Thanksgiving Day. November 27th
4:50 pm
Bubba ran the fastest I’ve ever seen him run, tonight. It was near the end of our walk – on which I think was the most-beautiful sunset I’ve ever seen. We cut across the parking lot to head home and avoid way-too-many people and dogs out walking. The holiday and the weather brought the crowds. We turned to walk parallel to the sidewalk on the part of the parking lot nearest Selva. Buddy wanted to jog ahead. Bubba started jogging slowly, so I did too, jogging lightly to hang back with the Alpha. Buddy was running ahead of us with the leash near it’s limit. And then suddenly Bubba takes off running and catches Buddy. It came out of nowhere, and it didn’t seem to be motivated by anything other than his desire to run.
The fastest I’d seen him before that goes all the way back to close to when I started this work. Bubba, then, went on walks looking like he was on his last legs. He didn’t want to walk at all, most times. But he would bring out his inner puppy for Hillery. When we’d go back so the guys could play, and she would throw the ball for Bubba, he would run to the ball, and bring it back with shocking speed. Shocking, because he always moved around with lethargy when we’d walk.
Today, on both walks, he was running. And he was Super Bubba this evening. For a second I wanted to slow him down, afraid he’d fall and hurt himself. But then I remembered he’s not a human child, and he’s got both a low center of gravity as well as four legs. I wasn’t going to trip.
Hopefully he didn’t pull something that will hurt in the coming days.
I forgot to track the time again but both guys pooped.
Noon
Buddy didn’t want to walk, and Bubba looked like he ran all of the energy out of his little body on the morning walk. We’ll try again at 1:30.
9:15 am
Buddy was up, Bubba was sleeping, but not deep sleep. After a discussion about Thanksgiving Dinner for the guys being a no-go because I come from a ham family, I had to give the guys treats as a pre-breakfast snack. Silly, really, because to the guys this is just Thursday – if even that. But I still felt guilty.
The real breakfast got set out to marinade, and we went out. Bubba was on another level with the energy. He ran down the stairs, staying shoulder-to-shoulder with Buddy almost the whole way down. I wasn’t ready for that, and almost got yanked off-balanced and toppled.
The running continued all the way across the complex. Buddy stopped in one of the island planters to poop, and I had trouble reining in Bubba to wait, both while Buddy did his business and then both of them while trying to clean up after. They were pulling max-leash most of the way to the north entrance.
We went across the street and then had another issue to deal with. There was some 5k run event, and the runners were using the path, and – naturally – Buddy wanted to bite them as they went by. And then there was a holiday gathering at the tables nearest the memorial with a buffet set out, so we gave up the path and crossed the parking lot. Buddy might tear my arm out of the socket with all those stimuli.
Forgot to track the time we were out, but it was both good distance and good exercise for them. Both guys pooped.