Daisy Report

I do a lot of walking with our dog. We try do to *at least* an hour a day (1/2 hour in the morning, 1/2 hour at night). If Daisy doesn't get her walk in, she tends to get a little cranky. Or destructive. Or both. It's not pretty.

Sometimes, Daisy's Mom comes with us in the evening. Sometimes, the evening walk turns into the evening run (depending on the weather and how I'm feeling). Unless you've been running with a 60 pound dog in one hand and a bag of fresh poop in the other hand, you're not really getting the full cardiovascular benefits of the experience.

The evening walk is now more of a challenge than ever. It's dark out by the time I leave work. Daylight Savings Time hasn't been kind to us. We've got the reflective gear. We've got the blinky LED thing. But I'm still nervous about the cars at night. We've got a few areas by us with lousy sidewalks. And it's tough to see where the sidewalk ends and the road begins when it's dark out and everything is covered with leaves. Plus picking up a Daisy dumpling in the dark with cars whizzing by two feet from my head is a real challenge.

So, with all this bitching, is it all worth it? Yeah, it really is. Aside from feeling better and dropping my cholesterol by 50 points, spending all this time with the dog is a tremendous emotional boost. It's tough to feel too stressed or blue when there's a big yellow fur ball lookin' for some luvin'. Don't get me wrong... There are times when I want to kill her... But she's definitely part of the family now. And I'm 100% positive I wouldn't be out there walking everyday if it wasn't for her.