Thursday, April 13th
Adventure Pack
Mamacita, Coco, and Sputnik sniffed the trails and hiked along together calmly this morning. We saw a few little puppies along the way, one of whom came up and sniffed hello. Sputnik has been much easier to keep calm lately, even when a passing dog is excited and pulling at the leash. I wonder whether it's the warmer weather that is causing him to be a bit more subdued.
Variety Pack
The mellow energy of this morning continued into the afternoon as the pack sought shade on perhaps the warmest, sunniest day of the season so far (though there was that series of brief, winter heat waves in February). Of course, Isaac still ran after the tennis ball; but he took more frequent breaks to splash around in the water bowls in order to cool off. Thompson mostly followed his usual routine of sauntering around the park and saying hello to everyone, but once he made the rounds he parked himself under the bench in the shelter at the center of the park rather than hang out amidst the picnic tables where there were humans who would have been happy to pet him. Coco, Ruffers, and Mamacita all stuck pretty close by to me and none of their greetings with the other dogs at the park turned into play sessions. It wasn't even all that hot today, but the season has just started to change and I think the dogs will take a little time to acclimate.