the anatomy of a trip to the park.

I was sitting on the park bench chatting with some friends, and I looked around for Claire just to make sure she wasn't getting into trouble. She was a little ways away introducing herself to the people who came into the park. She could've cared less about the dogs at that point, since she'd had a pretty busy afternoon at the river with Gracie and Asya.

One of the guys who was loving on Claire called over to me and asked if she's the dog who sits on the bench. When I said that yes, she's the one, he asked if she does that because she's afraid of the other dogs. I told him how she's been coming here since she was a puppy, so she knows most of the dogs who frequent the park as much as we do. I said that, it isn't that she's afraid of the other dogs, it's just, now that she's older, she has a certain routine for herself when we come to the park.

Claire spends a half an hour or so sitting next to me on the bench observing everything, and then she goes and plays a little bit with her friends. She checks in with me more during this playtime, and, if she finds a tennis ball that meets her high standards, she'll ask me to throw it for her a couple times. Sometimes she digs a hole or two under whatever bench I'm sitting on. And every so often, Claire will stop whatever she is doing and will go find Asya; she likes to antagonize her until she agrees to chase her in circles around the park. After that, Claire just hops back on the bench and sits with me for awhile until she lets me know that she's ready to go.

When Claire was a puppy, we used to go to the park for hours on end, and Claire would just run and run the entire time. It's funny how her needs have changed in the past couple years. She's not old by any means - she's just three! - but she certainly doesn't have that constant flow of energy anymore!
 

the perfect day.

You know what day is my favorite? The first day that you really get to enjoy the summer season. There's something about it that just makes me so happy - longer, sunnier days... warm weather interrupted occasionally by a cool breeze... and finally being able to enjoy it instead of being cooped up inside at work. Interestingly enough, this perfect day showed up early this year - yesterday, to be exact. It was a warm, cloudless, 80*F Sunday. In mid-March. I couldn't wait to get up and get going. Claire must have felt my excitement, because she was up early too and was ready to play!

My goal was for us to be outside all day long, and that goal was certainly accomplished. We went down to the river with our friends for the first time this year, and Claire had so much fun leaping through the shallow water and diving into the deep! I've found that she is really a great swimmer, she just needs something to focus on - and for the majority of the day, her focus was on a very precious thing: a new tennis ball with the squeaker intact. Her little webbed paws came in handy with all of the swimming she did to fetch that thing!

We took a quick break from the river to go see my friend Brianna and her dog Asya [who you may remember as Claire's snuggle buddy from this post] at the farm that Brianna works at. Asya gave Claire the grand tour of the farm, and they spent some time exploring the barn and chasing each other through the pastures. Claire's excitement was palpable! She would run off with Asya and then bound back to me, jumping around with her tail wagging, and then they would dart off again. It makes me so happy to see her so happy!

We went back to the river to meet up with some more friends, but after awhile, it was clear that Claire was pretty tired. She withdrew from our little group and went over to the field across from the river to rest. I loaded her up into the car and she immediately curled up in the front seat and fell asleep. When we got home, we both struggled to stay awake through dinner, and then we went straight to bed.

Yesterday was one of those days that you just want to relive again and again because it was just so great. But with summer coming early this year, hopefully we'll have many more days just like it!

    

sometimes things get a little crazy.

My friend Brianna had to work at a fox hunt yesterday so she asked me to watch her puppy Asya. I didn't have a problem with that at all because Claire and Asya absolutely love each other, so I figured it would be great for both of them. I went to the stables to pick her up and took Claire out of the car so that she could help me find the room that Asya was in. It didn't take long for us to find her because she was whining (loudly) when she heard me calling her name. I opened the door and she came bounding out, a wiggly, jumpy, squealy mess of a thing, overjoyed at seeing me. I let go of Claire's leash because she was pulling me around the stables trying to smell everything. She went off to explore the barn while I tried to get Asya under control. But in all the excitement, Asya managed to wrap her lead around my ankle. Before I could untangle myself, she spotted Claire and ran towards her, effectively pulling my feet out from under me. I fell to the ground and Asya kept running, so she succeeded in dragging me a couple feet before I got my foot free from her lead. Thankfully there was a guy working in the stables, so he caught Asya for me while I got to my feet. As he brought her back to me, I saw Claire in the corner of my eye chowing down on horse poop (gag), so I ran over to her yelling, "IF YOU THINK YOU ARE GOING TO KISS ME AFTER THAT, YOU ARE SADLY MISTAKEN!!" (because obviously Claire understands English). Once I put her back in the car, I was able to go and get Asya, so finally we all headed off to the dog park.

Does the story end there? Nope.

I pulled into the parking lot for the dog park and Asya started howling with excitement. Which got Claire barking. Which led to the both of them running around my very small car, wagging their tails, and jumping around. Asya somehow ended up in my lap, so I held on to her so that I could put her leash on, but she was so BOUNCY that she kept honking the horn as she wiggled around. Then Claire squeezed between Asya and the steering wheel so she ended up laying on the horn. Asya was howling, the horn was blaring, Claire was barking... It was chaos!!

Once I got the two of them into the park, however, everything settled down a bit. They played there for a couple hours which definitely helped them burn off some energy, because when I got them back to my house, they both crashed, so it was all worth it. Here's the proof:

Snuggling.