Biophilliac Mommy: Dog Walking

Monday, September 14, 2015

Dog Walk with Mema

Today Mema came to visit and we took a walk in the woods with her tiny dog pack. She has five dogs...it's kind of crazy. Mema turned 51 today, but you wouldn't think it by the amount of energy and strength she has to keep up with the boys and all the pups. We had a great walk (when we weren't obsessively checking for ticks). Link was often found running fearlessly ahead, as fast as possible right in the middle of the tiny dog pack. Meo was usually in the back of everyone pretending to be a front-end loader carrying around large sticks. We found a couple salamanders, sampled some fresh winter green, and enjoyed a chance to stretch our legs and explore.

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Autumn Walk with the Tiny Dog Pack (26 months)

It was a gorgeous autumn day today so my mom came over to take her for tiny dogs for a walk in the woods by our house. I love when Meo has opportunities to be around dogs, as we hope to get a puppy in the next couple years. Today he had so much fun running around with them; I can't believe how much energy they all had!

Nita and Bandit

The wind knocked so many leaves off the trees last night!

Meo (26 months) and I (34 weeks)

Sammy and Nita

Milly

Doing weird things to Mema's face (sorry Mema!)

Mema showing Meo some moss

Meo kept trying to pick Sammy up

Milly

Nita

Kiss for Nita

Milly

Fun with Mema

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Last Day of Work

Over the weekend, with the baby dropping down and me just progressing further and further along in this pregnancy (now 36 weeks), I started to notice big differences in my ability to get around comfortably. I found that I was started to get a lot of pressure low in my pelvis when I walked around, and it has gotten harder for my to bend down to pick things up. I have a feeling (of course I have no idea really) that the baby will be coming before 40 weeks, but I would really like for him to wait at least until I am full term (which is technically next week!). So I've decided that I need to be careful and start taking it easy; my body is obviously telling me that it can't handle the high level of activity that I had been doing up to this point.

So with the help of my husband, I made the very difficult decision to stop working. I never imagined that stopping a job could be so difficult. Working for Portland's Paws has been the best job I have every had. Despite the fact that I haven't been using my undergraduate or graduate degrees, I have been so happy every day for the last year and a half. I have made so many animal friends and have loved spending time with them and playing with them and cuddling them every day. I've gotten a ton of exercise and this job has made me appreciate how nice it can be to walk in ANY weather; the dogs don't mind, why should we? I have had fun pet-sitting and taking the dogs I've watched on awesome adventures such as hiking in the White Mountains and hiking in Acadia National Park. I will miss all the great cats and kittens that I got to visit periodically and snuggle while their owners were out of town. I will miss the doing the weekly adventure program with Kate and taking the dogs to new places each week and seeing how happy they are to run free and go crazy together. And even though I don't get to see the people I work with very much, I will miss them too. This morning it felt weird not getting my usual text message from Meghan (the owner) confirming who I have for walks today. Meghan has been such a great boss, I'll miss working for her.

Yesterday was my last day. It had gotten to the point where I really needed my Mom's help to hold all the dogs. Not that any of them were bad or big pullers, but any yanking on me at all to grab a bite of grass or sniff some other dogs pee, really started to hurt. I tried to use just my arm muscles to keep the dogs on track, but that just wasn't working. Yesterday felt like it should have been my last day. Even last week up until now I was able to scamper up hills without feeling too tired or out of breath. But yesterday I had to keep stopping because I was feeling completely and utterly exhausted. When we got on the top of the hill to go home, all the dogs laid down in the shade under a tree in the cool grass, and instead of encouraging them to get up and go that last bit to their houses, I just had to plop down and sit next to them for a while. It was a nice way to sit down and enjoy each others company after playing off leash, having a nice walk along the beach and before I brought them to their respective houses to say bye for the last time. I know Chelsea will do a great job taking over for me and I am so glad that she has been enjoying walking the dogs a ton so far. But for me it feels like the end of an era, and it makes me cry a little.

On a brighter note though, now I have a baby boy to look forward to. I am excited to play with him and go for long walks together. He will be seeing the world for the first time, and perhaps he will have as much enthusiasm as puppy going outside to play. I am very excited to be a mom. I will keep walking up until the day he is born because I know it helps me to feel healthy and happy. But I will also have more time to finish reading the pile of books I have, to finish getting the nursery set up, and just have more time to relax and enjoy this quite time and last moments where its just me and my cats.

Here are some pictures I took on my last day: