Pet Appreciation Week

This weekend was another busy one in the Peaceabull household.  Julius needed his puppy booster, so he and I went up to his vet for that and visited a few friends in Fort Wayne.  Poor Julius is not a good rider still and has upheld his record of not holding his food down well during a car ride.  I think maybe we've had two mess free rides, the first one being his freedom ride with me.  We were gone about two hours and luckily I have learned that, though I have a  cover for the dogs in the back seat, I now double cover for Julius.


Ray, meanwhile, waited patiently at home for his turn to have an adventure. This past week was Pet Appreciation Week at Tractor Supply Company and this year we actually had an opportunity to go.  Since this store allows dogs and is nearby, Ray and I had been going there quite a bit, especially last fall but had missed the appreciation day last week. 

In addition to the dogs a rescue had brought, there were some longhorn cows (cattle?) one of whom moooed at Ray and stopped him in his tracks.  I imagined him issuing some sort of challenge related to Ray's bully stick addiction, which made me chuckle.  I have to admit, though, on the way to the store, I second guessed myself.  Why was I taking socially inept Ray to a place that I knew would have various dogs and cattle as well as other customers with their dogs.  It's a fairly small store, so there was little chance for avoidance.  I decided we'd drive over and check it out from the car to determine the level of chaos before venturing in. 

All seemed to be going well, so we entered, selected a few items for purchase, collected our swag bag of gifts and proceeded to check out where two smallish dogs came up to greet Ray and Ray...greeted them back appropriately!  I think Ray has really gained a great deal of, well, everything in the social skills department thanks to his little brother.  I couldn't have been prouder.

I've known or at least suspected for quite a while that Ray really just needed a playmate who could play appropriately with him and handle his size.  He had a bit of that with Glamour (now named Kya) but her time with us was short before moving on to her perfect forever family.  Julius is still young and easy going but strong and fast enough to handle Ray (with Mom always overseeing the shenanegans.) 

So, actually, nothing Earth shattering, but still a great way to spend a Saturday, though being proud of my boys is a daily thing, not just a weekend thing.