Hello again! I've deleted a bunch of posts (about six) that were destined to be a bit boring if I ever got round to writing them because there was nothing new to see, and mostly I was just working on training Freya, remembering to take the occasional photo of a bit of road or something. We've moved on from teeny puppiness in the past few weeks, and we are now at the learning-about-the-world and coming-back-when-called stages of doghood.
Apparently, the way to do this is to use an extendable lead. Very good. Like, ohhhhh, wow, this is amazing! It was joyous the first time we went to the park and I let her run around to the full length of the lead. It's not a super-long one – just five metres. But that's far enough. It was one of the days when we'd had a bit of snow – very rare for Lancaster in January. There was a lot for Freya to deal with, because she'd never been able to run free before, and she'd only been out in the snow a couple of times near our house. Granted, this is a pathetic covering of snow, but we never get much. Cracking sunset though, eh?
So, Freya ran circles around me, round and round, up and down, backwards and forwards, with completely wild abandon. This was the best thing that had happened to her so far, and she couldn't believe how wonderful life had suddenly become. I know this because she told me, with her eyes. She could follow the smells, she could chase the birds, and she could see lots of other dogs ... though she couldn't play with them because, as she found out, the lead didn't extend far enough.
It was all going well, until Freya caught me off guard when she darted away to try to catch a gull, and she wrenched my arm really hard. This would probably have been okay if I hadn't already been carrying an injury that's been niggling for a few months (I think it's my rotator cuff – ouch!). Excrutiating pain and an immediate inability to do anything at all with my arm. I had managed to hold on to the lead, so she hadn't escaped. I switched hands then, and we walked for a while longer, but I'm afraid I was completely pathetic, whimpering to myself, saying very dramatic things like, 'oh god, this is really bad' and 'what have I done?!' It's still not fine, and I've wrenched it a bunch of times since then, but I haven't had time to try to get an appointment for someone to tell me what's wrong with my arm and whether I can fix it.
So, my assessment of the extendable lead is that it's very good indeed for allowing a puppy to run around and have a bit of freedom, to use up some energy and start to learn to come back when you call. You just need to be a bit careful if you've got a mad dog like a German shepherd plus an arm injury.
I bravely managed to take one more photo because I didn't want to forget the stunning sunset. I wonder if we'll get any more snow this year. This is as much as Lancaster gets these days, and it's usually nearer the spring. Perhaps we'll have a bit more next month, or the one after. I think my mum said that it snowed when I was born, which was in April, but I might've misremembered that.
Anyway, how are you all? Doing okay? Plodding on, trying to keep safe, wearing your masks and washing your hands? Very good. Keep your chins up, and I'll have some more posts for you soon. Plenty for you to see from the past couple of weeks!
Until tomorrow, snow sprites.
WQ+F
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