(Lunch pictures below.) Yesterday Felix and I met up with our friends Sabrina and her service dog Indy, and Sabrina’s husband Russ. We decided to meet at a local walking trail called Riverwalk. Felix has only briefly been to a park-style setting when preparing for puppy class, but he didn’t walk around there. So this was his first real park-style place to go for a walk. It was also his first long walk with my wheelchair.
When we got there and started on the trail, Felix was confused at first about people passing us going the opposite direction, and people passing us because we were walking slowly. At first, he wanted to stop and wait for everything to pass us. And pass us they did—it was SO busy!
It was the most crowded I’ve ever seen Riverwalk! There were people walking, people jogging, bikes, strollers, and loads of other dogs. Even when Felix wanted to stop to let people pass us, though, he was fantastic with it all! He wasn’t afraid or worried at all about all the people and things zipping around. And he was great with the other dogs, just looking at them and keeping on with what he’d been doing.
The only downside was pulling. Felix was too interested in other things to bother with taking treats. He really was having a lot of fun walking around and seeing everything happen, and didn’t want to be bothered by eating a boring treat. At first I tried only walking when he wasn’t pulling and stopping every time he pulled. But it was just too exciting! There was zero time when he wasn’t pulling. It also didn’t help that I had to keep him on a very short leash for safety’s sake with all the people and dogs and bikes whizzing by. Since I was in my wheelchair, we couldn’t pull off the path for these things. We had to just take up our half of the path and that was that.
He did a lot of stopping and starting. He’d stop for a while, and then want to walk, then stop, then walk. It was definitely the longest walk he’d ever been on! Around the neighborhood the longest walk he’s been on has been 15 minutes.
We walked about half an hour, and he was getting better at walking the whole time. But after about 30 minutes, I figured he’d had enough and I put him in my lap for the ride back. He was happy to sit on my lap and watch everything happen around us! And it was loads easier for me to keep near Sabrina and Russ and have a conversation with them!
They were very patient with us while Felix was walking. I was thankful for that! I think next time we go for a walk, we’ll go to a less crowded trail at a less crowded time!
We wanted to grab a bite to eat after the walk, and by this time Brad was up and ready for the day! So I swung by and picked him up and we headed to Burgers and Barley. Only when we got there, there was a huge line of people waiting and they said it’d be half an hour before we could get a table. Sabrina thought she had a virtual appointment at 4PM, and we just didn’t have that much time. So instead we headed to McAllister’s.
Sabrina and I hung out outside at a table while the guys ordered us all food. Unfortunately there was a huge line at McAllister’s too! But we got the food eventually. While we were waiting for food, I had Felix on my lap. I decided that while I was eating, I’d practice our homework from puppy class which was to go somewhere outside in public and give my dog a chew and let them watch the world go by.
So I put Felix on his mat, gave him his Himalayan Chew, and ate my food. The food was super tasty, and Felix was super good! He didn’t stay put; he moved around a little bit from his mat to the concrete to under the table. But he didn’t pull on the leash or do anything really bad. He really enjoyed watching cars and people go past and was totally chill—and still wasn’t interested in treats LOL. He wasn’t even really interested in his Himalayan Chew!
Just as Sabrina and Russ were getting ready to head home to have Sabrina’s appointment at 3, her phone rang. It was the doctor! The appointment was at 3, not 4!
Luckily it was not a crowded patio, so Sabrina went off to the side and had her appointment over the phone. Brad took this opportunity to give Russ some photography lessons. I was able to help out with the lessons a bit, too, since Brad has taught me so much about photography. Felix wanted to stay on the ground, so I let him, and he really enjoyed his time. I was so proud of him!
When Sabrina’s appointment was over, we hung out for a little while longer and then all headed home. It had been a wonderful outing for me, and for Felix! I was really happy with how much he experienced!
Brad got some pictures from our lunch, and they are below. The pictures start out with a regular/portrait lens, and then Brad switched to a really wide angle lens so the pictures are a bit more distorted. You can even see people who think they’re not in the frame of the picture doing things they didn’t realize would be captured on camera! Like the one where I’m moving my dress out of the way of the picture of Felix, and ended up exposing my whole leg LOL!
In the pictures I am wearing an orange and teal off-shoulder dress. Felix is a sable and white Japanese Chin wearing a purple plaid harness. Brad is wearing a green tie, pants and fedora, black blazer, and lavender shirt. Sabrina has on a jean jacket and a white wide-brimmed hat. Indy is a Golden Retriever. And Russ has on a light blue t-shirt.
