Sunday, September 27, 2009

My Running Partner


This is my running partner Winnie. She is a chocolate lab/springer spaniel mix. Winnie will be eight years old this December. She is more than just my running partner, she is my roommate, my vacuum (of food), and my best friend. Winnie loves to run. She has a obsessive attraction to tennis balls. I can't remember life before the Chuck-it. Winnie and I have an agreement that she will get to exercise at least once each day. It may be a walk, a run, a swim, or some ball playing, but regardless the time or the temperature it has to happen.

Now as my running partner, Winnie struggles with the same problem that I sometimes have. Which is forgetting that you don't have to run hard all of the time. When she was younger, it wasn't a problem she could go for miles and never let up. It seems though, that as she grows older and my runs longer, that she can't always go along with me. I have never taken her on anything longer than ten miles and now days we keep it under seven. She loves to run and be there with me. She is a showoff. When other dogs are locked in there yards or stuck in the backs of trucks, she will pick up the pace. As if to say, look at me, I'm getting to go for a run. We just can't go for long runs every day. I give her a day off and feed her joint supplement, then in a day or two she is ready to hit the trail again.

Winnie doesn't know it yet, but next week we will have another runner moving in with us. Moose is a three year old boxer/black lab. My parents have Moose's brother and sister, Hooch and Simone. They were all adopted after being taken from a home that neglected them as puppies. Moose has been living with a family that has several young children and another dog. Because of the trauma in his past, he is very skittish and they were thinking of putting him down. I couldn't let that happen, so next week he moves in with us. As I understand it, he is a bit overweight, but has plenty of energy. I am going to put coach Winnie on getting him slimed down. Maybe now, Winnie will have a running partner that she can call her own.