Tag: walking the dog

Every news channel, federal state, county and municipal government agency hammered home dire predictions for extremely severe thunderstorms (with large hail and multiple straight-line tornadoes) for this weekend.  Any plans I might have had for the weekend quickly hinged upon the Weather Channel’s coverage of said storms and any weather map I could lay my eyes on (whether it be on TWC or via my Nook Color or my cell phone or my laptop).  I didn’t even change clothes when I got home from work on Friday before I finished mowing most of the back yard and the side yard.

Saturday morning, I woke up early (nothing new there) and gauged the likelihood of storms to be slight for the next hour or so.  I decided to take Apollo on a Saturday morning walk, instead of waiting for our normal Sunday morning window.  We left the house under grey skies and damp yards and pavement.  I didn’t plan to venture far away from home, in case of a sudden change in the weather.  We walked by some flowering trees and shrubs, which I tried to capture with my cell phone’s camera:

As you can tell from the first photo above, Apollo doesn’t miss an opportunity to stop and smell flowers or grass or shrubs or trees … anything really. It can sometimes be frustrating, especially if I’m trying to actually get a workout. This Saturday morning, though, I preferred to stroll along at a leisurely pace and let Apollo sniff to his heart’s content.

He waited patiently for the light to change before we crossed K-7/US-73 and proceeded west on Mary Street for a block or so.  I turned north on a ‘new’ street (which I don’t know the name of) walking towards West Kay Street.  Another walker with two large dogs (I think they were a Newfoundland and a Border Collie) crossed Mary Street and followed us.  Apollo lost all interest in heading north.  He wanted to make friends with the two dogs behind us.  I didn’t feel like wrestling with him and he wasn’t wearing the pinch collar that I could have used to ensure his obedient and gentlemanly behavior.  So I turned back east on the deteriorating section of West Kay Street abandoned when the new street was constructed.  I walked halfway up the hill back towards the highway, then turned around to make sure the other walker and his dogs continued on east.

Before walking back down the hill, I took a photo of West Kay Street, including the house we rented back in 1996-7 before we found and bought the house we now live in.  Back then, West Kay Street sported a large wooded hill (now flattened and grass covered in the left side of the photo to the right) and several houses, all of which have been demolished or moved, save for the ones on the north side of the street.

Apollo and I retraced our steps and returned home before eight o’clock.  A few hours later, Terry woke up and he showed me some of the dogs he’s been looking at to adopt or rescue.  One of the first ones he showed me was a female Boxer named Butterscotch who just happened to be living in a foster home up on Post (aka Ft. Leavenworth).  Terry called the foster home and arranged to meet Butterscotch mid-afternoon.  I cleaned out the car, not knowing the current requirements for gaining access to Ft. Leavenworth.  I can’t remember the last time I went up on Post (years most likely).  We stopped at the Leavenworth Animal Shelter on the way north, which should have been open (the sign clearly stated they were open on the Second Saturday of every month until 4:00 pm) but the doors were securely locked.  Terry and I got back in the car and continued north to the Ft. Leavenworth main security checkpoint gate.

We handed our driver’s licenses to the guard and he asked where we were going on Post.  We didn’t know so we had to call the foster family again and get an address.  Once he wrote the address down on his clipboard, he handed back our IDs and waved us through. That didn’t take long at all.  I thought I’d have to get out of the car and open all the doors and hoods and wait for them to inspect it inside, outside and underneath.

We stayed on the phone with the foster family for directions to their home.  We arrived and met Butterscotch (shown at right).  She took to me immediately (why do I attract any and all canines?).  She was excited to see us and seemed to have a very sweet disposition.  She was a bit skittish towards Terry and submissive to both of us.  She is small (well, smaller than a Rottweiler), weighing about fifty pounds.  She recently had puppies, but had also been spayed within the last week.  She had all of her shots and she was already microchipped.  Terry and I got down on the floor and got to know her better for a few minutes.  I really liked her.  I also felt confident that I would be able to pick her up, should she ever be unable to walk on her own.

We told the foster family we would sleep on a decision to adopt her.  I am torn.  I think she would make a wonderful addition to our family, but I worry that Apollo will bully her.  I really wish there were some way for him to meet her.  I wonder if we could foster her for a few days as a test?  We’ve never had such a ‘small’ dog … not since Nugget back in the 80s, who was Terry’s mother’s small dog.  By the time I met Nugget, she was nearly blind and mostly deaf.

