May 9th - LONG hike

Today I decided to take Kodo to the Rocky River Reservation metropark area for his 'smell the flowers' walk (a couple times a week I try to take him someplace new and relax the leash rules so he can stop and smell and investigate as much as he wants. He still can't tug on the leash or eat things off the ground, but otherwise anything goes.. :) ). This park has lots of paved trails, lots of unpaved trails, meadows to romp in, dandelion fluff to eat (his new favorite!), and Canadian geese to try to make friends with. I figured we would meander around for 45 minutes or so, or until he got tired.

Once we got there, he made a beeline for the dandelion fluffs and snowplowed through them with his nose. There seems to be something about knee-high (puppy-knees that is) grass that makes him want to race around in circles with his ears pinned back then flop on his belly, rip up big mouthfuls of grass and give me the 'devil-eyes'.. :)

Once he got THAT out of his system we wandered down by the water and he checked that out. Fast moving river waters seem to make him a little wary, so he didn't try to stick his big old paws in there this time.

We kept wandering on the trail for about an hour, and he was still perky and ready to go, so we went by the Rocky River Nature Center building. I was surprised to find they allowed dogs inside- the staff invited me in and seemed really excited to meet Kodo. So we went inside, and Kodo got another one of his favorite things- bunches of people crowding around to pet him and tell him how beautiful he is! :) He was so involved in being adored that he didn't even notice the giant red tail hawk sitting on top of the bird feeder JUST outside one of the observing windows of the center. I got to watch that though, and I was really disappointed that I hadn't brought my camera!

We did a couple more trail wanderings, took him back to the car for some water, then another 15 minutes on the paved trails. I figured that was enough and I didn't want to overdo it, so I took him back to the car and popped him in the back. As soon as I moved out of the way he hopped right back out again! Fortunately I was still holding the other end of the leash! Despite the enthusiasm though, as soon as he got home he did his bear-rug imitation right in the middle of the kitchen tile and fell asleep...