Wednesday, August 11, 2010

I have not kept up lately as faithfully as I should.  Cinn has had a really good couple of weeks though.  She's been to the park daily, had to spend some time with Shannon and Petal (who she really seems to like), and has gone to Kamloops with Tracie and I.  Throughout it all, she was her usual, smiling self.

The day in Kamloops, however, was not without stress.  We went to Tracie's wool store, and Cinn and I had a coffee at Starbucks next door.  She made friends with the girl who was cleaning the patio, got smiles from nearly everyone, and pets from a few passers by.  After that, we went to several stores to do our grocery shopping.  Between Coopers and the health food store, we obtained everything but Tracie's coffee.  She thought that we might as well go home without it, but I told her that we might as well check out Zellers first. 

Tracie went into the store, while I sat outside with Cinn.  The sun was very hot that afternoon, so we could not just leave her alone in the car.  Scanning the parking lot and seeing no one else there, I thought that it was probably a good time to let her out to go to the bathroom.  She hopped out, but immediately began limping and hopping.  I moved to pick her up, but she started walking normally.  She did her business, walked around again, and started hopping and limping.  Strangely enough, she stopped again when I moved to pick her up. 

Thinking that she was just being stubborn, I walked her back toward the car on her leash.  As we moved, she began the hopping and limping again.  This time, however, I thought that I knew the origin.  I led her back into the shadow of the building, where she stopped carrying on nearly immediately.  I realized at this point that the pavement was so hot that my pup was burning her feet whenever we walked on the part that the sun was hitting.  When she stood in the part that was shaded by the building, the heat was bearable. 

Feeling a lot better, I bundled her into the car.  Trace came out shortly.  Following that, we grabbed some food for supper and headed home. 

July 22, 2010

Cinn has had a great couple of weeks. She has enjoyed running around the dog park and has loved wrestling me during the day. She's even happy during thte stupidly hot days that we have been "enjoying". All of that said, she has been stretching her boundaries at times. The other morning I was wrestling with her in the morning when Tracie woke up. I went to the washroom to say good morning to her. While giving her a hug, I heard some commotion in the hallway.

Walking out into the hall, I saw Cinn looking back at me. The box that blocks the hallway was pushed halfway across the hall, her tail was wagging, and she had what can best be described as a look of confusion on her face. She seemed to be looking at me as if to say, "I wonder how that box got moved and how I got down the hall. Do you know how that happened?"

Naturally, I moved her out of the hallway. Naturually, I did not get angry at her because she was too cute. It's possible to get away with a great deal, if you do things in the right manner.

July 7, 2010

Cinn has had a pretty good couple of weeks. She got to go to the dog park most of the days, which she enjoyed despite the sweltering heat. She also got to go in to the school for an afternoon once the students were gone, which was a debacle.

The dog park has been pretty laid back lately because not many people seem to be using it. She spends her time there just running about and sniffing the grass. Her leg seems to be doing well in general, but I try to slow her down to prevent any injuries while playing at the park. Needless to say, I have very little success.

The afternoon at the school was short lived, but funny in retrospect. Cinn went in and wandered around while I cleaned up some of the tables. She was really well behaved, and smiled for the first half hour after we got there. Unfortunately, something about the building told her that it was o.k. to use the floor as a toilet. Probably the fact that it smells like a feed lot.

In any case, about half an hour into her visit, she just dropped trow in the middle of the floor and peed out a huge puddle on the ground. I was shocked. Yelling from across the room for her to stop, I dropped a pile of books on the ground as I raced to grab her. I was way too late; however, and she finished while staring blankly at me. I had to lock her in the kitchen while I cleaned up, which elicited whines and yelps. I then loaded her into the back of the car and whisked her home.

Luckily, I got the mess off of the floor quickly enough that there were no lasting marks. I had to use enough water that it was apparently still there when Angelo came in that night. He asked Pete what had happened the next day. Pete told him that he thought that I had dropped something on the floor, but was unsure what it was. I guess that I owe him one now.

June 18, 2010

Cinn had a pretty good week, after pulling her muscle on Saturday. We went to the dog park a couple of times, got eaten by mosquitos, went home, and wrestled. Her energy level was really high, and she smiled all week.

June 3, 2010

Today Cinn got to meet several new dogs at the dog park. Jess Frame and her mom brought their two little dogs and a medium sized, older dog to the park. Cinn was there first, so I slipped her leash on before the other dogs got inside. The dogs were all very friendly in greeting one another, with the exception of one of their smaller dogs, who did not like having an interloper at her park. Cinn respectfully sniffed all of their butts and let them reciprocate. After that, three of the four dogs went their own way to sniff around the park. The other little dog approached Cinn several times to growl, but Cinn was very respectful in refraining from lunging at the little dog when it bothered her. She probably owes this to her respect for the cat, something that was indocrinated into her at a young age to keep Shake from an untimely demise.

June 5, 2010

Cinnamon was not able to make it to the park on Friday because Tracie and I went to Mark and Kristina's house that evening. She was accepting as always, but I know that one of the great highlights of her day is going to the dog park. This morning I promised her that we would do something fun, and I was not willing to let that go.

Unfortunately, owing to the recent article in the Merritt News, the park was very crowded. Rather than having to deal with another potentially annoying Collie, we headed up to Forksdale. We had a nice walk down the road to the river. Once there, we watched the water flow by for a few minutes before heading back.

June 1, 2010

Cinn had an o.k. week. She spent some time at Shannon's place while we were away for the weekend. She seemed happy to get there and play with Petal, and when I went to pick her up, she was not in a huge hurry to come home. She had just finished a little walk with Shannon and Petal, and was very happy.

Trace and I were, unfortunately, not feeling well when I picked her up. I brought her home, and even though Cinn was glad to be home, the amount of interaction that we had with her was limited that evening (Sunday). The next day we were both sick, so we did not spend much time playing. The dog park was also out that day.

Today (Tuesday), I took Cinn back to the dog park. Everything went well. She met a year old pup who ran about the park with her for a bit. She acted like a pup, so the owners of the other dog were amazed that she was nearly eleven years old. When she got home, we gave her the hugs and attention that we probably should have given her the day before when we simply did not feel up to it.