Summertime adventures with our new friend.

Here we are back to another Sunday.  Boy these weeks seem to be flying by for us.  I'd say we had a pretty good week overall.  While I started the week still feeling pretty exhausted, I think we've finally turned a corner because I have been feeling a lot more well-rested the last few days.  I'm glad, since it's so hard to want to do anything when you feel tired all of the time, and as I've been feeling like I have more energy, we've been able to have a little more fun...something we all really needed in our lives again!

We started our week with a trip to Padgett Park.  I went later in the evening when I knew that the chances would be good that no one else would be using the dog park because I wanted to be able to let Mia join us.  I was hoping the larger space and new smells would be a fun spot for her to explore.  While Peaches was happy to be there as always and Mina got to play 1000 rounds of fetch, I watched Mia pace the perimeter of the park.  She was definitely a little anxious, but she did find some moments where she was happy to run and sniff.  After that trip, I decided that I probably won't take her again because I never wanted to cause her additional stress.  But at least we tried!

I've noticed over the last week or so, Mia's anxiety levels increasing slowly.  When the house is quiet she is happy to nap the day away on the dog bed in the living room, but if there is activity going on, she is definitely a little more on edge, and she is still going into a panic any time I'm on the phone.  I had been giving her a small dose of Trazadone as needed since I had a supply from Peaches, which helped, but as her anxiety increased, I suspected she may need a larger dose.  Thankfully we had an appointment scheduled for her to see Dr. Julie over my lunch on Tuesday.

We arrived for her appointment and we were greeted by our favorite vet tech, Cassidy, who always wants to meet the new GSP.  Mia was not interested in saying hello and was clearly feeling some stress being at the vet.  We went into the exam room and I watched as her stress levels continued to escalate and she paced continually.  While we did our best to make it through the appointment, ultimately, we decided she was too stressed.  So we were sent home with some trazadone and gabapentin and another appointment scheduled for Tuesday evening so that we'd have time for the drugs to help her relax before returning.

Luckily, the drugs helped and I arrived for our evening appointment with a much more relaxed girl.  While she definitely still had a little anxiety about being there, she was not in a full on panic, and she did a great job.  She didn't love the pokes from the vaccinations, but she was a champ when they drew her blood and did even better for her nail trim.  She was definitely relieved when we left to head home, and that night, she had the best night's sleep since she came home with me.

She is now on a regular dose of Trazadone twice per day and gabapentin as needed.  While I don't want to give her the gabapentin every day, I have found that the trazadone is helping her and a small amount of gabapentin can also help her relax when she's having a more stressful day.  She has definitely been sleeping through the night better now, which I think is a main factor in why I've been feeling more rested lately too.  I'm hoping over time maybe some of her anxiety will go away.  She's been through a lot of changes in her life over the past 5 weeks, and I'm hoping in time she'll feel safe and more confident.  

Wednesday was so hot and humid, and while the girls didn't get any adventures for the day, I did get out with some shelter dogs for a little walk.  Because of the weather, we shortened our walk, but it was still nice to be able to get the dogs out of the shelter. 

We also had a group of dogs that don't tolerate the heat very well and preferred to stay closer to the shelter so a small group of volunteers stayed behind to lounge in the grass.   This group of dogs definitely preferred lounging in the shade with a volunteer over taking a walk.  I was just glad that we could get them out of the shelter for a bit.

Most of the week, due to the heat and humidity, the girls didn't get any big adventures, but they definitely all enjoyed spending time outside in the yard on neighborhood watch.   Mia and Mina were especially enjoying their outdoor time, while Peaches is good with short visits outside followed by some nice naps in the air conditioned comfort of the house.  

Thursday we had a big cool down and temperatures dropped from the 90s on Wednesday to the 70s on Thursday.  It was a very welcome break from the heat and allowed the girls to spend more time outside during the day.  It also gave me the opportunity to take Peaches and Mina for a trip to Soldan Dog Park.

We saw lots of interesting fungus and some pretty little summer flowers as we walked along through the woods.  

Mina played several rounds of fetch before deciding to just zoom around through the woods and Peaches went off on some explorations of her own.  

They also played with some friends and splashed in the water, and I know the both thoroughly enjoyed their time at the park.

Mia stayed home and enjoyed a peanut butter filled Kong and was sound asleep when we arrived home.  Then after some napping, all of the girls spent most of the afternoon out in the yard.  Mia even found a spot under my spruce tree to curl up into a ball and take a nap.  She really loves being outside.

After work on Thursday, I took the girls to the South Lansing Farmer's market where they each got a chance for a walk through the market with me one on one.  They got spoiled by their favorite treat lady at Fur Real Dog Snacks, one of our neighbors shared a bite of his nachos with Mia, and all of the girls got some love from strangers.  Mia did well at first, although I could tell she was nervous, and we left before it became too overwhelming for her.  I want to make these outings as positive an experience as possible for her so maybe she'll really start to enjoy them. 

