Walks with Sugar

The past two days, Sugar and I have gone on three mile walks.  Now these aren't speed walks...or anything close to that...a girl can only go so fast with three good knees!  Walks with Sugar always start out the same:  She sees me putting on my tennis shoes and starts to get a little excited...then, she sees me take out her leash, which makes her even more excited...and then, for about the first five mins of the walk, she walks with a little hop in her step, like she is so happy to be outside smelling the fresh air and feeling the grass between her toes.  Slowly she begins to slow down...and the further we get the more length of leash suspends between us...until finally the leash is completely let out and I am dragging...strongly encouraging her to keep up!  I imagine that if she could speak she would be saying things like "why in the world are we walking further from home??" or "how about you tie the leash around your neck and let me tug on it for a bit!"  She starts to get easily distracted by things like every single mailbox on the road!...or will slow down ever so slightly when we reach a shady spot.  And then, of course, Sugar has always been an avid supporter of our local farmers and continues to selflessly donate her fertilizer whenever she can...this year's crop is going to be extra sweet (get it! 'Cause her name is Sugar!!).

But then, eventually, we get back to our neighborhood and I take her collar off.  She's really good and staying with me and if she gets too far I just call for her and she picks up the pace a bit.  Once we get to our neighborhood, she knows the end is almost near and that a cool summertime beverage waits her at the house.  She starts to get the same hop back in her step...or at least tries to.

After our walk yesterday, I decided to reward her with one of her treats...which turned out to be a bad idea because I gave it to her right after we got home.  She was still huffing and puffing and ended up inhaling part of her treat and then coughed for the next couple mins!  Today, I decided to wait until she calmed down to give it to her :)

Yesterday afternoon, Sugar took many naps trying to recover from the long journey.  You can tell by her posture that she is extremely exhausted...elbows out, leg sprawled!

Maybe I'll give her a recovery day tomorrow...but she'll probably want to come as soon as she sees my tennis shoes...she knows I enjoy her company :)