8/3/24

 We started our day with a walk to Dunkin’ Donuts. This is a traditional walk. There are usually some dogs, Aunt Julie, Avery, My self and son straggles like Ethan or my nephew that join. Today was 3 days and 3 people. The boys declined.

Jiminy stayed back because that was a lot of steps for a little guy like him. We grabbed a quick breakfast and beverage.

All the dogs did well, especially Moe. He saw a surprise man at the park, a man walking his husky on the sidewalk and lots of cars and people. It was great practice for him to “dog” with manners. We have been working really hard with manners.

This afternoon, we set up for a large group of people. We had orchestrated the ordering of the pizza, had the tables and chairs set up. We had a few sprinkles but the weather cooperated quite well.

A family friend had a fabulous shirt on that he had made that showcased a picture of himself , sitting in a line with the other neighborhood kids eating an ice cream. A few years back, the neighborhood kids recreated that picture.

As our family and friends showed up, it was nice to see faces we have not seen in a while. At the same time, we were missing those that couldn’t make it or were no longer with us.

It’s weird when you have a loss, how these big events really shine a light on the void that remains. Of course everyone shared memories and laughs about said person, which was really nice that we keep his memory alive in that way.

 The men did their annual bocce ball tournament.  It is the Italian thing to do. The men against the boys. The boys won each time. The men blamed Ethan because he didn’t participate, but his age would have made him a swing person. They couldn’t blame their luck, skill set or each other, so it is only natural that it was Ethan’s fault. Ha! It was all in good fun.

I was feeling hesitant to have Moe around multiple people. I want to set him up for success. He met a lot of new people and up until that point only had one growling incident. That incident someone walked up to him while he was sitting next to me on the chair. That could have been a guarding situation and was easily interrupted with correction.

I brought him over to see how he did meeting people. He did great. He was sniffing everyone, he laid quietly next to my chair and even warmed up to a family friend by cuddling in the couch with him.

He did have a growling fit at a friend’s son who had swimming goggles on. Moe did better once those were removed.

There was also an incident where the boys were running by and Moe did his beagle bark. This dog is such an odd collection of breeds. All in all, it was great practice for him to work on developing his manners.

It is sad that our party has come and gone. We look forward to this every year!