27.11.12

morning run:
Alice*
Blue*
George
Ernie
Maggie
Molly
Jack
Twiggy
Petey
(9)

To the swimming hole and home via the parallel road: ~8k. This was a star-crossed run that had two false starts; the actual run would've been perhaps ~7k but there was at least 1km of screwing around first. I left first with Alice and the rest of them except Blue. As we were just on the trail to the shrimpery I noticed Alice was lagging more than usual and when she caught up to me I could see that she had come up lame; her left rear leg was bothering her. It was clear by the time we got to the shrimpery intersection that she could not go but everyone was so fired up that I couldn't just turn back so I took us around the cow pasture the short way, watching her as we went; she definitely didn't want to use that leg much and I don't know why. I got us back home, put Alice in and Roni released Blue. We took off, or so I thought, but when I was back at the shrimpery intersection again I realized I was missing someone and it turned out to be Twiggy. I had a feeling she had skulked off to screw around to the north while Roni and I were wrangling Alice and Blue and she is mischievous enough that I couldn't just leave her so yet again I turned us around (this time on the spot); sure enough as we got near doce I saw her on the other side of the road looking at us. She was far enough away that Blue and Ernie thought they should take a run at her and they took off. Roni happened to be at the gate because she heard me yelling and Blue ran up to her and insisted on being let in. I got back to Twiggy and had everyone else moving in the right direction again and Roni and I decided to just leave it at seven; obviously today was going to be challenging. I headed out for the third time then with the last seven on the list above and finally managed to crank out a short run to the swimming hole. I didn't want to hit the beach or screw around. Molly was off the leash more than she has been; we saw motos and vehicles and she showed no interest in chasing them. On the way home just south of the tortuga crossroads we encountered a truck of salt workers coming towards us. As has happened so many times before I asked them to please stop while I got my dogs around them but they just shined me on and seemed to think it was funny; I do not think it is funny and am going to stop being so nice about it, since these assholes can't seem to maintain a thought in their heads for more than 30 seconds. Naturally it was Petey who was trapped on the other side of them and he took off so we gave chase; he is, of course, smarter than a truck-load of salt workers and figured out a way to get around them and come back to me. I had Molly and Twiggy on the leash coming home and I was glad to get there. No misbehavior on our part today, just a lot of unfortunate incidents.
GRADE: A

morning walk:
Zasu
Henry
Lucy
Tito
Lily
Monkey
Linda
Hazel
(8)

Roni took this crew out for a walk to Poop Island and everyone had a blast. She decided to leave Miles for once because his dawdling makes the walk much less fun when fast dogs like Lily are around; Hazel is also challenging enough at this stage and sometimes you just have to change things up. It was a good decision because Lily and Monkey ran around like lunatics and Miles would've had Roni waiting for him constantly. Hazel is getting stronger; her bum leg seems to be working better for her. Monkey was in her glory and everyone had a blast running around Poop Island a few times.
GRADE: A

afternoon recon:
Zasu
Miles
Blue
Hazel
(4)

Roni took these four down mainly to get Miles out but also to check out the shrimpery (aka The Beta Site) which we will soon be renting; she took them out down the coco trail just for a bit of fun as well. Hazel can be a bit of a pain with her crazed enthusiasm for biting, chasing and rough-housing but everyone puts up with the puppy and Miles enjoyed himself.
GRADE: A