Miles and More

i got some really good miles in this weekend.  the week went pretty slow for me and i still can't believe that i'm working a Monday thru Friday job from 8:30-5.  i feel like it is going to kill me.  it's not that the work is unsatisfactory in any way; i'm actually liking working at the clinic and the people i'm working with are great.  i see about 20 to 30 patients per day and since i don't get paid for lunch whether i take a break or not, i've been going over to the local Starbuck's which is just 5 minutes away (by car).  i would walk, but i would have to go through the freeway interchange and it would be a bit precarious on foot.  i'm just not used to being cooped up for so long and have to change my perspective to become a "weekend warrior" for the next couple of months.

so Friday afternoon finally came this week, and at 4:30 there were no more patients, which means i get to skip out of work a half hour early.  yippee!  bummer was, it was blizzarding snow and temps in the twenties, so i had to stay in and ended up watching a movie with the dogs.

Saturday turned out to be a pretty nice day with temps in the mid forties and sunny and i did a bunch of errands for the first part of the day.  i didn't have time to drive over to Sundance, so i decided to run the bike path with the dogs through town.  it was alright; and we only got chased by ranch dogs once.  we did 6 miles.

i got Artemis a shock collar on Saturday to do some training and we spent about a half hour in the soccer fields working on "come" and "sit" and she started listening to me really well and not straying so far away as she usually does.  however, this morning i noticed that she was limping quite a bit, and when i checked out her paws, one of her back pads had been ripped most of the way off and was pink and raw looking:  most likely from running on the pavement on the bike path yesterday.  bummer.

but we wrapped her up with some vet-wrap (koban) and set out to check out a new section of trails over by Sundance today.  unfortunately, i could tell just by looking at the area from the freeway that it was still heavily covered in snow.  so we kept driving and went to Beulah instead.  this is the area where i saw the game warden a couple of weeks ago and it's a really nice 9 mile lollipop loop.

the trail was great today; much more dry than the last time.  and the temps were great in the mid fifties and sunny today.  i kept Artie's shock collar on her to see how she would do, and she did revert to her willful ways once again.  she chased deer twice, but both times came back after about 5 minutes (i couldn't believe it!) and i really think that in general she stayed a lot closer than she has in the past.

i kept thinking of what a friend had said to me a couple of days ago though, "look out for cats!" and was looking at the cliffs in the area thinking they would be the perfect habitat for mountain lions.  (we never saw any ~ but a few times i had that creepy feeling that we were being followed.  i'm sure it was just my imagination.)

Dugout Trail, #77

i got back home to Gillette and since it was Easter Sunday, i ate a bunch of chocolate (i had given it up for Lent 6 1/2 weeks ago)  and boy, did it taste good.  it was a non-traditional Easter for me, but a very Happy one nonetheless!

view to East from Beulah, WY

view to West from Beulah, WY