March 16, 2003
It's time to partaaaaayyy!
Dusty hangs out with Jag (Just Another Guy) and waits for cookies.
Link - In today's NY Times, a good article about NY dog parks:
Straining at the leash (free registration required)
6:00 p.m.
Just in case there's any doubt that I'm gradually corrupting my puppy, last night we were out partying until one a.m., drinking saki, eating sushi and playing semi-drunken rounds of Trivial Pursuit.
Actually, the humans played and the two dogs (Dusty and the whippet, Jag) just looked on in sleepy canine amazement. As we walked home along Bloor, Dusty seemed briefly intrigued with the club scene, but spent most of the walk sleeping in her Sherpa bag.
This morning, we *both* slept in and were no worse for the wear.
It was a lovely day out. As I write this, the temperature is still 11C. Immediately upon waking up, we headed to the park for a walk and stayed out for an hour. Dusty took her morning nap and then we headed out again in the early afternoon. Our plan was to head over to High Park.
We never actually made it to High Park. As it turned out, Bloor Street was exciting enough to provide hours of entertainment for my puppy. I had planned to use the walk to the subway as a training exercise: practise for walking on a loose leash.
What I hadn't realised was that walking with a young puppy down a crowded city sidewalk takes some time and lots of patience. It's sort of like trying to go anywhere with a young child: distractions are everywhere. With a pup, these distractions are multiplied because they include smells as well as sights and sounds.
It took us an hour to walk from Brunswick down to Bathurst - no joke! By this time, I really had to pee. I can't just squat on a patch of snow and popping into a coffee house isn't really an option because I have the dog.
Instead, we headed down to the Petstore in hopes that they might have a washroom I could use. They didn't, so in desparation, I stopped and spoke to an employee of the SuperSprout store - he was sweeping the front steps. He offered to watch the pup while I used their washroom.
I didn't give Dusty very much time to figure out that she was being left with a stranger - I handed him the leash and snaked my way to the back of the store. With my sunglasses on, I relied on touch and shadow. The whole store smelled like damp earth and I felt like I was exploring some subterranean burrow.
When I returned, Dusty was the centre of attention in an admiring circle of SuperSprout employees. She was *really* excited to see me.
We officially gave up on High Park and chose to spend our afternoon on Bloor. We walked a few metres down the sidewalk, then sat on a bench. Walked again, then sat on another bench. Dusty met about 30 new people as we sat on those benches - everyone just had to come pet the cute puppy.
Warm weather makes this socialization thing SO much easier! I plan to go back down tomorrow for more puppy-show-and-tell. All in all, Dusty did well in the chaos. She started shaking when a firetruck roared by, but mostly relaxed and sat on my lap.
When we finally got home, I cleaned up her legs (she was dirty and mucky from the wet sidewalks) and crated her for a nap. I'm not sure I've ever seen her so tired - she slept very soundly.