Lily of the field (and stream)

Maya and I took Lily on her first hike this afternoon. It was a beautiful, spring-like day, perfect for a hike. We did four miles, at a record slow pace. Lily isn't in a rush to get any place. The trail walking is new to her and she liked being out and about, but she wanted to stroll casually along and see things. Maya and I walk a bit more purposefully, like we have somewhere to go and ground to cover.

But she was good for the most part. She can pull hard when she wants to, but except when we surprised a couple deer she was a pretty easy going walker. When we got to the end, she hopped up onto a tree stump and posed nicely for me. There are lots of pics; she's a pretty girl and my first foster Saint.


She has spent most of the day in the dog yard and has been fine with everyone. We have a vet appointment scheduled for tomorrow.

Meet the new girl - Lily

After getting Abby adopted my plan was to take a break from fostering and to consider the alternative lifestyle of "not fostering." I did plan to keep an open slot for the occasional Great Dane foster when the need arose. That plan went down the tubes before it even got started.

Meeting Maya

First, Abby did not get adopted this past weekend as I had hoped. The potential foster wasn't ready. It may happen next weekend, or not, I'm not sure, because it doesn't appear that everyone in the household is onboard with the reality of Abby living among them.

And then came this new girl. I'm calling her Lily because her former name was Cujo.  That's just stupid on many levels, but it appears that stupid has figured prominently in Lily's life up to now. I'm not really clear on all the backstory, but it seems to involve a short term home after an improvident purchase off of Craig's List, followed by being dumped in a shelter. The big girl is severely underweight, but she's had a good grooming recently so she looks really good.

Lily is with Green Dogs Unleashed. I picked her up Sunday evening after a long day of not adopting Abby in northern Virginia. I brought her in the house, did a short version of introductions, and then put her in a crate in my office for the night and we all went to bed.

The rest of the pack, not so patiently waiting their turn.
That's Trooper trying to come over the top.

She was fine in the crate all night and has been fine with all the dogs. Lily even seemed interested in chasing Abby around the dog yard the next morning. She's a Saint Bernard so she's a little drooly, but I've seen worse. I'm not sure of her weight. She's as tall as Theo, maybe even a little more, but you can feel her ribs and her spine under that beautiful coat. It doesn't appear that her history has included very much food. I offered her three cups of dry food Monday morning, which she ignored until I added a half can of wet food, then she devoured it all.

Theo, getting acquainted.

She's not quite two  years old and she's already been spayed. Vet records are being pursued today and I'll take her to the vet for an exam and any vaccines that we can't get evidence for. Given her weight, I think that a three day worming treatment may be in order too.

Nice dog, good with other dogs, not good with cats. I'll get more and better pictures today, but here's some of the initial introductions.

There's a shepherd that may be heading this way soon as well. So much for my plans.

Clay, with Lily and Theo

Striding around the dog yard with confidence.

Even being underweight, she's much bigger than Abby, but
Abby is not intimidated by size.

Lily is very pretty, she just needs
to put on some weight.

Theo, Lily, Abby, and Max

First morning light

Down to the river

The sun came out Thursday afternoon and it was too nice not to get out. I didn't have a lot of time but Gigi and Maya and I did a quick two miles at the dog park end of the Pleasant Grove property. I don't go there often because of the risk of people with unleashed dogs, but with Maya and Gigi that's not such a big concern. One free running dog came up to them, but he was friendly and they weren't interested so we soon went on our way.

The nice thing about this trail is that it goes down by the river. The Rivanna River is visible from a lot of spots where we normally walk, but this is the best place to go if you want to really walk into the river. Maya waded in a few steps and had a quick drink. Gigi didn't get her feet wet.

Gigi isn't part of my regular walking rotation, but occasionally she tells me that she wants to go. Yesterday was one of those days.

And here's my own personal Jesus singing "The River."

More hiking

This has been a good week for hiking - no rain, mild temps, and the mud is finally drying up.

Monday was five miles with Maya and Abby.

Sparky's obligatory roll on the grass in the sun.

Tuesday I did three miles with Maya and Sparky, followed by another three with Maya and Abby.

Wednesday I took out three dogs for the first time since last winter: Maya, Theo, and Trooper.

I really trying to get back to the daily hike routine. I need to get some weight walked off this winter before the ticks come back and the grass starts to grow.

I'm keeping both Sparky and Trooper to 3 mile
hikes for now. They seem fine with that.

Abby, of course, can go forever.

I hope to be taking Abby to her new home on Saturday.

Serious shepherd business. They are all sniffing another dog's
poop or deer poop. They did a lot of that today.

Not much was missed with three sets of shepherd ears.

Just the boys, Theo and Trooper

Walking into the setting sun.

We do walk like we own the trails, but if we do meet anyone
we pull well off the trails to let them pass in peace.

Can anyone explain to me why some folks
seem to bag up their dog's poop but then
drop the bag along the trail?  What is the
point?  Better to leave it exposed.

Only Maya seems to understand that this was supposed to be a photo op.
The boys just wanted to mark the post and sniff around.