Monday, February 23, 2015

Weekend Stuff

We kicked off the weekend with another bike ride/run. Hazel was rarin' to go!

With no coyotes in sight, I was able to let my girl off leash for a bit. She is completely in her element when she is allowed to flush out birds and run through fields. She did a lot of "bird doggin" that morning.



Water break!

Sissy had a big party to go to so here she is getting her good-byes in before she got her party dress on.

Sunday I cheated *a little*. I have been REALLY good staying off of my feet, but I HAD to hit the trails with my girls. I was good. We didn't do any climbing which the Dr said was the worst thing. We stayed on relatively flat paths, and I did not run. D was able to hold her leash for awhile which was really cool. Hazel usually behaves better on leash for her big sissy. I just love seeing their relationship blossom.


Having fun playing in the wash


We've been having really hot temps lately but we're finally going to cool it down with some rain. I am soooooo not ready for summer. We seem to go from cold to hot with nothing in between! I love being able to get exercise in the middle of the afternoon after work and school, but that is soon going to be a pastime. Boo.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

When life gives you lemons......

Soooooo..the ol' foot has been bothering me for a while, but in true form, I pushed down the pain and dealt with it. It got worse. I remembered a foot injury that I had many years ago that got so bad, it took me out of ANY activity for months. It sucked. I decided not to repeat history and ahem, go to the doctor. Long story short, I was told no running or hiking for weeks. Weeks. I told the doctor that being inactive was NOT an option. That I had a girl at home who needs exercise. Lots of exercise. His advice was to find someone else to walk her, and for me? I could cycle or swim. Grreeat.

Then I got this idea...
A couple of people asked if I could just bike with Hazel, to which I immediately replied, "she would kill me". One pull to chase a rabbit or a bird, and I would be a goner. Or so I thought..I started toying with the idea and took my bike out. I "introduced" her to it just to see if she had an fear towards it. Then I leashed her up with her harness and took a very slow spin around the block, feet on the ground. She did well. There was a little bit of excitement here and there, but I thought I could work with it.

I made the decision to got to our old abandoned dirt road and give this new venture a try. This video was within the first few minutes of our run..



Whaddya think?

I was soooooo impressed and happy with my girl!! We ended up doing this twice over the weekend..the first time was a longer run, and we left later than I would have liked. I purposefully wanted to go well after sunrise so that we could avoid all the critters that come out and about during that time. I carefully paid attention to any signals from her, however, due to my own carelessness, we ended up having to backtrack a little.

I realized that when I took my phone out of my carrier to shoot this video, my car key fell out of my phone carrier. Oops. I looked for it all the way back but didn't see it. So we rode back to my car just to make sure I didn't leave it inside. Nope. Sooooo, off we went again to backtrack our ride. Thankfully I found it! Hazel was OUT for the rest of the day, and I had worried that I over did it with her....until she was rarin' to go again.

I have to say, things DO happen for a reason. I used to be an avid mountain biker and liked to race in duathalons. I "hung up my bike" when I got pregnant and haven't been on it since! I always used my exercise time spending it with my pups, and felt selfish doing something active without them. Biking with Hazel has reignited that fire. I want to get back out on the trails! Unfortunately, it is too dangerous to do that with her, so maybe one day mama will sneak away. ;)

In the mean time, I am thrilled that we found an activity to keep us active and connected until we can hit the trails again. I didn't think it was possible, but Hazel keeps proving otherwise. She's turning into such a great pup. I am one proud mama!

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Throwback Thursday

Oh the shame...



My poor girl would not like this photo splashed all over the internet. I'm sorry Hazel. Really.

Since we've only had Hazel in our care for about 6 months, our "throwbacks" are not so "throwback-y"- technical term.

This was from our "foster" period. It seemed like each week brought a new medical surprise. This time her girl parts (another technical term) swelled so much that she started bleeding, hence the diaper.
They never did find out why, but thankfully after a couple of days of prednisone, she was back to her old self.

I remember being at work and on the phone with hubby who was at the pet supply store to buy diapers. He called me asking about size, was describing each kind, and then I laughed. "Did you ever think you would see the day you were buying diapers for a dog??!" We thought we were way beyond the diaper stage with our human, but nope, leave it to the pup to drag us back into it.

