After a fairly quiet Tuesday, Baby Padma woke to find her human leader NOT rushing off to work. They went for their walk down the block to the play field and once having walked to the other side, greeted a neighbor with a Chocolate Lab named Chip.
Chip had really nice leaders, especially the "mom" one named Linda. Padma played with Chip for about 20 minutes. Nanny Kylie and Grandpa Jay Jay did not approve, and the human leader had to make Kylie lay on her side. It wasn't so bad because then she got tummy rubs. But Kylie kept saying Chip was to big and would play too rough. But he didn't.
Part of the time, he would just lay on the ground and wiggle an inch or two as Padma raced around him. He would pretend he was going to pounce, but didn't. Then he would let Padma chase him. Only once, when he tripped, he almost fell on Padma, and she squealed a little because she was startled. But then everything was okay, so up she bounced and raced after Chip again. Chip's leader brought over a bowl of water, and Padma pretended to fish like a bear, splashing water out of the bowl with her paws and biting the water.
Then Padma, Nanny Kylie, Grandpa Jay Jay and their human leader went home, already tired from the hot day. They had a light breakfast and then loaded up into the truck. Padma had no idea where they were going, but only complained for a moment. She was learning that road trips were fun.
They arrived about an hour later to some place. Padma couldn't see very much, but the truck was parked in the shade and the tail gate opened, so she could see that it was a farm on a very big hillside. There were ponies, some of them babies like her. The leader took Nanny Kylie with her and put Grandpa Jay Jay in the back with Padma. Then she closed the tailgate and left...Grandpa Jay Jay cried and howled like a wolf, with his deep, mournful cry.
He knew, and could see the human leader was having Kylie trek up the very big, five acre hillside to fetch a flock of sheep. Grandpa Jay Jay loved to be near the sheep and help his human, but he just couldn't make it up the hill with his old body. It made him so sad to stay behind in the truck.
Some people came and looked at the sheep. They were hoping to buy two of the young ones for breeding stock. After they left, the human leader, who Padma had learned was named Tracy, went to open all the gates to let the sheep back out and the ponies back in. The ponies chased Nanny Kylie and Tracy jumped at the horses to give Kylie a chance to run down the hill. They ran to the closest gate to escape. Many horses don't like dogs because they see them as predators. But not the pretty horse that Padma had met at the duck farm.
After some play in the yard and some nice cool water, they all rode over to the duck farm to give the ducks fresh water for swimming and fresh food. Tracy let out a big gasp when she walked past the nesting box....there was a new baby in the family. Padma wasn't the youngest anymore...
First the baby was with its Nanny
Then with its mother...
Then Tracy took Padma and Grandpa Jay Jay over to a small pool for a cooling off. It was very hot for Oregon. Over 90 degrees outside.
After the farm chores, all the dogs were loaded back in the truck along with a giant, shiny new pool!
It was filled just for Padma and Grandpa Jay Jay within minutes of arriving home! Complete with a floating toy!
Which Padma wasted no time in retrieving...
And carrying out to the yard to bite on...
Nanny Kylie watched over, protectively as always. Several groups of children came to see Padma and to play with her. Finally Tracy made all the dogs go inside because of loud noises outside. They were fireworks and people were shooting them in the street. Padma didn't mind the noise, but it was starting to scare Grandpa...it has to be REALLY loud for Grandpa to hear it. So Tracy closed all the windows and turned on the air condition and some music. It made Grandpa fall asleep.
Then Tracy went to her computer to begin working on some stuff ... she told Padma she was "behind" and had to work. Padma didn't like it when Tracy worked. She liked it when everybody played with her. So she set off around the house to see what she could chew on and attack...
©2007 Tracy Wessel.