Swollen Fingers and Purple Wrists

I have the most wonderful dog in the entire world.

Her name is Choxie. She is a ginormous white (NOT YELLOW) lab with a big pinkish-brown nose, floppy ears, droopy eyes, and droopy lips. She melts my heart.

Choxie is also an angel dog. I mean, every once in a while, she'll mess with the cat and get in his face, but the cat LIKES IT. He flirts back, for heavens sakes!

But Choxie doesn't bark much, she doesn't jump on people or harrass them, she has never bitten, and she always does what she is told.

Introduce her to a leash, and that's a different story.

As soon as she SEES the leash, she starts jumping on me, biting for the leash, and squirming and banging into things. As I put the leash on, she nips at my wrists, and sometimes jumps on me again. Once I have the leash on, she makes a mad dash to the front door, WAY TOO EXCITED to go on a walk.

As I unlock the door, I am sweating and butterflies are in my stomach, and I am wondering, "Why am I even trying?"

The door is open and before I know it, that giant dog is dragging me by my heels down the street. She doesn't go after any cars, she stays on the sidewalk, so no safety issues for HER, but I on the other hand am sliding down the street on my butt, praying that we both get home alive.

This is how it was a couple of months ago. Little has changed, but at least these days I can stay on my feet. This gives me hope that someday I will be able to walk her... in a civilized manner.

So this morning, I took Choxie on a short walk around the block. When we first got out, she pulled me to the point that the circulation in my right hand was cut off. But it was okay, because that was the only problem on that trip! She didn't jump on me, go after any bunny rabbits, or excessively sniff any children. I could see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I felt so good about that trip, that I decided to take her on another walk this afternoon. She jumped on me for the leash, she again cut off the circulation in my right arm, and this trip certainly wasn't as pleasant as the last, but it definitely has been worse before!

I came home with purple wrists and hands.

And then I worked my bedonkedonk off on my English paper.

Then I found that my blog was broken. Hence this new one.

And if you know me well, you know that if I type for more than 30 minutes, my fingers get swollen, stiff, and very uncomfortable.

So in the end, I had purplish-red, swollen, stiff hands. It was an unattractive sight. But at least I now know that today was not a day wasted.

Hooray for dogs!

Hooray for grass for dogs to roll in!

Hooray for hardworking hands!

Hooray for english class!

Hooray for mint chocolate chip ice cream!