little shop of syrup

 With every day that passes I’m getting more fond of the little grey bouncing puppy. She’s only done one short walk in the village so today I took her up and down main street for 20ish minutes. At first she was all nose - so many exciting scents! - and walking every which way, straining at the end of her leash. Soon she would look at me when I said her name, then after a few more minutes she’d sit, and then eventually we had steps of loose leash walking by my side. 

There were lots of people and baby carriages walking around - only two teeny tiny barks! We even passed a dog that was tied up in its yard with not even a peep. A transport truck roared past us with not even a flinch. If you’ve been following her journey you’ll know what a success today was. Oh, she has a long way to go but the progress in such a short time was motivating :-)

More adventure awaited Lupa last night with a trip to Trudie & Leo’s workshop for an evening of maple syrup boiling. She snuffled around the huge shop looking for things to put in her mouth. A dead mouse topped the list for grossness, while countless tiny feathers were extracted from her busy mouth. I could have reconstituted a 2x4 with all the wood chips I removed.

driving the tractor

The fun didn’t end there - Pepper (the cat) came in for a while. There was a Mexican standoff then Lupa tried to entice her to play. Pepper wasn’t into it, perhaps because she doesn’t read puppy play invitations well. Or maybe because she’s a dignified cat that doesn’t want to participate in shenanigans.

Looking for Pepper

Near the end of the evening Carm brought her crate in so she’d rest (and I’d get to relax a bit instead of being on the lookout for about to be ingested gunk. She was happy and dirty and tired when we got home.

Our little German terrier found another mouse today! She’s got a good nose on her. Plus she’s super observant, she doesn’t miss a thing. This might turn out to be a bad thing now that most of the snow is gone releasing a million new smells. I’ll need some extra good treats outside for recall practice - I’m thinking hotdog might be a good start.

Yesterday in my ‘on this day’ photos from google were a few photos from 2 years ago. We had walked down the deserted roads to Trudie & Leo’s for a distanced visit in the huge and airy workshop. It was our first time venturing out - everything felt strange and scary during those first days and we were unsure about how careful we had to be. 

Today was Adia’s nail appointment. The groomer had covid last week so we were extra careful and did the work outside on the driveway and of course had our masks on.

Awesome!

“a bit of sun and warmth in the morning”

“a visit that didn’t require social distancing”

“Lupa taking everything in stride with no barking”

“successful steps on our walk in the busy village”