MOLLYDAWG!!!

You know I love my granddawg. So I was ebullient when my daughter, Jecholia, called and said she, Brian, AND Molly may be able to get down to the mountains this weekend. Molly is a Siberian husky, almost four, and we only get to see her a few times each year on account that Maryland is so geographically challenged in that it chose to exist on the opposite side my Virginia. They got in last night late, but Molly and I were up and at 'em sort of early for a Sunday. The three of them are engaged in the Couch to 5k running program which has put so many on the road to recovering and maintaining wellness. I'm triple elated.

The mornings here are are still pleasantly cool and this one has a generous cover of soggy, drizzly clouds hung overhead. But the world is green again, it would take more than drizzle to spoil it. Starting up our first hill I can tell Molly has been boning up on her running-on-leash technique though she's having some trouble holding back the excitement -well, me too really. The world is new for her. New smells, new sounds, new texture of ground beneath paw. She was doing well in the restraint department, but when we turned off the pavement into the woods, it was all I could do to hold her back.

We made it down the embankment to the Creeper Trail and even though it was steep and slippery we made it down without incident. For a while I thought running with a sled dog was too easy. Every time I had both feet off the ground it felt like she was pulling me an extra few feet. After a mile though, she seemed more relaxed and probably thought "maybe I'd better pace myself". There was still some tension on the leash but she was much more relaxed.

At 2 miles we took a stretch break in front of the new Alvarado Train Station. She drank a little from a puddle, I had a water bottle. Just before the turnaround, about a mile further, there's actually some slack in the leash. Molly's tongue is long and limp hanging from the side of her mouth and she turns and says,

"Roohroroh roh WTF roo! How Rooro EFFN far are we Rrogoing anyrorohways!?

(she has a bit of a potty mouth, probably from living in the big city.)

"Just 6 miles. We are about ready to turn around in fact", I said.

Molly thought for a second and then, "That's like almost 10 roroh k! I'm just on the 5k training schedule or did you not get that Roh message?"

Molly has also gotten better at metric conversions since I'd seen her last. We turned and back at Alvarado she took a long draught at the mud puddle. Some little dogs came from behind the station barking at the stranger, but she made friends with one of them. By the time we started up the hill back to the bridge at the confluence, there wasn't just slack in her leash, she was running beside me. As we got to bridge, I gave her a little pep talk which picked her up enough that we managed a little 200m sprint.. Molly likes the bridges best anyways. Her nails click on the wooden decking and it sounds a little like tap dancing.

It was a PR distance for Molly and except for some complaining in the middle I think she enjoyed it. Someday we'll make it to Damascus for some real traildawg runnin'.

JJJ