February 15, 2013

White Dog waited patiently all morning as Steve finished up his homework. By her calculations there was plenty of time with the remaining day for a trip to the pet store for some post Gotcha Day Treats; a long, leg stretching run at the Park, Nuka's followup check at the Vet; a car picnic; and if we kept things moving at a lively clip...a second Park stop.

The wind had come up in the late morning so Quinn opted to stay home. YoYoMa does not like the wind, either. It makes him nervous. Surprisingly, he balked at the idea of harnessing up and getting into Pumpkin. "It is ok, Big Boy, you can stay home and get all snuggled into your special cave," I told him even though I worried a bit about the two edgy boys being home unsupervised. "Take care of each other and try to just sleep." White Dog leaned her check against each of them and whispered something. "They will be fine," she reassured me.

WD and Puff raced out to the car. Oso calmly stood at the door until Steve came back in to carry him out. Nuka looked worriedly at Quinn then walked out to join the others for a ride.

Puff briefly trotted with Steve in an attempt to pace the flowing White Dog who was racing a sprinter speed back and forth along the runoff bed that bisects the Park. Finally SAWD gave up and just relaxed into enjoying her "Dad and me" exercise. At their turn, Nuka and Oso gave a glance to see their crazy leader flash past them then went back to their gentle stroll and sniff "workout."

Nuka's lungs sound much better according to Dr. Julia and her limp doesn't seem to be anything torn or sprained. The leg is a bit stiff from arthritic inflammation. After a week on rimadyl, Dr. Julia wants to make sure all is perfectly back to normal. Until then we are too keep her from executing any of her famous springboard leaps (yeah, good luck, Steve says).

If the White Dog Army had not insisted on chicken tacos from our favorite mom and pop stand on the other side of town, we might have made the second trip to the Park. Instead the owner's wife came around the counter and greeted each of the pups and made sure they had extra broken taco pieces so they did not leave hungry. And of course, she needed to pack up a little something for the ninos who were missing. "What? They do not like my tacos?" We assured her that had they known we were stopping they would have been along but fear of the winds kept them at home.

White Dog snapped open the carry out boxes under her brothers' noses the second we got inside. For awhile the only sound was the crunching of taco love...and Steve reminding the others that they had already enjoyed theirs!