Month: May 2023

We finally got a few more walks in out at the LNG tank. Dudley has been out and about and educating people about tripawds. Everyone loves him and asks about his missing leg and comments about how amazing he does with lack of said leg. He is just the happiest boy and is so good about being around other dogs and people…don’t worry, he still tests me every day…ha ha!!! He’s even started playing more, both with me and other dogs. It feels good to be able to let people know that amputation is not the end of the dog’s life! We had an older fellow say “looks like your dog has a bit of a limp”…and I said “no, he’s just missing a leg”…he thought that if a dog needed to have a leg amputated, they should just be put down. He was amazed at how well Dudley got around and we may have changed his mindset. And then we meet the people who have had amputees and they share their dogs story with me. I’m more amazed at how trusting and loving this dog from the streets is of humans. He’s getting better with car rides since I coaxed him into riding in the back seat with a sling style car seat cover from Molly Mutts. https://www.mollymutt.com/rocketman-car-seat-cover/ I think we will be able to do a camping trip this summer with my siblings and nephews if the car ride is less than 2 hours.

Finally!!! Dudley and I were able to go out to my favorite spot to get a good walk and dog socializing in. I used to go there with my GSD often but wasn’t able to go there because of avoiding a person who is a bully and we have bad blood between us from a workplace altercation. I discovered that she had been asked to not go out there anymore and was so relieved! It is a gorgeous half circle piece of land that has the river on one side and is fenced on the other. The Natural Gas facility is completely fenced in so there is a nice area of flat grass to walk. It is right where the Yaquina river flows into the Yaquina Bay so there is tons of birds, etc to look at.

It’s been a bit of a challenge this winter since the weather has been the usual coastal rain, rain, rain, wind, rain. Dudley is a bit out of shape so walking on the flat grass is good for him. There are a few benches we can stop and sit at when he gets tired. And the locals bring their dogs out there all of the time so Dudley can get his dog time as well. My mom is finally in recovery from her heart valve replacement and is able to do physical exercise! We will be doing walks out there with her as well.

We will be learning which groups of people/dogs to avoid. This morning was the first time Dudley has had to give a warning growl to a dog that was mounting him and growling at him. The owner kept saying “he has never done this before” and smacked her dog (not hard) saying “I can’t believe you would do that to a disabled dog”. Ironically, one of the people I ran into yesterday when we were out there is a good friend from my old job. He knows all of the local dogs and her dog’s name was mentioned in a little scuffle between other dogs. It was totally fine and Dudley recovered his dignity but I got the vibe that this group of women were not good at reading dog language. One lady was over against the fence because she “didn’t have her stick”…Needless to say, I will be avoiding the times that they go out there. I saw which cars they were driving since they arrived after us and will keep an eye out or just be prepared to go the opposite direction if I don’t want to deal with them 😉

There are certain groups who have been walking their dogs out there for a while and act like it is their playground. There are also a lot of really awesome people who walk their dogs out there! I’m pretty good at reading the human body language as well as the dog body language, so I will just sort out who we want to walk with!