Pre-working blog post

workin
Originally uploaded by iTripped

Ha! I'm ahead of the game this week, posting early. Tomorrow is Louise's day in the office and I suspect that I will see her up on my desk like in this picture.

She has been limping lately so we will have to get her looked at. When we looked at her paws we could not see anything wrong and her bones are not broken. Also, when we walk I notice that once she gets warmed up she stops limping for a while. It's like she is stiff after relaxing. Well, she has been a little trooper so far and tomorrow we will have to visit that vet.

Chasing big dogs

We met quite a few dogs at the park this weekend and as usual, Louise was running around acting like a traffic cop, chasing after the noisy or fast dogs. Usually the ones that were a lot larger than her. Most of the dog owners there found it entertaining to watch her run after the other dogs, barking as she goes. Louise certainly had a good time - more than once I had to call her away just to let her catch her breath before resuming the chase. Those larger dogs can run far longer than she can.

One of the other dogs that was there was a boxer named Chilco. He was fascinated with a ball and was more interested in hanging on to it and not letting the other dogs play with it than with actually playing fetch (for fear of losing the ball to another dog). So he played his version of 'keepaway', and would tend to run away from the other dogs, or park himself between the legs of a person to better defend his ball. He was a very friendly dog though, and reminded me of another similar looking one named Sam. It took me a few minutes to actually get a good photo of Chilco since he wasn't really in the mood for taking pictures and was busy fending off other dogs.

Lies, not fries

The inevetable has happened and Louise's fame continues to grow over at loldogs. Okay, not really 'fame' per se, but at least her photo on yet another site. You may recognize this pic from one that Greg had up on his site earlier.

In other news, it snowed last night and I discovered that Louise's stroller is not so great in the snow. If we find it is snowing on her day to come in the office, I'll probably switch with another dog rather than push the 'snowplow' through the uncleared sidewalks of Vancouver.

Having said that, Louise seems to be enjoying the weather and had fun tracking through the snow. Now that we are in the office, she is doing her rounds, looking for people who are likely to give her treats. It hasn't been very productive though, since her two biggest supporters are not in the office today. Man, she misses them.

More excitement at the dogpark

at the dogpark
Originally uploaded by iTripped

Today's visit to the dogpark was well timed. Many of the usual attendees were present, and there was a lot of playfighting. Igor, Kyle, Sam were all there, horsing around and generally having fun. Within minutes, Louise began to bark her head off, announcing everything as it happened. Eventually she got so worked up that she also joined in with the playfighting, chasing the other (much larger) dogs.

At several points I had to pull her aside to remind Louise that she needs to catch her breath every now and then.

Overall, the dogs all seemed to have a great time and burnt off a lot of excess energy. By the time I brought Louise home, she crashed on the sofa and really hasn't moved since. I have a feeling that tonight's walk will be at a somewhat slower pace, which is just about right for me.

Woke up to Sunshine

Earlier this week Louise switched 'shifts' with Sasha, one of the other office dogs. However, Sasha had to call in sick today so Louise was able to come in on her regular day after all. She still comes in tomorrow too, on Sasha's day.

My guess is that by tomorrow night, I will have one tired dog on my hands. And two ecstatic cats, drunk on the pleasure of two full days without a dog in the house.

For our lunch walk we went back over to the Olympic site again. What a difference some sunshine can make! I took a bunch of photos and posted them on flickr. For her part, Louise was only too happy to inspect the work going on and give words of encouragement to some of the construction workers.

I tell ya, this one never quits.

Boring office work

Louise and Greg
Originally uploaded by iTripped

As usual, Louise was in the office yesterday. Also as usual, by about 2:00 pm Louise was finding it difficult to remain upbeat. Sometimes it is just plain hard work staying away the whole day.

Here we have Greg looking in on her as she attempts to recharge a bit by resting her chin on my desk.

Louise and Lenny in the Dog Park

It was a pretty rainy day for a trip to the Dog park, but most dogs have to go no matter what the weather. At least it is close by.

When we got there, Louise met Lenny the pug, along with Kyle and another dog I didn't quite catch the name of. Kyle was of course barking a lot as usual, and Louise was only too happy to speak a few phrases with him.

It didn't take long until Kyle's owner grew tired of this, and he took Kyle home.

This left Louise and Lenny, who basically just hung out together without really doing much. Eventually us owners got cold enough to call it a day and we headed home.

New Year's Day stroll along the water

For the first day of 2008 I decided to take Louise on a nice long walk out to Stanley Park and back. Louise was having fun barking at ducks and swans and I was having fun experimenting with my digital camera.

I was annoying her with my constant stopping to take pictures and she was annoying me with the barking at birds, so for a while, we were quite even.

Of course, for most of the walk neither one of us were annoyed at all. And then near the end, when we discovered a new specialty dog store (they sell things for pet dogs like leashes, food and T-R-E-A-T-S) we just had to check it out. It was quite a nice store, filled with just about everything one would expect to find in a pet supply store, including doggie sushi. We had to sample that one. It looks like they must have had it shipped in from Richmond though, because the roll was so big that Louise wasn't able to eat it at the store (they have 2 resident dogs, one of which, Angel, who was VERY interested in what Louise had). I packaged it up and brought it home, where Louise was able to enjoy it in peace.

I think Louise was trying to convince me to make a resolution to include doggie sushi on ALL of her walks, but I just don't see that one happening.