Park outing

My sister and I took Tug to our favorite paw park this weekend. It's deadly hot outside so we only planned to stay a little while. There's a word for dogs with smushed noses as it means they're more affected by heat and cold than other dogs due to breathing issues.


We've always stayed in the small dog section as it was plenty big for him and lots of shade and benches for us to sit on...but the July Boston group was held in the large section- with big dogs and lots of people (including the smaller sized hyper versions). So, we decided to take him into that bigger section again to see what would happen. We sat at a bench in the shade near the small dog section and Tug raced around like a lunatic. He didn't go far but he was sprinting back and forth. He ran up to greet every dog that came by and even the smaller sized people (he doesn't know many of them so he's always hesitant). We finally had to lure him to sit with us so he could stop panting. We left in less than half the time we normally spend but it's horribly hot in the summer. Mama's been sick and hasn't been able to take him on walks. I have bad knees and when I take him on walks they hurt something fierce so I haven't walked him, either. He had a little cabin fever.

We now take ice cubes in the car when we go somewhere. He doesn't seem to want to drink at the parks but he needs hydrating and cooling so the ice works great. He licks it and then crunches it when it gets small enough. Why we never thought of that sooner is beyond me!