Birthday post

This weekend marks the second anniversary of when we adopted Louise. Since she has always been so tight-lipped about her age, we arbitrarily decided that this was as good a time as any to celebrate her birthday.

We guess that she's now seven years old. Louise prefers to think of it as her second year with us.

Today we went to the local Farmer's market, only to discover that now it is a no-dogs-allowed. We found this to be odd, since it is held outside, in a parking lot. Also, the first 'no dogs allowed' sign we noticed was in the middle of the market, instead of at the entry points. Oh well, this town gets more questionable by the day. I guess we will have to start getting our vegetables elsewhere.

This wasn't going to slow us down though, not today. On returning home we took Louise for a walk, and then let her sleep 'the sleep of two laps.' This is where Louise decides to stretch out across BOTH of us, as one lap just won't do.

Lady and Louise

Here is a picture of me, with Louise and Lady. Lady is one of the other dogs in our condo complex, and always gets very excited to see Louise. In fact, Lady will bark up a storm if she hears Louise is around and cannot get to her.

But she's a very nice dog and is friendly to everyone. Louise is always happy to see Lady.

In this photo, we are sitting on what is possibly the favorite patch of grass in the whole area. Almost every dog in the complex makes a stop by this spot, in part because the other dogs come here too, but also because the grass tends to be cool and longer here, as it gets more shade than other spots. It's usually one of our first stops on our evening walks.

A recent photo

Louise relaxing on the lawn
Originally uploaded by iTripped.

Yes, Louise is alive and well. Here is a recent photo to prove it, taken by one of our neighbors.

I can't believe how good Louise posed for this picture. She almost always looks away for me, because she doesn't like camera flashes.

Anyway, we have also been 'tagged' by another pug blog to provide some interesting details about Louise. We will post our list as soon as Louise has time to review, edit and approve it.

Lots of dog walks

Today was 'spa day' for Louise, and when she was picked up, she was smelling fresh. She was also super excited. She couldn't stop running or barking, she was just so happy.

Later on, while taking her on her nightly walk, we ran into a LOT of people who just wanted to stop and give Louise pets. Not a lot of folks all at once, just a lot of people over the duration of the walk. More than usual, at least. One even had her camera with her, and was quick to get a few pictures. I had to help her a bit though, as Louise would turn away from the flash.

Over the last few nights we have also seen some bats at the dog park. They actually fly kind of close, which is neat. I like bats because they eat mosquitoes. For that reason alone, they really can do no wrong in my books. I'm not sure if Louise even noticed them at all.

Skateboarding Pug?

Heh. Last night while Louise and I were out for our walk, we met some of the local kids. They had been skateboarding, but had to stop to say hi to Louise. (I am generally ignored.) After a few minutes of petting the dog, one asked if she was able to skateboard. I said 'let's find out!' and put her on the board.

So long as it was stationary, she was ok. But once it started to move she would hop off. I guess it isn't her favorite mode of transportation. But still, the boys thought it was fun and one suggested that it would be 'pretty cool if she could do an 'ollie.' I just agreed with him, since I only had a vague idea of what he was talking about.

Please don't get the impression that I need the term explained to me.

Electrical storm

On our morning walk I had to take a detour and stop at the local store. This was because Louise was quickly expiring due to the heat. After soaking her thoroughly and giving her some ice water to drink, I had to call my wife to come pick us up in the truck, as there was no way Louise would make it up the hill in this heat. Once home, Louise slept most of the day away inside (with air conditioning ON) so we went to the non-dog beach to see the Dragon Boat races.

This meant I owed Louise one heck of a walk that night. As luck would have it, by the time I was ready to walk the dog, the clouds had rolled in and we had one of the largest electrical storms I can remember. Luckily, things were happening off in the distance while we were in exposed areas like the dog park, but were much more active as we got closer to home. It wasn't raining heavily and was definately very humid. It was an interesting night though, as for once, it seemed that almost everybody was out on their balcony watching the lightning. Several people were taking pictures, including one of the guys I work with. So no more stock photos, this one is the real deal, taken in front of his house last night. Thanks for the picture, Paul. It turned out really well.

Drive-by barkings and a new puppy in the complex

This morning as I left to bike into work, I heard some awful barking. On investigation I discovered that someone was taking his dog for a drive, letting him bark at various things, be it people at the bus stop, other cars, etc. He didn't seem to have any particular destination, as he just went up a dead end street, turned around and slowly proceeded back down. (Dog barking the whole time.)

But that was just this morning. A few days ago we discovered that there is another dog in our condo complex - a Basset hound, of all things. His name is Barkley and he certainly is friendly enough. He played with Louise for a while - he's just the right speed for her - playful, but not too fast. Louise hopes to see more of Barkley.

Speaking of puppies, we encountered another one while at the dog park yesterday. This one was a Blue Heeler/Shepherd/Lab mix, and was less than a year old, so it had lots of spunk. On top of that, it was about four times as fast as Louise. She had trouble keeping up, but that didn't stop her from trying. After about twenty minutes I had to pull her out and head home. Not that she wanted to, but I could tell she was starting to get exhausted.

Of course, this meant she settled down very easily when we got home, which meant we could go out for dinner without hearing any protests from Louise. That's what I call a win-win situation.

Walking in the rain

The other night on our walk, I tried to time it so that we were out between rain showers. Well, my timing was not so good, because both Louise and I got completely soaked after about 5 minutes outside. Luckily, it was also a warm night, so it didn't really bother us. In fact, it seemed to invigorate Louise, who had more energy when walking up the hill.

Last night's walk had better weather and we met up with Jacks at the dogpark. I'm not sure what kind of dog Jacks is, but he sort of looks like a German Shepherd, but with much longer, shaggier hair. The hair also has red streaks and looks like it might be teased. I'm pretty sure it's all natural, and Jacks is friendly enough so Louise doesn't tease him much. Besides, she's just happy to run around with him for a few minutes. It's not every day that she can run with the big dogs. Sorry, I couldn't resist typing that one.

Anyway, with the weekend upon us, I'm pretty sure that we will try to make it to the lake again, especially if the weather holds up and stays warm. I'll posta detailed report of anything interesting that happens.