No More Adventures with My Dogs
Meet Maggie and Charlie.
Maggie is a 5-year-old Basset Hound and Charlie is a 4-year-old mix between a German Shepard and a Huskey. They are great loyal dogs with lots of character. They are the best of friends.
I used to walk them every single day. I would come home from work, change my clothes, and off we go. Normally, we would go off in my car and find new adventurous walks. We would walk around idyllic villages by the water, through forests, or go to the beach. Charlie loves to swim. Unfortunately, Maggie's little legs do not do her any justice in the water. So, she just dips her paws in and barks, egging Charlie on while he is swimming. We would be out together for hours.
Often, I would collect my friend and her dog Malou. Malou is a Huskey and she is Maggie and Charlie's best friend. If you have read my article about driving difficulties and AS you will remember that I drive a Mini Cooper. So, it was a tight squeeze in the car with two people and three dogs.
It was my favorite part of the day
I am guessing it was the favorite part of my dogs' day too. They used to come everywhere with me.
Even if we weren't going for a walk, I would bring them to my friend's house to play with their dogs. Some days we could go for three or four walks. We would be out all day together.
Oh, how things have changed since I got sick. I am unable to walk them. I think they understand now but for months they didn’t. Every time I walked out to my car they would start howling with excitement and jump in my car. I could see the look of confusion and disappointment on their face. This made me feel so guilty. I imagined that they were thinking; Why won't you walk us anymore? What did we do? It breaks my heart.
As you can see from the image above, Charlie is a huge strong dog. As small and cute as Maggie looks, she is a very heavy, strong dog.
How things have changed
Last year I could barely walk myself, I definitely could not walk my dogs. I am doing a lot better now, but I don’t have the strength to walk them. Even if I did have the strength, I know I would end up hurting my back or shoulders. So, I need to avoid this.
Luckily, we have a huge garden with a secret river, so I bring them down to the river and play with them in the field. But it is not the same as the everyday adventures that we used to have together.
Of course, my dogs still get daily walks by the rest of the family. And their best friend Malou will call down and play with them sometimes.
I hope that someday in the future we will be able to go on adventures together. Although, my car is much cleaner since!
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