19.02.11

morning run:
Chester
Truman
Osita
Rufus
Lily
Jack
Molly
Stella
(8)

Long and winding road backwards, "new" cut-over to the secret-path land bridge on the way home: 10k. At the very end Molly barked at someone clearing brush at the shrimpery; I visibly disciplined her and put her on the leash until we got home. I also had Molly on the leash earlier in the run, and since Rufus had the harness, Molly was only on her collar both times; she could easily have gotten out of it, but she didn't, and she kept with me when she was on the hook, so that is definitely progress in spite of the barking. Oddly, we ran across an older Mayan gent sitting on his trike in the shade eating sweet breads out in the middle of nowhere, and nobody so much as sniffed at him, so who knows why Molly barked at that guy. As we were nearing doce on the final trail home from the shrimpery I saw a miserable little creature on the other side of the road, skulking away towards our house. Roni and I have known that there is at least one pup nearby out in the monte, but it has been too skittish for us to get more than a glimpse. Since I saw it and the dogs did not, I held us all back and gave it a chance to get around the bend, but when we got closer it had doubled back and didn't run away from us... quite the contrary, as Roni and I have seen many times now, it came back towards me and the dogs and made obsequience to us, allowing everyone to get close and smell it. It was covered in motor oil or some kind of petroleum product, skinny and yet bloated from worms, etc... I brought it in with us, and it has had a bath with soap and a bath with Tactic (ticks, fleas and a touch of sarna). Roni's working on the "adoptable" page on Dogs of Celestún now, I suspect...
GRADE: B (for barking at that guy)

morning walk:
Henry
Otto
Ernie
Shirley
Frankie
Tito
Monkey
(7)

Anna and Bogus took this crew out. Henry came back early, but everyone else ran around like lunatics the whole time according to their handlers. Frankie balked at the gate when they got home and doubled back to the shrimpery; I ran her down, coaxed her out of the main building and carried her home. She's obviously still feeling defensive, but she seems fine now that she's in.
GRADE: B

afternoon walk:
Alice
Ziggy
Stella
Floyd
(4)

I threw Ziggy and Stella in because they (a) are loud pains in the ass and (b) were in the yard. We just went around the cow pasture via the dead-goat road, so roughly 2k. It was really hot and bright, and everyone had a good time. There were two boys pushing a moto that had a flat tire down the coco trail; inexplicably, they left the engine running while they were doing this. Floyd barked at them a little after they passed by, and I'm not sure why, but it might've been the strange sound/smell of the moto and their furtive behavior... maybe they stole it? I don't know, but they were acting a little fishy. Other than that, no mishaps.
GRADE: B