Leona goes on her first hike.
6-28-2013: With all of her litter-mates gone Leona gets to go on her first hike with the big dogs.
Shortly after all of my brothers and sisters left I heard The Man saying that he wanted to take me out for a hike with the other dogs. The Woman reminded him that I was still a very young puppy, only about nine weeks old and he needed to be careful about taking me on a hike. They kept mentioning the word “parvo” as they were talking. I do not know what a hike is or what parvo is. From the way that The Man talked though a hike is fun and parvo is bad. He said something about a puppy dying from parvo. I do not know about dying either, but since it makes my Man sad to talk about it I think it is something I am not wanting to do right now.
Almost every day since I have been around the big dogs The Man, and often The Woman, will take them away from our house. Before they leave the house I can see Libby jumping around in the air, twisting her body like she is the happiest dog in the world. Mom will start running in circles and barking at The Man. Mom will leap high into the air and nudge The Man’s hands with her nose. Then my dorky daddy, Leroy, will start to bark while his tail waves back and forth so fast. Meanwhile Lincoln will start racing around, running so fast that I want to be able to run like that too. I can sometimes see when Lincoln gets running so fast he will turn and race right at The Man, bouncing high into the air as he crashes into The Man. The Man will usually have to take a step backwards when Lincoln is doing this. Lucy gets so excited that I can hear the whining coming from her as she runs to be with The Man. Then there is Latte. She takes off like she is searching for something that is very important. Latte loves to eat, so when she first acted this way I thought she was looking for some hidden food, and I wanted to get some too. Instead of something tasting to eat she will come running back from outside with a toy in her mouth, and her tail is moving so fast like everyone else’s. This always happens whenever The Man says “Do you all want to go on a hike”?
On this day The Man said those magical words about a hike again. It was so exciting and for the first time I was out with those big dogs when he said it. I was leaping in the air and barking too. I did not know what we were doing, but it had to be fun. It is fun to run and bite those big dogs, and I kept trying to get Libby’s ears. I like her long silky ear, they are fun to chew on. The Man picked me up and all the big dogs stopped moving. I could see that most of them sat down as we were at the front door of the house. I heard The Man use the word “Heel” and then he opened the door. All of the big dogs started out the door with him. As we were going out the door I could hear Lucy barking, she had not been going on a hike since she had her puppies. The Man walked out the door, and all of those big dogs followed him. I heard a quiet beeping sound and he opened the back end of the car up. All of the big dogs jumped right into the car, except for Libby. She just sat there looking at The Man and the car. The Man reached out and touched her, then used a really firm voice and said “Libby, load up”! My aunt Libby jump straight up into the car without having to get a running start. I tried to get in the back of the car with those big dogs, but The Man kept his strong arms wrapped around me. Once he gets his arms wrapped around me it is so hard to escape.
The Man then walked to the side of the car, holding me in his big arms and his hands kept playing with my face. I like my face being played with, so I bit his fingers to show him how much fun I was having. He is pretty fast with his fingers though and usually I miss when I try to bite them. I saw my crate in the car, and The Man pushed me inside it while handing me a tasty treat. I like treats, so by him giving me one made me feel good, for a little while. I have been in this care before, but being alone in the crate is so boring that I started to whine a bit as The Man started to drive. He said “Leona, we are going on a hike and you are going to love to hike”.
Leona helping Lincoln hunt on her first hike
Author’s note: The picture is of the hike itself, not loading up in the car. Pictures of hikes are more fun, and easier to take for me when I am trying to get every dog safely loaded in the car. Another note, decades ago we lost a puppy to parvo. It had been infected from where we purchased her. She was a beautiful Golden Retriever, and it killed her. This has made us be very wary of our dogs getting parvo. Parvo is a problem in Central Oregon, which is why we never take puppies out from our home that are going to be sent home to others. There are other safeguards that can be done regarding parvo, but that is another article. For now we are going to have fun with Leona as she experiences the joys of life.