DAY ??? ??????? DAYS
TO GO (December 6, 2014)
I walked today!
For those of you who read my walk-a-blog you know it’s been a little
while since I last wrote. Actually, it’s
been almost four years. There are lots
of reasons I haven’t been keeping up with the blog that I'm sure I will eventually write about. Instead, I'm going to start with
the lists I’ve been writing in my head about why I need to walk and write:
- I know it makes me feel better when I walk and write
- We have a gigantic puppy that needs the exercise
- If I walk the puppy, I won't have to pick up gigantic messes in the yard when I finally realize even the puppy doesn't have anywhere to walk without stepping in poop
- Walking in December may seem like a crazy time to restart, but it will be fun to see the Christmas lights on my neighbors houses and it will be a much needed stress reliever
- Hopefully it will help my slightly high blood sugars and cholesterol
Tobie and I walked a mile. It was fun to see the Christmas lights and it
was nice to have a slightly mellow puppy once we got home. I realized as I walked that when I did the
walk-a-blog before it was with our dog, Coalie.
He died in 2012. Not having him
for a walking partner and missing him like crazy was partly why I stopped walking and blogging. Willie Magoo, our bulldog, is up
for walking one or maybe even two blocks, but then he gives me his famous stink eye
and refuses to move. His kind of walks
are really too short to have any meditative benefits.
Yesterday was a bad day with Tobie. It started out hopeful with a dog trainer meeting at our house. We got Tobie in May (after a relentless campaign
from Abby on why we needed to “rescue” him from the pet store). I wasn’t ready for a puppy and I haven’t had
(made) the time to work with him. The
trainer worked with him for a couple of minutes and I could see progress. He reminded me of lots of things I already
knew – like how Chocolate labs need lots of exercise, how they need a purpose,
and that they can be very destructive if they don’t get what they need. After the trainer left, Tobie did his best to
prove the trainer right. First he broke
out of the yard by breaking the lattice on top of the brick wall. Luckily, I found him in the alley eating
chicken bones from the neighbor’s trash and thankfully not choking on the
bones. He spent the evening chasing the
cats through the house, scattering the area rugs as he ran, and chewing on the
ornaments he managed to grab off the Christmas tree. The most alarming thing was hearing a loud crash
in the laundry room/mudroom. I’m not
sure how he did it, but he managed to pull the floor to ceiling shelves off of
the wall. I sent him to bed early with his
blankie and a boot of Abby’s except I didn’t see the half eaten boot until he
got up the next morning. At that point, I made 3
decisions. One, I am definitely sending
him to bad doggie booty camp (as Greg calls it). Two, I am going to remodel the mudroom with
Tannan’s help (I’m actually really excited about the shelves falling off the
wall now). Three, Tobie and I are going
to walk every day.
