Fritzi in the city

 It was another hot day today.  I had walked Hansel, Gretel and four of the puppies in the early morning, getting over seven miles in the first two hours.  The overcast skies helped me along.  

I could have gotten Zeke and Sweetie walked as well, but I had a 10am appointment at Dr Geiger's veterinarian office to get all the puppies updated on their shots.  They all got the last of the 1-5 shot and got their rabies.  Thankfully Susan came to help manage the five hyper pups.

All the pups got weighed.  Fritzi is the biggest at 47 pounds.  Sahne is the smallest at 30 pounds.  All the others are in the mid 30s.

Susan invited me to take the puppies to her place to let them romp around.  The vaccines tired them out and made a few of them barf in the back of the Honda (luckily it was hardened dog kibble that was projected), but for 90 minutes we both sat outside on her patio watching the pups play.    I left at 1:30pm because I had to get to Tucson for a Yelp event at the new Donut Bar in the downtown area.c

I finally left with a car loaded with cardboard and tincans and one nervous pup in the back.  I chose to take Fritzi along, to see how he would handle city noises like street cars, honking cars, and speeding cyclists.  Outside temperature read 99F for the entire drive there.  I had the AC on high but the pup panted all throughout the drive.

Fritzi didn't want to get out of the car when I got to my destination.  I had to coax him out.  But once he was on the ground at 6:30pm, he did quite well on leash.  People were gawking at him and praising him as he galloped right next to me.  The only thing that made him nervous were other big dogs passing us by.  He never got startled by any of the noises.

I picked up my huge donut, saving it for tomorrow's hike, then ordered a large cheese pizza from Empire Pizza while I sat outside on the dog-friendly patio of 1055 Brewing company, sipping two 10-ounce beers while Fritzi calmed down by my side with some water.  This was the same place I took Gretel to when she got her first introduction to city noises.

It felt so good to be back in an open city, with people walking around mask-free.  I know we aren't out of the woods yet, but our covid numbers are declining.  Restaurants in town are open again for inside dining.

I picked up the pizza and then dropped it off in the Honda while Fritzi and I walked another two miles up and down 4th Avenue.  This is the hip part of town, but tonight it had a college vibe to it, with crowds of young people hanging out in bars enjoying their alcohol.  I didn't stop anyway.  Even the new Dillinger brewing was out of my favorite hefeweizen.  That was fine with me as I still had to drive home and I didn't leave Tucson until 9:45pm, getting home at 12:15am because I had to pull over twice to nap for 20 minutes.  Little Fritzi not once complained.  What a wonderful puppy he is.  He's stolen my heart.