Busy, Busy

Yesterday was a long day. We were up early (before the sun, even) and headed out about 8:00. Duncan and I dropped Reyna at rehab and then headed to Cary for a 9:00 appointment. In Cary, we got Duncan’s brand new cart. After oohing and ahhing over the cart, we were off to Pittsboro for training. We were at Claire’s by 10:30, only to discover that Duncan’s harness wasn’t finished. Unfortunately, there’s not much we can do with a cart if we have no harness. With luck, the harness will be done this coming week, and then there will be many pictures of Duncan and his new cart. We worked on our sheep herding, with occasional breaks to work on the harness. As we started out of the arena to do some tending, Claire and I realized that Duncan was limping. Again. After he’d seemed completely fine for over a week. Watching Duncan, it was easy to see that he was pacing rather than trotting (unwilling to move faster and put more pressure on his right front leg), and he quickly lost almost all focus on the sheep. At that point, we called it quits.

Duncan and I left Claire’s at 1:30. On the way home, I called the vet and snagged a 3:30 appointment to get his leg checked. We were in Raleigh about 2:30, so I stopped at the nursery to get some catmint plants (can’t have too much catmint, as far as I’m concerned), and we made it to the vet shortly after 3:00. Unfortunately, they put us in a room with an extremely comfortable chair, and I suddenly realized how tired I was. Duncan and I both dozed a bit waiting for Dr. Berry. She confirmed that there’s not a bone or joint injury, and she agreed that he most likely pulled a muscle. Duncan is now on not-quite-crate-rest and an anti-inflammatory for the next 5 days. After that, we just see how he does. We did find out that Duncan has lost a little weight since October (a good thing) and is now down to a svelte 111 lbs. We made it back to rehab just before 4:30, picked up Reyna and headed home. John and his friend, Travis, came by shortly before dark to check my truck (I’d called him that afternoon about a fwapping noise coming from the front left side). Naturally, he found the problem – the cap thingy on the center of the tire was coming loose - and then they left to go watch a fashion show at a local western gear store. The pups and I were settled down by shortly after 8:00, and I was sound asleep on the couch by 8:30. I woke up around 11:30 and managed to drag myself to bed.

We were up early again today, but on our own – no help from the alarm clock. After breakfast, Reyna did something rather unusual – she hopped up on the couch and took a nap. Once she woke up, she actually stretched out and rested her head on my lap for a while. She was even somewhat cuddly. It didn’t last long, but it was nice. I ran a few errands, took Reyna for the first of her two walks, and then started doing yard work. I got a few new plants in the ground – a thornless blackberry bush, a raspberry bush, several catmint plants, and a gardenia (haven’t had much luck with those, but we’ll see what happens). Paws crossed that everything lives. “Thrives” would be good, but I’ll settle for “lives” at this point. During Reyna's second walk, we stayed in the yard and walked laps rather than going out on the road. Reyna was on leash so I could control the speed and direction, and Duncan paced along right beside us the entire time. The pups and I are about ready to have dinner and settle in for a relaxing evening. Tomorrow – more yard work.

Oh, on a somewhat related note, the ticks are definitely out. I woke up at 2:00 Thursday morning to discover that the itchy spot on my leg had legs of its own. Nasty little things.