Saturday bright and early, Yukon got me up, pushing me with his nose in the middle of my shoulderblades to try to roll me out of bed. When I looked at him with bleary eyes, he got all excited, and 'oh woah woah'd' me until I blinked several times, looked at the clock in disbelief and let him know it was Saturday! He got a huge grin, spun around in circles, 'hawuoofed' and ran out the door in that hunched excited play-run that you would expect to see a 3 month old puppy exhibit rather than a 4 year old 65 lb dog.Zipping back in he danced around with his hind quarters in the air hawuoofing and roh roahing.
"I take it this means you want to go for a run?" As soon as I said it, he danced on his hind legs, waving his front paws in the air howling like a mad thing.
Now I've seen a lot of strange behaviors from Yukon, but this took the cake, and grinning like a fool, I threw some grubbies (dog clothes) on and went to check the temp. The outside thermometer said 28 degrees (F), and I began to understand his glee. "You know, race season is over for us." I said, and he cocked his head sideways and put his nose on his harness.
I swear that dog could speak if he had the right vocal chords. "Ok who's going with us?" The chorus began. Bandit was my first choice, but when I grabbed his harness, he ran out the back dog door. After several minutes of calling him while Princess did her best to get herself in the harness I was holding, I put it up and got out her harness. I dropped the walkie talkie next to Jim on his bed while I put the other in my parka, and took Princess and Yukon out to the bike.
I kept us to only a 2 miler, just to keep them in shape, and barely took the edge off their energy, but it was mentally sufficient for both of them as we came back in near record time. Princess dove headfirst into the freezer as I struggled to get the meat patties out without her absconding with the lot. Once the dogs were relieved of their harnesses and the bike put away, I got to work on the dining room.
For three weeks I've been chomping at the bit to get our new wood flooring down. I couldn't wait any longer, so did the cleanup and moving of the fridge myself. Jim helped me with the rest, and I ripped up the carpet and padding on half of the floor. After sweeping and lightly sponging down the underlayment, I put down the padding for the new flooring and began to lay down the slats. It was a long day, and by dinner time I was ready to call it quits until Sunday. Just over a third of the dining room had a gorgeous oak paneling, and I admired it from the living room.
Sunday early, Samantha tried to tickle me awake, poking me with her nose in my neck, then my armpit (she loves to do this to Jim and James because they are ticklish, but sometimes she forgets, I'm not ticklish like they are). I am a light sleeper though, and got up with a yawn. Checking the temp, it was 34, and I really wanted to see how well Bucky could do in lead, so harnessed him, much to his delight and Moon as she whined and danced and was ready to go.
They both did excellent, but by the mile mark, Moon was obviously slowing, so I turned them around and kept Bucky to a slower pace on the way back. He was all in to running, and wouldn't be distracted by animal or bird. He followed the route unerringly and unwaveringly up until we reached the neighbor's dogs. Only then did he swerve to try to go see them, but a quick "Leave It!" put him back on track. Moony did great, though not quite as fit as Bucky, she tried to keep up and keep her tug tight the whole way, so I slowed Bucky down so she could feel like she was pulling the whole way. When we got back, I fed them their snacks, rubbed them down, and checked their feet while taking their harnesses off. Then it was out to scrape the yard.
With those chores done, I started back up on the floor. Moony had done great on the run and had played around in the yard afterwards, and she seemed ok. Jim and I moved the furniture off the rest of the carpet. I then ripped up the other half of the carpet and padding, and had James help me throw them out before Jim and he left to do the shopping and I continued to work on the floor.
When Jim came back, he handed out hooves. Some time after that, Moony came out of Jim's bedroom, but didn't make it out the dog door before throwing up on the new flooring. Somewhat miffed, I had Jim clean it up, but it was soon apparent that Moony was not feeling well. I checked her over, but could not find anything apparent. Her stomach was not distended, her pulse and temperature seemed fine, she just seemed ill, and I felt a bit guilty for running her, but she seemed quite fine earlier and even up until early afternoon was fine. It came on very sudden. She spent most of the afternoon and evening lying on Jim's bed, and though she was alert it was obvious she was not feeling well. We kept checking on her and speculating as to what would cause this sudden illness. She couldn't keep anything down, and threw up twice on Jim's bed and twice on the new floor which I had just finished.
The floor looked great though, but it was overshadowed by an ill puppy. She was still moping on Jim's bed when I went to sleep, but round about 11pm she came happily into my room and laid down by the food bowl. A short time later she ate some then laid down again. A while after that, she got up and drank some water and ate some more, then went to sleep all without throwing up. In relief I went to sleep knowing that she felt better.
This morning she was back to her happy playful self, thank goodness! I hugged and kissed her before leaving.
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