may 26

started off the day worried about echo, who couldn't put any weight on his left rear leg sunday or much of monday. slight limp this a.m., enough to keep him to a short neighborhood walk while halle & i did our usual loop.

so i may not have been in the best frame of mind when, after picking up the usual post- holiday weekend opp (2 full veggie bags full between camel's back entrance & the pond- in the on leash part of the trail) i saw a medium sized black dog with prick ears tearing down from the on-leash section above camel's back into the on- leash section of trail that halle & i (and moab & moab's owner- leashed up too) were on.

the dog was running up & down in the brush when the owners came into view with another dog (the one pictured here) who was also off leash, but at least with them. so i asked them to call their dog, mentioned it was the on leash area and that they should have leashes with them they said they'd pick some up at the kiosk (of course they couldn't because they've all been stolen).
the black dog was not in sight of the owners. he did go back to them when called, but as far as i can tell, he was only called because i asked them to do so. this, to me, is like a mountain bike tearing down the hill. had there been much traffic- with people obeying the rules with their dogs on leash- it could have been big fun.

this is why so many dog owners i know let go of their leashes or release their dogs when loose dogs come racing up. otherwise runners can get tripped, bikes are dumped, dogs pull owners down, etc. it's really unfair to those of us trying to keep things open by following the rules. and if a person has a dog who objects to being charged and lets the loose dog know that, the clueless owner is often very offended and upset about the "mean" dog, not realizing that the entire situation is their fault and could have been avoided if their dog was under control.

ok. off the soapbox.

everyone else i met was very polite (actually, so were these folks), pleasant & following the rules.

busy morning- 7 with, 6 without.

and beautiful-

i even managed to run a bit- yay! and so far, looks like echo might recover with a few weeks off. no sign of acl damage at this point. (whew!)

happy trails!