Joe and I celebrated a very special anniversary this weekend. No, not our 8 years of dating- a year ago this weekend we adopted our plucky little dog, Georgia.
And being the hopeless sentimentalist, I wanted to do something extra special. So we stopped into PetsMart and bought her a nice new feminine (because I'm tired of correcting people when they ask us about "HIM") collar, a new bouncy ball toy, and even a big doggy-cinnamon roll-bone thing (complete with "icing" drizzle).
After that, Joe and I were both itching to get some outdoor exercise that we could include the puppy in, so we decided to go for a nice long walk through the Hunt Valley Trail.
It was more crowded than we expected, particularly with bicyclists. I can't remember the last time I sat on a bike, let alone go for a ride on one. It did look rather inviting. Georgia was fascinated by them as well, and proceeded to lunge at each one that passed by.
We took this as an opportunity to do some training with the "leave it" command. We put her back on a shorter leash and when we a bicyclist approached we gave her a stern command- "Leave it". If she lunged, we pulled her back and told her "No." Eventually, she began to understand that if she simply ignored the bikers, we praised her. I often do that alot in her training. She literally gets rewarded when she does nothing. Nice life, huh?
We were having a nice time when suddenly something else was approaching us- another dog. Joe, wanting to introduce Georgia to as many dogs as possible, was about to let Georgia greet the other dog when it's owner pulled it back and away. I shrugged it off; some people are either hesitant about other dogs or worried about their own dog wil react. Joe I think was a little more indignant.
"Well, that was uncalled for...", he said with a slight hurt look on his face. I patted his back and we kept walking with our socially jilted dog.
On the walk back we found ourselves coming up behind another dog, and again, the owners didn't seem too interested in letting the dogs meet. We kept our steady pace but eventually we caught up right behind them. It was kinda awkward- their dog kepts trying to turn around to see Georgia and Georgia was desperately trying to get ahead to meet it. I tried to purposely slow down so as to give the other people the hint to move along or move aside. Since they seemed uninterested in doing either, I did the only sensible thing....stopped and pretended to look at a flower.
Joe, of course, recognized and poked fun at my obvious action.
We finally got back to car, and after worrying senselessly about whether Georgia was exhausted or too hot, Joe turned around and said casually, "What's that on her head?"
I turned around too and as he looked closer we realized what that was- a tick. I immediately got squeamish but Joe simply hopped into the back, grabbed a tissue and got to work pulling the pest off her little head. It took a few seconds but it at last gave up the fight and Joe dropped the tissue outside.
It was a merry day had by all. Joe was relaxed from the fresh air, Georgia was tuckered from the excitement, and I spent the rest of the drive pulling at my skin and checking every itch to make sure I hadn't taken home a blood-sucking parasite of my own.
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