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Polly Pocket here to share with you about my limits. You may not realize this (apparently foster mama didn’t*), but some dogs have limits as to how much they can handle before they go berserker and melt into a puddle of drool and stress toots.
You see, the thing is that I am just getting the hang of being part of a family in a house let alone out in the big bad world! So while I am finally able to be calm and hang out with Foster Mama and Foster Daddy (and Turkey and Rufus), I get really anxious when we leave the comfort of Foster House. I see other doggies and I go bark, bark, bark to let them know that I am not scared but very TOUGH. Sometimes I even bark at doggies who I know are my friends, like Dante.
Yesterday I met up with Dante and his Mama, Amy of Fido Fetch Photography, at the Suds of Fun charity dog wash for the Humane Society of Greater Kansas City. Foster Mama had thought this event would be a good way to both get me a bath and market me to potential furever families at the same time. She knew there would be some challenges though, since many of the factors involved in this outing pushed my limits: (1) Lots of dogs; (2) Lots of people – most of which were not paying attention to me; and (3) bath time (shudder). As soon as we got out of the car I started bark, bark, barking to let everyone know that I had arrived and that I am very TOUGH. I thought Foster Mama would appreciate that I was announcing our arrival, but she looked really embarrassed. She even tried to lure me from my hyper-attentive state with hot dogs, but seriously? I am a terrier, lady…it takes more than a hot dog to break MY focus. So instead of walking around and sniffing other dogs’ butts (which was making me feel growly), we found a quiet corner away from the hustle and bustle where Foster Mama made me “sit,” and she petted me when I was quiet. When it was time for my bath, we had to take this twist-y turn-y way into the bath time building because she didn’t want me to bark or lunge at anyone’s dog. Once inside, I faced death in the face the dreaded bathtub. I made sure to give Foster Mama my surliest glare to show her how I felt about bath time. Then she tickled underneath my chin and made me smile just a little before letting Amy snap this photo – tricked!
After my brush with death bath, Foster Mama got me some brisket for being so brave and took me back to a quiet spot away from the other doggies and let me eat just enough to not get sick, but enough to make my tummy warm and full and happy. I was a little upset when she gave a couple of bites to Dante, but she told me that he was her favorite hot dog, and I needed to chill out.
After my brisket, I calmed down enough to walk around to look at the different booths for a little bit. Some people’s dog’s were on retractable leashes, and a few times those dogs were out reeeeeeaaaallllly far on the leash and would just get up in my face! IN. MY. FACE! But luckily, Foster Mama and Amy were keeping a close eye out for me so Amy ran interference with Dante a few times and Foster Mama knew to redirect my focus if I started to get growly. One time, she even redirected my focus with a teeny tiny pup cone from Sheridan’s(my new favorite thing). I love the ice creams but not the cone, so I gave that part to Dante. See? I can share.
When I finished my cone, Foster Mama felt like I had done enough for the day and chauffeured me back to Foster House. She told me that I had “made some strides” but we still have a lot to work on. Walking around by the end of the night without barking or snapping at any dogs – good. Trying to hide between a hunky firefighter’s legs for three minutes because I was nervous – not so good. But honestly, can you blame me on that one?
* Foster Mom here – although Polly doesn’t think so, we do recognize that she has some boundary issues when out in public. I do want to help her work through those though, which is why I took her to this event. I was very careful to read her signs and take her away from the group when she was feeling overstimulated. The firefighter though – she beelined for him. Not sure what I could have done.
** Polly Pocket is still available for adoption – see her profile here!
* Polly Pocket is available for adoption through Heart of America Humane Society *
This weekend was full of things to be celebrated…
1. I (mostly) ran my first race. It was the 4.02 mile Trolley Run, which starts in Waldo (my neighborhood) and follows the old Trolley line to the Plaza. It was raining the whole time. I set a personal record…which is probably a normal pace for a speed walker, but it was still awesome.
