This has been the worst day. I had a terrible day at work, which should not even be possible since it’s Sunday, but it’s more than work, this has been a day where everything has gone just slightly wrong, not enough really to make any one issue a real crisis, but I’ve had slow commutes, forgotten ingredients that have required additional trips to the grocery store, and I wrote the first line of today’s blog 5 times before I got it to stick. And no, I don’t mean that I rewrote 5 times, wordsmithing it, trying to get the perfect opener, I mean that I retyped it 5 times, exactly as it appears above, because my keyboard kept deleting it. The absolute worst thing that happened today though involved Cadie.
Cadie did not have a good night last night, she was extra clingy, which means that I didn’t have a great night last night, she was up at least twice vomiting, nothing serious though. Then this morning at about the usual time we headed out toward the park. The weather is unseasonably warm here, which means that the squirrels are out in full force. I threw the ball down to the other end of the park for Cadie, as is our ritual, she ran to get it, then a fat, plump squirrel jumped out right in front of her. It almost wasn’t her fault that she went tearing after it; I mean these kamikaze squirrels make it really hard for any hot blooded dog to ignore them. But what happened next can only be described as a disaster. Cadie took off at full speed, she darted back and forth through the grove, and I won’t even venture a guess at how fast she was going. She had her huge 42 foot leash trailing around behind her, but still she was going too fast and in too much of a zig zag for me to catch her. Toward the end of this 2 minute horror show Cadie darted out onto the street, and then disappeared onto our walking trail, which is where I finally caught up with her. Incidentally, one of the other little irritations this weekend was that I broke my boot lace, making it impossible for me to run. As I said, I did eventually catch up with Cadie, she was fine, just looked a little dazed and confused. I promptly put her back on her leash and started for home.
The whole thing has left me feeling very unsettled, work made me feel the way work always makes me feel, but normally I know that I can come home to Cadie and she makes me feel better. I mean, I’m a reasonable person, and I know that dogs are living creatures with minds and instincts all their own, but it’s still pretty shocking when you see your dog heading for danger and they aren’t listening to you. I know lots of people who tell me that their dogs are always there for them, if they fall, they are the fist ones to come over and see that they are okay. I know that Cadie loves and cares about me, so it is weird to see her tearing around like that, and not care that I am calling her back. Oh well, all we can do is go back to the basics and try again tomorrow. We’re going to be working on recall, and perimeter training.
I did have a very nice end to the day, so I guess it wasn’t all bad, I think that I have figured out how to handle the “situation” at work, which is good, and I had a great Sunday dinner with my friend. She left me use her fabulous kitchen where I made Salmon en Papillote, the fish was light and flakey, the veggies were perfectly crisp, and the cucumber was a perfect substitution for the zucchini. So, let’s just focus on the positive and go back to basics tomorrow. Wish me luck.
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