The pups along Miller Creek

I walked all dogs minus Sadie at 5:30 for a mile in a mysterious haze from what looked like wildfire smoke from Mexico.  Even Minnie came along, but her gait today looked very stiff.  I parked down the end of the maintenance road and walked north on the ATV road, turning around at the new barbed wire fence I still have no clue what it will be fencing off.

I got back home at 6:20am and it was already 78F.  I'm so tired of this repressive heat.

The big event didn't happen until 5:45pm when Susan and I met at Miller Creek.  The same dogs as this morning came, and this time Minnie was anxious to get started, but I had to wait a bit on Susan and the dogs were getting restless.

It was in the upper 90s all day and now 91F. The sun was starting to set behind the mountains, but we still had a good hour of daylight. This was the first time the pups were on the busy Miller Creek trail. They started out running with Sweetie and sniffing around. There were plenty of scents  they found interesting. I was worried about snakes. I discovered that they need more practice running elsewhere as a lone female jogger came down the trail and the pups went crazy barking.  Gretel's aggression is really starting to bother me.  Even Susan has a hard time calming her down once she gets going.

There is still water in the creek, but it's slowly fading away.  Part of the creek had a copper hue and smelled of sulphur. So much for a dry monsoon season.  We got more water in Nov-Jan than we have June-Aug.  Cottonwoods are turning prematurely yellow due to lack of water.

There were some campers on the other side of the creek with a little dog.  The pups went back onleash and stayed on leash until we got to the mile turn-around at a small waterfall.  Minnie took this opportunity to cool off in the water.  Sweetie was also onleash and did well.  She didn't even fight me!

Tangie and Rick and their Yorkie were coming as we got to the parking lot.  We hadn't seen them in a while. The pups were onleash, and again Gretel went nuts barking. The older dogs were calm.  Both Tangie and Rick looked a bit frightened by all the barking and I don't blame them.

We walked two miles in 1:45 hours, but that includes the time we sat at the waterfall, and then chatted with Ellen who had driven up the road to cool off by the creek.  She stopped to talk to us when she saw us in the parking lot and recognized the dogs and me.  She wanted to meet the pups but by then I had them in the Honda with the AC on.  I needed to have the pups calm down. It was dusk by the time we all departed.   It had cooled to 80F when I got home.

While I enjoy walking up Miller Creek, I may have to leave some of the dogs at home and focus on the pups going forward.  Walking five dogs there is a risk.  I hate leaving some dogs behind because they all look forward to their exercise. Sadie's hind legs are getting too weak for her so she willingly stays home. Minnie needs her aqua therapy (she swims smoother than she walks).  Zeke stays by my side and is no problem.  It's the pups with Sweetie that may be the wrong combination as they are now running with her through the grass.  I'm not even sure she likes that as I saw her aggressively snap at Hansel when he got too close to her.

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