Follow-Up Friday 10/11/13

We are joining the Follow-up Friday blog hop this week, the hop that wraps up your week and takes you into the weekend!  Many thanks to our hosts Heart Like a Dog and Sand Spring Chesapeakes.

 

It’s been a busy week with the end of National Walk Your Dog week, as well as Pet Obesity Awareness Day.  Along with writing about those things, the dogs and I have been out trying to earn some paws at PetsMove.org!  Have you been over there yet?  Check it out and see how you can earn “paws” and win prizes!

Last Sunday I posted a couple of black and white photos of our trip to a local apple orchard with Kobi.  I wanted to share some more of those photos and just tell you a little bit more about our visit.  We don’t take Kobi a lot of places anymore, like we did when he was younger.  He is the only one of the three dogs who likes to ride in the car, in fact he loves it!  I chose an orchard that is over an hour’s drive away, because we had been there in the past and seen people with their dogs there.

We thought Kobi would get tired with the long drive, and probably lay down to take a nap, but he stood the whole time, looking around out the windows, and whining when he’d see people or dogs.  He’s always done that, though he doesn’t whine quite as much as he used to!  Both ways he was up the whole time just enjoying the ride.

The orchard is named Windy Ridge Orchard, and it is a family friendly place with a lot to do.  Along with acres of apple trees for picking, they have a petting zoo, walking trails, a café for breakfast or lunch, a gift shop, and even a winery!  The winery was new to us this year, but we didn’t do any wine tasting this time.  They also have blueberry picking when they are in season.

When I shared my photos last Sunday, a lot of people asked if Kobi ate the apples.  Pamela from Something Wagging This Way Comes commented that they took her dog, Honey, cherry picking and she ate so many of the cherries they were afraid she’d get sick.  “I don’t even want to think of how many apples she’d eat if she were in Kobi’s position.”   Now, I fully expected just that to happen with Kobi.  He loves apples, and we always share with him, and the other dogs, when we’re cutting up apples for pies.  They asked us at the orchard to please keep him out from under the trees (for sanitary reasons), and I thought we’d be fighting with him the whole time.  But for some reason he had no interest in all the apples on the ground, and he wasn’t even interested in a piece that I offered him.  He was very well behaved!

However, when I went to the café window to get some of their home baked apple cider donuts, it was a different story.  He glued his nose to that bag of donuts and didn’t want to give up.  We even had to keep him from following a child who was walking around eating a donut!  He did get a bite of donut when we got home later, and he has also been eating the apples when I give him a piece.  I’m not sure why he didn’t eat them there, I guess he was just enjoying the scenery (or holding out for donuts)!

There were a lot of other dogs there and Kobi was happy to see them all.  He got a lot of attention since he was wearing his Pawz dog boots.  Many times I overheard children saying “that dog is wearing shoes”!  Everyone was polite and asked permission before petting, and Kobi enjoyed the attention.  It was a fun day for him, and for us, and I’m so glad we brought him!

Coming soon:

Winter is not too far away here in our part of the country.  For me that usually means more reading time.  Perhaps you’ll be looking for a book to add to your Christmas wish list for your winter reading, or for giving as a gift.  Most of the books I read these days are pet related!  Next week look for two book reviews from Wag ‘n Woof:

• Rescue Me, Maybe by Jackie Bouchard
• Chaser, Unlocking the Genius of the Dog Who Knows a Thousand Words by John W. Pilley with Hilary Hinzmann     #Chaser1000

I enjoyed both of these books and am looking forward to telling you more about them!