09.06.13

morning run:
Osita
Rita
Frankie
Ernie
Ziggy
Maggie
Bosha
Linda
Tori*
(9)

To the beach at Au Soleil Couchant: ~6k. I left with the first eight and nobody on the leash. Ernie hasn't gone on a run for a while because we thought his hips or his joints were bothering him; he's been on diet food and has lost a little weight so I thought I'd try him on a short one with some of the others that typically go on shorties. Tori rocketed past us just as we were reaching the shrimpery on the way out. At the time I thought "wow, Roni must be pissed" because I assumed that Tori had pulled one of her insane maneuvers to get off of the porch and had jumped the gate. It was not practical to turn everyone around so I put Tori on the leash and we carried on to the north. I let her off to swim on the beach and in general she was a good girl, as she usually is on runs, but she is clearly our #1 escape artist now. When we got home I found that Roni didn't realize Tori had gotten out. She had been locked in the cage on the porch when I left and Roni had been very careful to wait until I had been gone a couple of minutes before letting her out - usually this is enough but somehow today she got off the porch and out of the yard and we are still scratching our heads as to how she did it. There's no sign that she pushed her way off of the porch; we've just redone almost the whole thing recently and there are no places where a dog can push out. She might've sneaked out somehow when Roni opened the porch door to let Greta in but it seems highly unlikely. She might've pushed the road-side door on the porch out far enough to get off but then it would've been obvious that she had done so. She obviously got over both the launchpad door and the metal gate extremely quickly to catch me that soon after I left. From now on she obviously has to stay in the cage or a crate when one of us leaves on a walk or a run but maybe we'll stick a camera on the porch and try to get her to show us how the hell she did it just for our own sanity. Regardless of all of that it was a nice short run with a lot of swimming on an overcast morning; the bugs were pretty bad by the time we were coming home.
GRADE: A

morning swim:
Greta
(1)

The bugs were pretty bad but the ocean was nice and calm and Greta really needs to go whenever it is not stormy. What an angel.
GRADE: A

morning walk:
Zasu
Miles
Henry
Tito
Lucy
Bette
Gowron
Monkey
(8)

Roni ventured out into the bugosphere with this crew while it was at least still somewhat overcast and thus not crushingly hot. She was intrepid enough to wear shorts and was rewarded with a brand-new pair of mosquito knee-socks on the trail to the shrimpery - just her size, too. As long as they were moving at a reasonable pace the bugs didn't seem so bad but whenever there was a stoppage in play the bugs asserted themselves with extreme prejudice. Still she took them to the first big charco to the north of the dead goat trail for some quality horsing-around time and everyone had a blast.
GRADE: A