road trip – Golden Kali

Kali doesn’t get out to often these days. At ten and a half she prefers instead to sleep much of the day and inside the house given the choice. After all these years she’s earned it. Until recently Kloe was also house bound for much of the year due to her injury and then post surgery recovery period. So for several months it’s mostly been just Koda who gets to get out of the house and accompany us on various errands and car rides.

Kloe is mostly cleared now for normal activities after her surgery so she has been getting out and walking more and coming along for various excursions. Today we decided to head out to a favorite spot of ours to get our growler filled with apple cider and to enjoy the relatively mild day. Our routine, now that Kloe is back on her feet so to speak, is to take the “red girls” with us when we go out and about. Red girls being Kloe and Koda. Kali, the blondie or cream girl, typically stays behind content to sleep in peace without her sisters (or us) milling around and interrupting her daytime slumbers.

So we “geared” Kloe and Koda up with their harnesses and leashes, filled our pockets with treats, and headed towards the door to leave. As I glanced back at Kali she flashed me sad eyes as if to say, “Can I go? I promise not to be any trouble and I’ll do my best to keep up with the younger Red Girls as we walk around even though my legs aren’t as strong as they used to be. Can I go?”

I smiled at Kali and then hollered down to Holly who had already gone down the stairs to the garage, “Road trip! Kali’s coming along.”

And for the first time in a long time we packed up all three girls into the car and headed out for a road trip with Kali and her posse. It sure felt great to all be together on a short trip to one of our favorite places on a beautiful Fall day with our beautiful girls!

ROADTRIP! Kali and her posse of red girls.

Holly and “the girls”.

We took the girls for a drive and picnic up to the lake today and were pleasantly surprised when we found an area of the beach where dogs were allowed. During past visits, due to signs all along the beach telling us “no dogs”, we were not aware that there was a section of the beach where dogs were ok. Today as we strolled around the camp sites and trails we decided to go towards the beach and walk as close as we could with the girls. I spotted a sign that said “Dog Area” with an arrow pointing down the trail. Sure enough as we walked a little further we saw lots of dogs on the beach. So we headed down.

Kloe loves water and although we’ve not taken her to a beach before I was pretty darn sure she was going to go nuts (nuts in the best way possible) when she hit the water. My only regret is that we didn’t have the long leash so she was restricted to the shore with me holding on to the lease for dear life because this dog is so strong she would have pulled me under like a hungry great white shark with a baby seal in it’s jaws.

So we did the best we could with what we had and what we had was a ton-o-fun!

It was so fun to see Kloe jumping and splashing in the cool water. The other dogs in the area were very ~~dignified~~ boring simply standing in the water paw deep or laying next to their owners in the sand. I imagine had we planned for it and brought our beach chairs Kloe would have eventually laid down next to us and chilled out like the boring dogs. But during the time we were there she was entertainment for all the beachgoers along this 50 yard stretch of lake shore. It was fun to see the smiles on the faces of young and old alike as Kloe did her thing in the water. Kali even got in the game prancing knee deep in the water, smiling, and more than tolerating her little sister’s antics, seemingly very proud to be part of this pack.

As we all walked back to the car and our picnic lunch Holly and I were grateful for this beautiful day, our girls Kali and Kloe, and certain that we would be back very soon with the long leashes, beach chairs, and cameras ready to capture more of these beautiful moments in the sun with our girls.

Moments in the sun with the girls