After work on Friday, I mowed the lawn and did a little trimming of some trees and bushes while the girls just hung around in the yard with me, but I knew we had to take advantage of the nice weather, so once I was finished with my yardwork, we made the drive out to Dewitt for a walk at the Riverside Park.

We had a really nice walk, and then we walked the short distance into downtown Dewitt.  We met a really nice family who stopped me to ask about the girls and Mia walked right up to the man and allowed him to pet her.  That was the first time I saw her do something like that and she seemed to really like him.  I was so happy to see her little tail wagging.  Even though I could still tell she was still a little nervous, it was nice to see her trust a stranger.

Saturday we had big plans for a full day of geocaching fun with Vanessa.  Our day started early with a stop at the Panera in Lansing for a breakfast meeting with a few other geocachers before we headed out for the drive to southern Michigan, near Morenci which is very near the Michigan border with Ohio.

The girls were so excited to see Vanessa because we haven't been out on an adventure with her in so long.  

The plan for the day was to pick up several caches that were part of a geoart series and then see what else we could find along the way.  

Most of the caches we found were along the roadside in farm country and we were jumping in and out of the car to make the finds.  The girls happily had their heads out of the car windows watching the fun.  Eventually they all relaxed and laid down but I know that they were happy to be out with us. 

I love the views of the farm fields with the dramatic clouds.  We saw soybean fields and lots of corn fields, and we even found some fields of alfalfa.  I had no idea what alfalfa looked like before yesterday.

We finished the geoart series and picked up a few other caches along the way before finally making our way into the town of Morenci for a late lunch. 

We ordered our food from the Morenci Pub, and I was thankful for a picnic table outside so we could sit out with the girls while we ate.  They all enjoyed watching us from the car, and they all got a small bite of my burger.

Then we got them out of the car for a walk around town to explore some of the sights and so we could all stretch our legs.  We had a nice little walk, but boy was it humid!  When we got back to the car, the girls all got a nice drink of water and then settled back into the car for the drive.

On the drive home we were close enough that I decided we'd take Vanessa to show her the Tri-State border where the borders of Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana meet.  It was a nice country drive to that spot, but it started raining as we drove, so while we did stop and get out of the car for a few minutes, we didn't stay long.  The rain continued as we made our way to Fremont Indiana for gas before we hopped on to I-69 for the drive home.  We did experience some pretty crazy rain for a part of the drive north, but it eventually stopped and the rest of our drive was clear and smooth sailing.  

We dropped Vanessa off at her car and headed home after a very successful day of geocaching.  We found over 150 caches and 9 different cache types, which is the most I've ever found in a day.  It was a great adventure and just what we all needed.  Twelve hours after leaving home, we arrived back home just after 8pm, the girls had a late dinner, I took a nice hot shower, and started a load of laundry,  then we all settled in for a quiet night.

We had a slow start to our gray and dreary Sunday,  but after lunch, we headed out for a fun little event for National Ice Cream day and Mia got to have ice cream for the first time with us.  Mina and Peaches ate their ice cream very quickly, but Mia savored hers, and Mina couldn't understand why she couldn't share.  

After eating ice cream I had  planned to take the girls for a walk and then to head home to work in the garden.

After looking at the weather,  I decided it was a great day to take a drive to Albion to get in a few miles on the North Country Trail.  With hotter and more humid weather in the forecast later in the week and into the weekend, it just made sense to take advantage of today's really nice weather.

Once we arrived in Albion,  we headed out to see how far we could get.  Since Peaches doesn't do as well as she used to in warmer weather, we broke our walk into three separate shorter walks with some short breaks in between and some stops for a dip in the river. 

We really enjoyed ourselves and after we finished our third walk in the lovely grassy area of the trail, we had completed 3.7 miles on the trail.

It was such a beautiful day and the summer flowers made me so happy.  I was really glad we had made the drive.

Before leaving Albion, I decided we'd stop one last time in Victory Park so the girls could wade in the water and get a drink.  They were so happy and we actually ended up getting a little more time on the trail bringing our total for the day to 4 miles.  We're so far behind on working toward out 100 miles this year and I was really happy with today progress.

We got home and I fed everyone an early dinner, made myself dinner, and then sat down to relax and enjoy the evening.  It was a good day.

I didn't get out into the garden today, but the weather still looks good tomorrow so I'll spend some time out there after work.  For tonight, we're just going to enjoy this quiet and relaxing summer evening to end our really nice weekend.   Hopefully we'll have more fun to share with you next week.