and cute. They were all preening themselves in the sunlight, it was awesome to see them.
We go to head towards the docks and we pass a couple, the dog is ok. The next people we come up to is a small family with a young girl, I would say 7 or 8, very small petite young girl, holding onto the leash end of a full grown pit terrier mix. Pretty dog, a brindle color and cropped ears. I can hear her yelling to her dad, there is a dog up here and he comes over to her and they all stop. As my girl and I come up, I am holding onto her close to were the harness meets the body as she hasn't had the best of luck with dogs lately. The pit comes after her. I managed to keep my dog out of the jaws of this other one, but, it was pretty dam close. I could hear myself asking to help me, twice before the man was able to get his dog off of us. I get up quickly, I had fallen trying to get my dog out of the grasp of this other dog, and I turned around and looked at the little girl and asked if she was ok. She said yes, and we moved very quickly on down the path.
As I passed the other two females in the group, one was her mother I can only guess. This lady is scolding the girl for thinking she could hold onto this full grown dog with a massive amount of strength. She was crying and I have no doubt our brief interaction today will stay with her forever. For that, I am so sorry. It wasn't your fault. Please don't be afraid of dogs, they are wonderful and will fill your life with more love than you knew you could handle. I stop a ways down the path and start crying too. I am shaking by now and I realize I need to sit down. We did not stop at the water to go play, we drank our water on a bench and sat until I felt it was ok to keep going.
We walked a lot more at this point than what I wanted to do, but, since it was getting hot outside, the last thing I wanted to do was to give my dog heat stroke. We went slow, she drank all of our water as we stopped two more times for water and shade. We came back into the outdoor classroom area and I see another dog, same kind as the last one, and I feel a sense of panic coming on. I can't be scared of this shit forever, so I just decided that we would go around them. By now, we are so close to the truck that we finish our run strong. I am so glad that it's done by now, I just want to go home and shower and not think of this, but, I can't get it out of my head. We split the extra bottle of water that I had in the truck, thankful that I had remembered to keep it in the shade and that there were ice cubes in it.
Finally got home, I didn't stretch. I will later I am sure. But for today, I am done. It was a much slower run than what I had hopped for, but, tomorrow will be better I am sure. Until then, keep moving forward.
We took off for the outdoor classroom. It's a nature preserve place of sorts. When we are young, they take us here in school to learn about that different kinds of biology that live there. We did a loop through the area and then, we went off to the lake. It's nearly 4 miles there and back, so, about an hour I think. The beginning of the run is wonderful. See some beautiful sights, look at the water, get some water, mostly goes to the dog. I am loving this run. Thinking a lot about my family at this point. My parents and sisters and the like. I have mixed feelings about all of these things.
 |
| Small water feature, not a lot of water though |
I love my family and my sisters, but, wow, somedays, they make me crazy. Just like any family does I'm sure. It's like not we are special and everyone gets along. We have our own sort of dysfunction, and I like it like that.
Got over to the lake, it's one of my favorite spots to go. I came up on the Hitching Post side of the trail and thinking I will go over to the boat dock and let the dog play in the water, head around the lake on the walking path to the bathrooms and get some water out of the drinking fountain over there. I stop and see a little family of ducks. And I soon realized these were ducklings. A little bigger than baby ducks, but, still fluffy and cute. They were all preening themselves in the sunlight, it was awesome to see them.
 |
| M R Ducks |
We go to head towards the docks and we pass a couple, the dog is ok. The next people we come up to is a small family with a young girl, I would say 7 or 8, very small petite young girl, holding onto the leash end of a full grown pit terrier mix. Pretty dog, a brindle color and cropped ears. I can hear her yelling to her dad, there is a dog up here and he comes over to her and they all stop. As my girl and I come up, I am holding onto her close to were the harness meets the body as she hasn't had the best of luck with dogs lately. The pit comes after her. I managed to keep my dog out of the jaws of this other one, but, it was pretty dam close. I could hear myself asking to help me, twice before the man was able to get his dog off of us. I get up quickly, I had fallen trying to get my dog out of the grasp of this other dog, and I turned around and looked at the little girl and asked if she was ok. She said yes, and we moved very quickly on down the path.
As I passed the other two females in the group, one was her mother I can only guess. This lady is scolding the girl for thinking she could hold onto this full grown dog with a massive amount of strength. She was crying and I have no doubt our brief interaction today will stay with her forever. For that, I am so sorry. It wasn't your fault. Please don't be afraid of dogs, they are wonderful and will fill your life with more love than you knew you could handle. I stop a ways down the path and start crying too. I am shaking by now and I realize I need to sit down. We did not stop at the water to go play, we drank our water on a bench and sat until I felt it was ok to keep going.
We walked a lot more at this point than what I wanted to do, but, since it was getting hot outside, the last thing I wanted to do was to give my dog heat stroke. We went slow, she drank all of our water as we stopped two more times for water and shade. We came back into the outdoor classroom area and I see another dog, same kind as the last one, and I feel a sense of panic coming on. I can't be scared of this shit forever, so I just decided that we would go around them. By now, we are so close to the truck that we finish our run strong. I am so glad that it's done by now, I just want to go home and shower and not think of this, but, I can't get it out of my head. We split the extra bottle of water that I had in the truck, thankful that I had remembered to keep it in the shade and that there were ice cubes in it.
Finally got home, I didn't stretch. I will later I am sure. But for today, I am done. It was a much slower run than what I had hopped for, but, tomorrow will be better I am sure. Until then, keep moving forward.
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