Never Met a Stranger

Never Met a Stranger.

Thursday, December 11

We've met lots of new people and dogs the past two days.  

Iiiii know!  The Hermit on The Hill is out in the real world!  Sometimes I get outside of my comfort zone and we walk on the side streets. Today we walked for 5 1/2 hours, that includes one hour with Zuma on a horse longe line cavorting on the beach.  Oh, how she loved that!  We'll make it a daily ritual from now on.

• She is totally exhausted tonight.  I've upped her feed and am giving her an extra meal at lunchtime as she's burning so many calories with all this exercise.  I don't want her to lose weight, the vet says she is perfect at 125 lbs.  

• Yesterday we met Wendy, a very interesting woman who also has a Mantle Great Dane!  She and her partner are hoping to breed their "Lucy" so we exchanged information.  It was so nice to meet someone who understands "Dane Brain".  They are not like other breeds, they have some quirky tendencies and only another Dane lover can truly relate.  I told Doug about Wendy last night and his response was:  "So you're signed up for pick of the litter, right?"  Does he know me or what?!  I could never replace Zuma but I would never have any other breed.  She is an irreplaceable companion; loyal, loving, sociable, excellent temperament, friendly to every person and dog, a fantastic traveler.  

HOWEVER, having said that, since Doug left for home, Zuma has "upped security" and, uncharacteristically for her, she has growled at a couple of large men who approached us/her too quickly.  With Doug gone, she apparently feels a strong need to protect me.  She just let's out a low grrrr, rumbling through her lips with her head down, no teeth are shown, but clearly she feels this is her JOB, she needs to take care of me.  I feel very safe with her on my team.  As it turned out, her instincts were right.  These were not people I wanted to spend time with.  Too forward.

These are some of the dogs we met in the past two days:

A beautiful young puppy named Lola

Woody the Pug puppy.

Dan, a contractor working at a business on the Boardwalk.

Minnie and her owner, they work with Dan.  Her markings are close to Zuma's and she is a very cool 10 year old lady dog.  I commented "She's marked like a mini Zuma".  Too funny her name is Minnie.