I'm happy to say doggy diapers were short lived, and knock on wood, our girl has not had any health issues since. (dang-I hope I didn't just jinx ourselves!)

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

(Not so wordless) Wednesday

Hazel and I had an awesome evening together last night. We dropped off the little human to her Daisy meeting and then hit the trails that just so happened to be very close to the host's home.

I was SOOO excited because I have never explored this side of the mountain. It's very cool finding new trails after living in this area for so many years. That's what I love about "my" mountain. It goes on and on for miles, through different communities and with countless trails. No run ever has to be the same!

We started out at 4:45 and it was still quite hot, so we had to take it easy for the first couple of miles. I HATE running in the sun and I don't want Hazel to overheat, so we took a couple of water and shade breaks.

When we finally reached the backside of the mountain, we were shielded from the sun and blessed with shade...yes!


As we were climbing to the highest point, I saw a group of people and a dog coming down, so Hazel and I did our best to move over to give them room. Out of the blue I heard, "is that Hazel??!" I was dumbfounded as I looked into the eyes of a stranger and replied, "yeeeeessss....and how do you know her?" Turns out she and her daughter got very attached to Hazel when she was at the county shelter. They were volunteers who used to shower her with love, and spoke of pictures that they still have of them cuddling with her. That made my day and warmed my heart so much!!!

Our county shelter is SUCH a cold place..it's a concrete hell hole and with such a high euthanasia rate, an incredibly, incredibly hard place to volunteer. I have so much respect for these volunteers who give their heart and soul to these precious beings, never knowing if they will ever see them again. Because it's not a "rescue", you never hear adoption updates, or have the ability to see the animals in their new life. (The lucky ones who make it out alive that is). I could see the joy on their faces, and don't know who was more grateful-them, or me. It's nice to know someone cared about Hazel before she was rescued. The "pound" is such a scary place-to know she wasn't always alone makes her stay there a little easier for me to bear.
Our peacful,love filled run became a little more hurried at the end. Because I had never been on this trail, I had no idea how long it was. We were so close to the summit that I did not want to turn back without making it to the top. (and neither did Hazel!) We pushed ourselves upward. I had to pick up the little by 6pm and realized we only had twenty minutes to make it back down-yikes! We ran our butts off to get back in time which is easier to do when it's all downhill and then flat!

We made it on time to pick up our little-whew! We will definitely be back to this area, as we saw numerous other trails to explore!

Happy Wednesday!!

Monday, February 2, 2015

Puppy Bowl Weekend

We had such a great weekend! (though this picture does not scream joy!!)We were actually on our way to meet a rescue pup to see if they would be a good match to foster. It started to rain on our way, and Hazel was very concerned about having to get out in the rain.

It was another slumber party weekend for us.."the best part of waking up is a kiss by your pup". (ok, so that was supposed to be to the tune of that old coffee commercial..) Fail. ;)

GREAT news!!! We were able to hit the trails again!!! I am beyond.psyched. I hesitated taking her..I was going to wait another week but her feet look really good, AND we had major weather in the typical sunny Arizona.....FOG. It's a rare sighting here and I had to get out in it. I couldn't think of a better place to be than on top of a mountain. I'm sure people who have to deal with fog a lot think I'm crazy, but I wasn't alone. Our entire community was out gawking and praising the wonders that is fog. ;0







Sunday came..we had a little football game going on in my city. There have been so many Super Bowl events going on all week. The Patriots have been practing across the street from my work, and were in a hotel about one mile from my house. We have had helicopters constantly flying overhead for extra security measures and traffic has been a nightmare.

The girls in our family could care less about football,and I was worried about drunk drivers, so we stayed very close to home, enjoyed a hike,and then settled in to watch the Puppy Bowl. Hazel was rooting from Team Ruff of course. She was psyched when they were the first to score...


She could have cared less about Catty Purry's "purrformance".

We had lots of quality time together. Hazel's human sister dubbed it, "best.weekend.ever!!!"

And now it's Monday. Boo.