08.04.15

morning walk:
Archie
Shirley
Stella
Ziggy
Maggie*
(5)

P-O and Julie took this group out for a walk in the monte. I thought it was possible that Maggie would go with them because her boyfriend, Ziggy, was along; alas, I was wrong, and she wanted to come back shortly after they left, so Julie ran her back. The remaining four carried on and had a great time.
GRADE: A

morning beach jaunt/arrival:
Twiggy
Xmul*
(2)

The tortuga sign: ~3k. Xmul is here for a day visit in preparation for her coming to stay next week; Nicole and Marie go back to Canada on the 15th and we wanted to make sure Xmul's reintegration would go smoothly. Every time we do this it gets a little easier. I met them as they were coming south on the beach at the end of their morning walk, with Twiggy on a leash. They were both so good I was able to exchange pleasantries with Nicole and Francois, another Quebecois who lives here half the year; he also has a dog, a local stray he adopted four years ago who now goes home with him to Canada and comes back every year. She's shy but was very good and Twiggy had no problems with any of the strange dogs (she never does). I took off north with Xmul and Twigs both on leashes and we ran hard all the way to the tortuga sign. There was a tiny bit of growling early on but that was it: they were both perfect, swam together, ran together and had ceased complaining well before we got to the sign and headed east. Xmul definitely missed Nicole and gang when we ran north and kept looking back (awww), but once we turned into the monte she brightened noticeably: she really likes the swampy woods. We kept a good pace and ran all the way home; I had no water bottle so it made no sense to stop and they both were happy to keep up the pace. Twiggy is definitely finding it harder to get a rise out of her old frienemy so the stress level of the pack was not raised by Xmul's arrival... it turns out dogs do learn things the older they get.
GRADE: A