Heart Day Hiking

For lack of a better title....

Today was beautiful out. Fluffy clouds. Light breezes. Sunny skies. Increasing temps. Last year around this time we had a rare bout of snow. Took the pups out for a nature hike today. We started at one of our hotspots, a Vernonia Trailhead but there were TOO MANY PEOPLE. A total of less than a half mile and we were back at the truck and taking off for a less populous locale.

Vegas says, "It was a great time and we got back to the truck TIRED. Then Mom stopped and got us ice cream. Yum yum, I love ice cream. The rest of the day we napped until it was time for dinner then we went back to napping. I love getting out and having fun in the woods. There were excellent smells, lots of critters were there that I don't know what they were (Mom says elks and coyotes and deer.) and my nose was going crazy. It was a most excellent time with my mom."

Canine Good Citizen

I came down with a bug last weekend and was under the weather just a couple of days. While I was sick this arrived!

I'm so proud of Vegas. Is this her greatest accomplishment? No. But it's a step to us getting back in the game. It's progress toward our next phase of life and her latest "job." She's going to be a therapy dog! She earned this title at the same time we took the Therapy Dogs test.

Discipline

Wait, wait, wait a minute. No, I'm not talking about THAT (You know, the taboo kind.) of discipline.

The kind of discipline I'm talking about is the more self-involved type. The type that dictates how you proceed through life, your commitment, follow-through, etc. It's something I'm both very much so and very much lacking in. How is that possible? I'll explain.

Lately I've been struggling. A lot. In my brain swirls three thousand things I want to get done, need to get done, MUST get done. And in the end, a lot of time I get nothing done. And then sometimes I get tons done. I'm incredibly inconsistent. I have so many goals with my dogs, financial ability aside. There are things I can do if only I were disciplined. Case in point. Denise Fenzi has one of the most popular online formats and course offerings for dog classes. I cannot afford them, not even at the bronze level. But she offers scholarships from time to time. But I lack the discipline to monitor those offerings and pursue them when made.

Discipline. It's both my curse and my grace. So now that I've started this post, a post I thought up and allowed to swirl around my brain for the last couple of weeks, well, I'm going to let it fester some more and pursue it on a deeper level in my next post. Who knows; it may end up a strung out repeat topic for a while. And perhaps it will lead me to becoming disciplined again in the areas where Vegas needs me to be.

Bloody Toe

We had an unexpected injury over the weekend. We went on a long walk down highway 47 and up the B Street Trail. The weather was beautiful, mid-50s, and sunny. Finally a day we could get out and enjoy. Before heading toward home, we cruised up through the Pacific University campus for a little more off leash time. We ran into a couple little girls who wanted to say hello to Vegas. They admired her Seahawks get-up... Green and blue painted toenails and team collar. One of the girls got a curious look on her face and pointed at a rear foot.  Vegas was bleeding.

Upon close inspection it appeared the flap of protective skin over the quick had torn. She was bleeding from the quick. At that point it was clear we needed to hear for home so off we went.

By the time we got home three of her toes were bloody. Fortunately though, it was just the one bleeding. I tied her leash to the inside of the front door and scrambled to find some supplies. A few minutes later I was soaking her foot in soapy, warm water. After drying it I applied some colloidal silver then wrapped some gauze across the toenails and used hot pink wrap. She got settled, a bit unhappily, on the couch. She didn't like having her foot wrapped one bit. I was a little worried about keeping it wrapped. I had plans to go out that evening and had visions of coming home to blood spatters everywhere and ruined carpet. She kicked it off once before I left and I rewrapped it. 

Fortunately though, although she unwrapped it by the time I came home again, all was well. She's had no issue since then and we even went on short jaunt on campus today.

I think the cause of it was twofold. I had dremeled her nails on Thursday evening so they were fresh and short. It happened on a rear leg and she occasionally drags those toes when we're walking. The combination of a quick exposed and concrete was not a good thing.