For most of the day on Saturday, it rained (about 20-30mm, cumulatively). Beautiful, glorious rain. I had intended to walk Stella in the morning (Sharon and Vic are visiting Beth and Josh in Minneapolis) but it rained on the way over, and by the time I got to Sharon’s, the skies were VERY dark. I decided to take Stella for a quick pee and poop in the nearby park, and then we waited to see what the weather would do.
Oh boy.
It stormed, and thundered, and rained. There were successive storms, so by the end of day, there was no walk with Stella in the woods. Poor doggo, she was quite frightened by the thunder. She’s not usually that sensitive but not having Sharon around probably compounded her anxiety. I’m her favourite auntie, but I’m still just an auntie.
So today, even though it was cloudy and cool (12C to start), I picked Stella up and we drove to Whitemud Ravine, by the Rainbow Valley entrance. It was cool and wet, but still gorgeous. Things seemed the tiniest bit greener.
Now that she’s ten, Stella is a bit slower these days. The slight hesitancy reminds me of Maggie. In her later years, Maggie clearly and intentionally shortened our walks. Sometimes she just stopped in the middle of a trail, and said, no further. Slowly, our circuits became smaller. Finally, it was just the park, but she was always enthusiastic. Stella is on some meds now for sore joints. She gets two or more walks a day with Sharon, and is mostly fine, but she used to run like the dickens. She can still gets lots of speed up when she wants, like when she’s greeting me from across the park, or running after a ball. She’s become more of a sprinter, I guess.
We both enjoyed the walk, and Stella read and/or sent a lot of pee-mail. No creek splashes though. In spite of the rain yesterday, the creek is still pretty murky.
About 15C, 4,000+ steps (I’ll get more later walking to Tom’s)