Weekly Wish

If yesterday's post was flora-focused, it makes sense for today to be all about the fauna, no?  It's time for the Weekly Wish Report!

Yesterday, Wish was a little bit under the weather - nothing too serious, just a little mopey and not very hungry, perhaps because of an unidentified object he gobbled up off the sidewalk the previous day before I could thwart his plan. (Argh.)  When I got home from work, we packed up a blanket and some reading material and went to a city park, sat down under a tree and spent a couple of hours outside on a wonderful summer afternoon.

"Anytime for a belly rub, please"

You know how sometimes when you're a little bit sick, you just need a little extra TLC?  That was Wish. Sitting outside with a light breeze ruffling his fur and intermittent belly rubs rapidly restored the spring in his step.

The unexpected benefit: what I had thought was simple outdoor leisure turned out to be really good practice for his training.  He got to plop down in a relaxing, comfortable setting and watch walkers, dogs, cyclists, and loud trucks pass by without trying to decide whether they posed threats.

The other hidden benefit: he sat still for a photo shoot that turned out to be on par (in quantity) with a high school senior's graduation picture session. I couldn't help it!

Two of my favorite things: the pup's ears and some clouds.

Then, when we got home, I was in the kitchen and heard a THUMP on the other side of the counter. What on earth? I looked over the counter and saw that Wish had retrieved a real baseball, instead of his soft toy baseball, and had dropped it on the tile to proclaim himself ready for fetch. I found the toy baseball, and he decided to hog both. Little Critter was back in the game.

There's no doubt about it: we'll be paying many visits to the St. Paul parks this season.