Monday, August 17th. Day Two.
9:45 pm
The guys were both snoring when I started cleaning up. They had slept most of the evening. We didn’t play games again. Buddy wanted dessert. The guys polished off almost all of the dinner. He followed me into the kitchen for a Greenie. Bubba got out of bed, and when I turned to hand off the Greenie to Buddy, Bubba was standing at the kitchen entrance, head cocked, asking “where’s mine?” with his eyes, so I minced a True Chew for him.
Other than that, it was very quiet all evening. I hadn’t done the small clean up tasks I usually do during the day, so the evening clean up took longer than usual. I’m out of practice with the autopilot routines. Both pee pads had to be changed. Both water dishes needed a good cleaning. I didn’t pull the empty food dishes off the floor. My studying for finals was pretty consuming.
I took my computer and my cups home, took out the trash, and when I got back both guys were up. It was 10 past 10. They had been sleeping soundly, and now both were wide awake. I knew that if I locked up and left, they’d just go back to sleep. It’s not like they can talk, or write, to rat me out for leaving while they’re still awake – but I’d know. I went back home to grab a tablet so I could watch school vids and hang out with the guys until they were both fully asleep again.
Buddy decided it was time to have his evening poop, and went out on the deck. So I got to do a little secondary clean up before going home. Bubba had already used the pee pad while I was taking the trash out.
Bubba eventually retired to the bedroom, and Buddy tried to find a comfortable place on the couch to settle down – trying both sides of the back of the couch, and finally flopping onto his belly, chin resting on his paw, on the seat. I left for the night at 11:10.
3:55 pm
The guys slept all day. I muddled through brain fog, trying to desperately to focus on my studying. At 3pm I finally broke through, my mind was clear and I started truly understanding what I was reading.
The guys knew it. And for the next hour, they kept my attention divided as they played a game of “Hey, I want to walk…or NOT!” which required me to keep getting up because one of them would camp by the front door and stare at me, and then the other would join. If I got up, they’d scatter, in a very non-chalant, causal manner – like they had no idea that I got up (AGAIN!) because they seemed to want to walk. More than once, one would sit by the door until I got them hooked up with a leash, and then they’d walk away – leash still connected.
My mother called for my dinner order. She was headed out to pick up food for us. The guys finally wanted to actually walk. It seemed perfect. If we got back at 4:30, I’d feed the guys and then go home to a freshly-arrived dinner. But the guys had other plans.
We ended up walking into town, with a tons of interesting and unfamiliar smells to really stop and study. We didn’t go very far. We walked along PCH to Blue Lantern and turned in, then walked up the hill behind the plaza. Bubba kept pausing, like he thought we should head to the groomer. But he’d look up at me for confirmation, and see that my body language was not pointing that way, and then move to catch up with Buddy.
Something spooked Bubba at the last light before the path down to Selva. We were waiting for the light to change, and suddenly his ears dropped, his tail tucked, and he tried to run out into PCH. I pulled the leash with a bit of panic, and even more with concern that he might slip out of his harness. Buddy has slipped out of his several times. When the light changed and the cars started moving, he tried to run out into the street again.
I picked him up. I wasn’t going to take any chances. After we got across to the other sidewalk he wanted down, but I wouldn’t let him. I carried him until the sidewalk shifted in, away from the street, and there was hedges between the sidewalk and PCH. I put him down, and he started walking along as if none of the last 5 minutes had happened at all. Buddy picked up the pace to the gate, and Bubba trotted along happily alongside him.
We won’t be doing that walk recreationally again on this trip, and he will get carried past that intersection on Thursday.
We walked a little over an hour. Nobody pooped.
1:30 pm
Nobody has moved since we returned at 10:15. Buddy moved around a bit for a while, but settled in to nap after a spell. Bubba blew out all of his energy running around in-house and then with his wind sprints on the walk. He got home and crawled into the bed by the front door and has stayed there, since.
I’ve gone home a couple of times for coffee refills, but that’s been all of the activity. The guys seem a little confused by my presence. Normally I work from home all day, and spend the time after dinner with them. Today and yesterday, I’ve spent the entire day with them, and they wake up and stare – like they’re unsure why I haven’t left yet.
8:45 am
I was late. I expected tired guys, because I was over at their house late, and they had a long day – despite lots of sleeping.
When I approached, there was a sound. I thought it was Bubba. It sounded like a coughing fit that had turned bad. I rushed to get the door unlocked and get to him. But whatever the sound was, it wasn’t Bubba in distress.
Buddy was at the door, a bunny in his mouth, bouncing around happily. Bubba came running from the direction of the bedroom. They were playing. Bubba stopped and howled at me. He’s very good at making everyone aware that he wants something – just not as good at expressing what that is. He ran. I chased. I didn’t want to tire him out with games before we got out, so we got dressed and went for a walk. They were both ready and eager to go out, after zero interest in walking yesterday. As soon as we got to the bottom of the stairs, Bubba was off running.
We went across to the park. I forgot to bring poop bags – I’m really out of practice at this. I had the scooper, and it had a bag pre-loaded, plus two backup bags in the storage pocket. I picked up some extra bags to keep in my pants pocket at the park.
We walked an hour and 20 minutes, all the way across the park and back on Selva. Both guys pooped. Buddy pooped twice.