Monday, January 16, 2006
Dog-Sitting
M. and A. were so nice to take Charlie with almost no notice when Air Canada COMPLETELY F*CKED THINGS UP. So we are so happy to return the favour this week with their 7 year-old Border Collie, Percy. They gave us about two months' notice. Which is approximately 61 days more notice than we gave them.
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WORKING: The morning walk to the park was interesting.
TREV: how so?
WORKING: First, I tried to do Yoga AM but two big dogs sat on my mat. So I put them outside. Yoga Interruptus.
TREV: I thought that would happen
WORKING: So then we left for the walk. I forgot that thing that M. had mentioned once, that Percy on the leash, coming face-to-face with another dog, is not good. I recalled his advice exactly at the moment Percy pulled the leash out of my hands and went barreling up to this poor, terrified older golden lab, barking his head off. I apologized profusely to the owner - "my fault!".
WORKING: So then we continued on to Withrow and I didn't bring the throwing balls because I wanted to carry on to Riverdale. That didn't stop Percy from barking at me for the ball. All through the park. Until I showed him my empty hands and said "no ball" and he gave me a look like, "you should have just said that," and went trundelling off to find a stick.
WORKING: So we headed to Riverdale and just at the beginning of the path in the valley, this guy tells me that something died further up the trail and that his dog had rolled in it. So I figured I could just leash them for that part of the walk. But then Charlie jumped in the river because she's a dumbass. Since it was so cold that the water immediately froze into icicles hanging off her butt, I thought I'd better get her home. So we cut that part short. Didn’t get to see what kind of dead thing.
TREV: oh man
WORKING: Meanwhile, Percy found a small tree to carry home. The thing barely fit into his mouth and he'd drop it in front of me at intervals. I threw it just once and decided it would either break my arm or crack the pavement, so gave that up. But he carried it all the way back to Broadview. Actually looked pretty cute – it was the size of his head.
WORKING: When he finally let it go, Charlie got it and refused to stop running around like a maniac long enough for me to get the leash on her. Then Percy started barking at me and jumping and biting.
TREV: biting?
WORKING: Well, definitely not rip-the-skin biting, but hard enough to confuse me. I didn't know how to read him. Maybe it's something M. does to play? Anyway, I finally got them both on the leash and we headed back to Withrow. Both behaved well on the leash. Of course, if Percy's an A+, Charlie's a C-. But they didn't rip my arms off. Released them again at Withrow where Charlie and Bella started scrapping, which was a great relief to K. because Bella was apparently being a 'real bitch' to that dog she loves to terrorize.
TREV: [response edited for fear of being sued]
WORKING: Then Percy got into a fight. A real fight. I grabbed a stick off the ground and started running away from him, yelling in a really excited voice, "PERCY! PERCY! OVER HERE PERCY!" He came to me immediately. I decided to remove both Percy and Charlie from the situation.
TREV: Yeah, I don't think Percy's great with other dog.
WORKING: And the other dog did get in his face. Charlie, meanwhile, got a hold of the bloody stick and decided that she doesn't NEED to come home with us. So another wrestling match at the edge of Withrow, me beaning myself in the face with a swinging leash clip. All sorts of people laughing. It probably did look pretty funny.
TREV: wow, you had your hands full
WORKING: Then on the way home Percy starts tugging at his lead, biting and pulling and barking. I'm saying, "what, did I forget something?" and he’s all “bark-bark-bark.” But I couldn't figure it out. Maybe he wanted to go back for the stick? Dunno. So, an hour later and frozen to the bone, returned home with the two chuckle heads.
TREV: jeeeeez
WORKING: Overall, I think we had a good walk. The kids are down for the count.
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