I think Terry still has his heart set on a female Rottweiler.  He just can’t seem to find one in the Kansas City metro area.  I’m not sure I want another extra large dog.  I am torn.  Perhaps another night of sleep will help me make up my mind.

Oh, and about those storms.  We experienced nothing but wind and barely any rain.  I never her any thunder or saw any lightning.  Now, mid-afternoon on Sunday, the sun is shining and the wind is blowing.  A beautiful spring day to wrap up an otherwise gloomy weekend.

I decided Apollo and I needed some physical therapy to deal with an entire week of rain which prevented either of us from enjoying the newly arrived spring conditions.  The last time we walked happened to be exactly one week ago.  To make up for six sedentary days, I decided to traverse the entire sidewalk system of West Mary Street in Lansing.

We set out at a quarter to nine and headed west from home to First Terrace, where we crossed to the other side of the street and headed north towards Olive.  We passed a flowering red bud tree (see photo at right).  We continued north towards Nina, where we dog-legged back west to First Street, which parallels very closely with Main Street (aka as US-73/K-7).  While on Nina, a small Benji-like dog attempted to intimidate Apollo from behind a chain link fence.  We’ll revisit this canine curmudgeon on the return trip.

Apollo always does well waiting to cross the busy intersection at Mary and Main Street.  We proceeded west along Mary street, staying on the north sidewalk.  I only spied one other person walking their much smaller dog ahead of us, but they turned onto the Town Centre boulevard that connects the terminally undeveloped land between Mary Street and 4-H Road.

West Mary Street makes several sweeping curves through the wooded hills and creeks as it meanders between Main Street on the east and DeSoto Road on the west.  We passed by a muddy construction site for some additional multi-family housing, within easy walking distance of the nearly new Lansing Elementary School (in the background in the photo above).

We passed one walker and were passed by four joggers on our jaunt westward along Mary Street.  I saw my first cardinal of the year, but didn’t attempt to photograph it with my cell phone.  I prefer to have my good digital camera with my telephoto lens attached to photograph birds.  We finally arrived at the top of the long hill, where Mary Street dead ends against DeSoto Road at a quarter after nine.  I finally achieved my goal of a minimum hour long walk, since the return trip would take at least thirty minutes.  I took the following three photos while letting Apollo catch his breath and cool off (being a black dog means he absorbs all the sunshine and it’s accompanying heat) from the top of the hill.

I crossed to the south sidewalk and Apollo decided he should become a hunting dog on the return trip down the hill. He foraged through the tall, wet grass, determined to pull me with him into the mud and the woods in search of deer. By the time we leveled off, his snout, paws, legs, underbelly and first third of the leather leash were soaked with dew. Several times he nearly pulled me off the sidewalk while sniffing and snuffling through the dew-drenched grass and soggy ground.  I saw ample evidence of the presence of deer by the tracks they left in the mud.  The wooded areas along West Mary Street team with them and I often see them emerge at dusk when Apollo and I venture out on sunset strolls.

I sighed with relief as we approached the construction site because the fence prevent Apollo from straying to far off course.  The construction materials seemed to have other ideas about the fence though.  The rest of our walk along Mary Street proceeded apace and without further forays into non-sidewalk environs.

We crossed back to the north sidewalk just before crossing the highway and continued back to Nina Street.  Once again the Benji-like small dog charged the fence, snarling and barking and this time Apollo caught me completely off-guard.  He lunged to meet and greet the dog at the fence.  I temporarily suffered a wrenched left shoulder, elbow and thumb and had to scold Apollo for his un-gentleman-like behavior.  I guess it’s time for some remedial obedience training with the large pinch collar instead of the small choke chain Apollo usually wears.  My elbow didn’t stop aching until we crossed Olive and walked under another beautiful flowering red bud tree (see photo above).

We turned the corner east onto Fawn Valley and walked the half a block to our yard.  Just one of the advantages of owning the southwest corner lot on Bambi Court.  Apollo waited patiently on the porch for me to disentangle him from his leash (he set a record this walk, although I lost track of how many times) and open the door.  He rushed to his water bowl and then collapsed for a nap under the table at my feet while I composed this blog post.  I noted the time (ten o’clock) and took off my pedometer, which had recorded 7,695 steps (is that’s 15,390 for Apollo?) taken on our one hour and fifteen minute Sunday morning walk.