When Does It End!?

It's always something around here. It is like some god has ordained that we are not allowed to have one appointment alone in a week or something.

We took the dogs to the dog park yesterday. I love doing that, because it is the only place where Achilles can really stretch his legs and run like he is meant to do. Being walked on a leash just doesn't compare when you are bred to run. Watching him at full pace is breath taking. He looks so happy and so gorgeous, the way his body moves gracefully, the way the sun glints off his coat. Artemis, on the other hand, she doesn't do too much running, unless it is to run after some strange dog or person and yap at them. (I'm so confused, if you don't like a dog/person, why chase after them?)

We did see a few other folks out. There was a husky when we got there. Huskies are Achilles' favorite big dog breed. He always gets really wiggly and excitable when he sees them, way more so than any other type of big dog (just like he does when he sees a Yorkie). Not too long after we got there, a guy with two non-descript black dogs showed up, and then a german shepherd and some other type... The german shepherd was fetching a ball, and whenever Achilles would see her run, he would fly out after her.

Unfortunately, this ended badly. He ran with her probably 5 or 6 times, getting himself way overheated and worked up (he is out of shape, after all). I noticed him with a bad limp, going into the shade. We couldn't really see anything wrong with his foot and he didn't cry or take it away or anything... it took him the whole car ride home to cool down, the silly dog. However, when we got home I noticed the wound. His paw had a big slice down the main pad. Later, a piece of the pad just sort of peeled off. Poor guy!!! I did a small epsom salt bath for that paw, and then we wrapped it with gauze and that non-sticky sticky tape stuff... but I definitely am going to make an appt with the vet. I feel so guilty, like there is something I could have done to prevent that, but didn't. Ugh. I wish he wasn't SO big, because I would totally be carrying him around right now, lol. This morning I also saw that he had lost a bit of pad on another foot... so I guess his pads weren't used to that kind of work? I dunno. We'll see what the vets say.

Oi. Our household is awfully crazy for only being 3 people big (but 5 1/2 members strong, the 1/2 indicating the cat, of course).