Yesterday, 02:41 PM
At this point, I have a pretty good handle on the personalities of Aoife and Lily. Aoife is fun on four legs. Glad to be alive. A non-stop motion machine. And champion gopher hunter. She is currently on an eight day streak of bringing home a warm treat. Lily is broken. Whatever happened to her before we got her damaged her for life. She stays by herself. Doesn't find a lot of joy in anything. She hates going on the afternoon walks and jumps on us the entire way seeking encouragement.
To clarify, we do three walks a day. The first walk at 4am is the one where I get my exercise. It's about 4 miles on average. The second walk is for the dogs. After I have breakfast, I take the dogs out again. After a short stint on the road, I let them off leash as we walk around the property and the dirt road that is now part of the neighbor's property. Aoife is simply gone for most of the walk with a few check-ins for treats. Lily is close by but she still joins her sister in the great gopher hunt. They both find pools in the creek to jump in or use the neighbor's pond. The final walk in the evening is short, barely a mile. No leashes, except to drag Lily out of the house. Aoife is just gone out the door. Lily sticks to us like glue for fear of the loud noises, usually gunfire.
For the last six months, maybe longer, Lily has been a no-go on the first walk. One day she just decided that walk wasn't for her. At first, I dragged her out with us. She would be extremely nervous, jumping on me to get reassuring pets. I eventually figured it was best to leave her at home. She would have no problem with the second walk. That was the one walk where she would wait by the door. But a big no to walk number one.
Until Friday. Friday, Lily met me at the door for walk one. That was weird. But okay. Off we went. I was out of practice in walking the two dogs over that length. But it was nice to have Lily out and about. I will confess the long walk was easier with just Aoife. Kind of expected the walk to be one and done and Lily would go back to climbing into bed with the Queen while Aoife and I strolled.
Nope. Lily is back to morning walks. We are on day 4. I'm a bad pet parent for wishing she would go back to sleeping with the Queen. But if she wants to walk. I will leash her up.
To clarify, we do three walks a day. The first walk at 4am is the one where I get my exercise. It's about 4 miles on average. The second walk is for the dogs. After I have breakfast, I take the dogs out again. After a short stint on the road, I let them off leash as we walk around the property and the dirt road that is now part of the neighbor's property. Aoife is simply gone for most of the walk with a few check-ins for treats. Lily is close by but she still joins her sister in the great gopher hunt. They both find pools in the creek to jump in or use the neighbor's pond. The final walk in the evening is short, barely a mile. No leashes, except to drag Lily out of the house. Aoife is just gone out the door. Lily sticks to us like glue for fear of the loud noises, usually gunfire.
For the last six months, maybe longer, Lily has been a no-go on the first walk. One day she just decided that walk wasn't for her. At first, I dragged her out with us. She would be extremely nervous, jumping on me to get reassuring pets. I eventually figured it was best to leave her at home. She would have no problem with the second walk. That was the one walk where she would wait by the door. But a big no to walk number one.
Until Friday. Friday, Lily met me at the door for walk one. That was weird. But okay. Off we went. I was out of practice in walking the two dogs over that length. But it was nice to have Lily out and about. I will confess the long walk was easier with just Aoife. Kind of expected the walk to be one and done and Lily would go back to climbing into bed with the Queen while Aoife and I strolled.
Nope. Lily is back to morning walks. We are on day 4. I'm a bad pet parent for wishing she would go back to sleeping with the Queen. But if she wants to walk. I will leash her up.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm