Not-so-fleeting post begun two years ago

"The hardest part was yet to come."

It's been a while since I checked in. I hope everything is well with you, Dear Reader. Things seem to be calming down in our little corner of the world.

"The hardest part" that was "yet to come" has come and gone. And Princess and I have been busy ever since.

Old Man, Younger Son and Awesome Grandson made certain that Princess was safe that awful night. The next morning, I went out to the dog run to see how Princess was doing. Since the storm was gone, she was considerably more calm. She allowed me to check the pads on her front paws. Everything checked out alright.

Then, I couldn't help it, Dear Readers, but I fussed and fussed and fussed, then hugged and petted the poor puppy. Wagging tail, licking tongue, wiggling body all told me that the fear from last night was gone. I put the leash on her, and she was so very happy as we exited her pen and began to run.

The first task is to teach her to behave on-leash. The trouble is she is a high energy dog being walked by a low energy, sedentary old lady. First order of business - get the choke chain slipped over her head. She's a moving targets, apparently well-acquainted with the collar and wanting no part of it. It's like throwing the rings around the bottle necks at the fair, only this bottle neck moves. I aim for the snout and land on an ear. So, I aim for the ear and scrape her nose. Finally, I grab her under the chin to hold her still, but the circle of chain collapses in on itself. Aiiyy!

After some trial and error, the collar finally slips around her neck and we leave the pen. At least, that's what I thought we'd do. Silly me. I had not been around Princess Super-girl very much. She bolted out of that pen like she had been shot out of a  cannon, not stopping until she hit the end of the leash, 10 feet later. She almost did a back flip she hit so hard. I really felt sorry for her, but if I didn't leave her on the leash, she would have ended up, I don't know where.