Launch Day, January 25th
9:40 pm
I’m home. The guys went to bed before 8, and were done for the night. Nobody bugged me for attention or to play. Buddy crashed out on the back of the couch and was snoring heavily by 9. Bubba was in the fireplace bed, got up once to pee, then came back and burrowed under the blanket – a sign that he had no intention of coming back out anytime soon.
Their day started pretty early, and we got some pretty good-paced walks in, and even a little bit of jogging. We all needed the exercise.
The guys left plates and bowls full of food. Dinner was hardly touched, except for the cheese that Bubba raided from both bowls. There was day food, treats, and a glucosamine tablet I didn’t notice until it was falling off the plate into the garbage disposal. Tomorrow is meds day, and I’ll make sure they both get their glucosamine doses, as well.
5 pm
Buddy wasn’t interested in dinner. He didn’t hover while I “cooked”, but sat by the front door, watching, listening and smelling the world outside. Bubba got out of bed when I put out dinner. He proceeded to eat all of the cheese, and then wanted to go for a walk. There was just enough light for a quick walk across the street, but not enough to let them wander aimlessly. They both wanted out and it seemed like they both needed out with purpose: a bathroom break.
Buddy was in a hurry, and we got across the street quickly. We had to walk over to the Vista Park for Bubba to find his spot. Both guys pooped: the walk was important.
We walked about 30 minutes, and it was just a touch too-long. Twilight light was almost entirely gone by the time we got back.
4:30 pm
No evening walk. Dinner time is soon, and it’s getting dark quickly. I’ll be on bio-hazard cleanup duty to start the day tomorrow, for sure. Bubba’s storing up my “welcome back” present.
It’s been an interesting day. I’ve enjoyed having a break, but now that I’m back with the guys, there’s something – not even sure the word for it, but having them happy to see me, and the big eyes in the little faces connecting in silent communication; it’s good to be back spending time with them.
1:55 pm
I went home to grab my school stuff. All day I had goofed off, watched videos and played video games on my tablet, and scribbled thoughts about work and study into a notebook. The guys didn’t want to walk. Bubba barely wanted to stick his face out from under the blanket. But 5 minutes into starting to do some serious study, and Bubba gets up. It’s walk time. Getting engrossed in work works as well as fresh coffee to get them to walk.
We met up with Deborah and Astro and we walked with them, all the way around the park and back home. We walked for over an hour. Bubba got along with Astro for once, and didn’t bark at any of the other dogs that Astro and Buddy stopped to socialize with, although he didn’t engage with any of them.
I came home to update the log, and am going back with coffee – so it may be time to walk again.
Neither guy pooped. Bubba still had not pooped at all during the day.
1:45 pm
Still not walking, but Buddy wants to. Bubba poked his face out from under the blanket when Buddy started gently moving the blanket around to disturb Bubba. Then Buddy started trying to communicate “hey, let’s go out!” by jamming his nose into Bubba’s exposed face. But Bubba never budged, other than to watch me and make sure I wasn’t going to poke him next with my nose.
So it was time to watch Buddy chew on bunny while I started a trigonometry review.
Noon
Both guys ran for beds when I got out the leashes. I wanted to check if they wanted to walk before I went to drive thru McDonald’s.
9:15 am
Buddy was surprised that it was me when the door opened. The door was unlocked – our first breach of the new security protocols in place. I was surprised at just how happy he was to see me, climbing up my leg excitedly. He does that when he runs into me out in the wild, never at home. But it wasn’t about me. I had been visiting with a neighbor’s golden lab, and Buddy was sniffing his way up my leg where Marli had been rubbing up against me.
Bubba was curled up on the back of the couch, he back to the door, completely unaware. He eventually felt a breeze from the open door, or smelled the intruder, and he jumped up, tail wagging, excited to see me. He jumped down on the couch seats and ran back and forth a few times, and then howled at me. That’s unusual. He doesn’t get excited to see me in that way. He normally looks at me with curious irritation in the mornings when I disturb his rest.
I saw that the dry food wasn’t out, and went to set it out to marinade, but found it already prepped. I stirred it up because it had clumped, and set it out. Buddy went to sniff at it, then moved over to a plate to eat some treats instead.
The Alpha demanded some attention, so I had to do some scratching of the haunches and behind the ears. I did a leash grab-n-show test to see if they wanted to walk, and they both did. After stepping outside, we found the first major error of this trip. The guys were headed down the stairs, and something didn’t seem quite right. It took my brain a second to register that Bubba was hopping down the stairs without a leash. I started yelling for Buddy to stop, knowing that Bubba would stop if he saw that Buddy stopped and turned around to look at me. They both stopped, and we got the situation resolved on the first landing. It had me scared, because The Alpha can be quick when he wants to be, and he can outrun me – especially down the stairs.
We walked about 40 minutes. Buddy pooped. Bubba did not.