2. I actually made something I pinned on Pinterest…Creamy Tomato, Basil, Garlic, and Cheese Tortellini soup. It was delish!
3. I took my last final and turned in my last paper of grad school! I still have to give a final to my students this week, but as of Friday, I am D.O.N.E! I cannot WAIT to cross “get a masters degree” off my goals list!
What things did you accomplish this weekend that should be celebrated? Turk wants to celebrate the fact that he has broken our resolve and forevermore claimed the couch cushions as his own.
I’ll probably be light on posting this week as I am prepping the house for my graduation party this weekend and catching up on grading stuff for my students…but I’ll be back next week with a vengeance!
Thanks for bearing with me as I took a week off from blogging…things have been kind of hectic in our neck of the woods! Let’s finish out our Portland trip so we can get back to DIY and the doggies…which I know is why most of you check in here anyway!
Day 5 was meant to be our Mt. Hood day. We still had our rental car, and wanted to explore a little more outside of Portland after our successful trip to the coast the day before. It was raining when we headed out, but we were unfazed. How can you be fazed when your view out the car window was this?
Our first stop on the way to Mt. Hood was Multnomah Falls – a beautiful waterfall right off the highway in the Columbia River Gorge. Even though it was pouring down rain, the trails up to the falls were packed with tourists and hikers just enjoying the view.
We didn’t walk all the way to the top, but we did grab a couple photos to prove we were there…
Our GPS System assured us we could get to Mt. Hood by traveling along the historic Columbia River Highway, so while it was a longer route, we opted to give it a try. For the next 2 hours, we drove on roads that I am pretty sure we not meant for tourists, and more than once I made references to Twilight that Daniel ignored. Although we felt completely isolated and more than a little worried we may never find our way home – the view made that crazy drive worth it.
Unfortunately, it was too cloudy to actually see Mt. Hood – so we ended up back in Portland pretty early.
No worries though, we spent our evening walking along the Eastbank Esplanade, which is a biking and walking path that extends from the Steel Bridge to the Hawthorne Bridge along the Willamette River. While the view was spectacular…
Daniel mostly enjoyed capturing my impersonations of Kristen Wiig doing “Gilly.”
We made our way across the bridge into downtown, but not before snapping a few photos of the iconic “Portland” sign:
Right under the sign, we found one of the Benson Bubblers, which are unique water fountains found only in Portland and donated to the city by lumber baron Simon Benson (supposedly because he got annoyed with his employees getting drunk on the job and claiming they had to drink beer because there was no fresh water readily available to them).
On Day 6, we headed back into downtown to do a bit more exploring. Unfortunately, our camera battery had died and we didn’t know it. Luckily, I was able to get a couple photos with my cell phone. My favorite photo was of Portlandia, the statue that looks out over the entrance to the Michael Graves’ Portland Building. She is the second largest copper repoussé statue after the Statue of Liberty. Pretty cool, huh?
We also checked out the Portland Court House:
and the Portland Theater:
By far my favorite stop was Powell’s Books, which is a massive bookstore in the heart of downtown Portland that is filled with millions of books. I could have spent hours there, but managed to keep our trip pretty short for Daniel’s sake. Man, it was cool though.
We also visited our last food cart of the trip: Addy’s Sandwich Bar.
We really enjoyed visiting the different food carts over the course of our trip – we were able to experience delicious breakfast sandwiches, freshly squeezed fruit juice, Chinese egg rolls, Mexican sopapillas, and gourmet sandwiches – all from different food carts! We figured it was only natural to have our last Portland lunch come from a food cart. So we enjoyed our sandwiches from Addy’s in the square by the Court house and reminisced over our week in Portland.
I am completely convinced we should move to Portland as soon as I am done with school. Daniel is a little more cautious.
Regardless of our future, we had a wonderful trip and appreciate you allowing us to share it with you!
Now, the only question left is…where should we go next?
Our Waldo Bungie 