Dog Dayz

So today is day two of Christian and my dog watching assignment for a couple we are friends with. We both love dogs, so it was an easy favor to take on. However, this of course makes our desire for our OWN dog that much stronger! Lucy, the dog, is a great dog to have to watch, and because of this, is a great dog to be active with!

She and I headed out this morning for a trip to the dog park while Christian stayed behind and made a delicious breakfast. Lucy and I hit the park running, and she had to fight me for the ball. The park had a great setup: Paved pathways for the bipeds and plenty of trees, ivy, and dirt to satisfy the canines. The park itself is built into a hill in a semi-urban neighborhood in Piedmont, CA and actually feels like a nice escape for a half hour or so. The park also provides some well-loved tennis balls and Chuck-It ball-tossers for the play-fetch-minded mutt (Lucy and I definitely got our playtime in! Although, here is a secret: If you want to avoid throwing a tennis ball over the 30+ foot wall at the back of this particular dog park, make sure that you keep the Chuck-It low and you control your velocity. Those suckers fly! Sorry to any passing motorist on the roadway above us!).

Aside from getting our morning exercise in (and various other morning routines!), I realized that having a new dog for a week was going to provide a whole new set of adventures and discoveries. It is very likely that I would have never discovered this whole side of Piedmont and the challenging running hills that it had to offer had we not signed up for this Dog Watching assignment. So at the risk of sounding like I know best (I can assure you, this is probably not the case... unless it has to do with Legos...), I would like to offer a follow up to that sage piece advice, "take the road less traveled:" Take the stairs. Take the long way home. Offer to watch a friend's dog for a week. You really really never know what sorts of opportunities will arise from it. And if that is always your attitude, I challenge you to NOT run in to adventures at nearly every turn! This week is going to be a little more stressful with the added responsibility, but with a positive, adventure seeking, healthy living attitude, it IS going to be a lot of fun!

-John