Poor Noodle.
He'll be 8 years old in September and this winter I noticed that he seemed to really slow down. His joints seem stiff in the morning and he doesn't spring down the stairs like he used to; he steps more gently now. I guess I didn't really push him to go on long walks and he did pack on a few pounds over the past months. I'll be the first to tell you that he's been looking a little fluffier than usual.
Apparently this creates great alarm in perfect strangers.
Now that the weather is warm, we are trying to include Noodle in our outdoor activities. One evening last week we headed to Three Creeks Park for a little family stroll. Then the boys wanted to play on the jungle gym for a little while so Noodle and I rested on a bench nearby.
A little girl came over and asked if she could pet Noodle, then she said to me, "That's a fat dog." I said something about how that's why we brought him to the park to exercise and then she went away.
Not 10 minutes later a woman and her daughter came over to sit on the other end of the bench and I heard them say that they also have a chocolate lab (named Moose) at home. When the dad came over he said to me, "How much does that dog weigh?" I said I wasn't sure; at his last check up he was 85 pounds. "Oh" he says, "He weighs a lot more than that now."
As it turns out, there was not in fact a convention of rude people at Three Creeks Park that night. Last weekend we took Noodle with us to my parents' house in an entirely different state. On Father's Day we went to a state park near their house for a picnic. We were all walking along the trail when we happened to pass another group having a picnic and man called out to me, "How much does that dog weigh? 100 pounds?". I did my best to ignore him but his female companion felt the need to add, "My sister had a dog that got so big they had to carry him up the stairs."
Really, people?
I don't thing Noodle is a freak of nature or anything. I mean, his legs can still touch the ground; we are not having to drag him along with his stomach on a skateboard.
I have a theory that since I have lost weight, Noodle just looks much bigger walking next to me.
Honestly, though, lay off my fat dog.
He's very sensitive about his weight.
We celebrated a couple of awesome fathers in our family (mine and Will & Soren's) with a picnic at Shawnee State Park. As is typical when we go to Shawnee, a great time was had by all. We enjoyed, of course, eating, but also strolling, geocaching, swinging, throwing the frisbee, and getting soaked from head to toe in the water fountain.
Soren also enjoyed casting spells with his stick wand.
