Friday, March 4, 2016

Day 45 - The Grand Canyon, Arizona

I had a great sleep in, then a relaxing morning around the campsite before heading to the canyon. I drove to near where I finished off my walk the other day to walk some more with new views. I spotted the mule paddocks and stopped to take a look at them; there were around 40 in the paddock with a barn that they could enter for shade. I was sad to see that many of the mules bore marks of ill fitting tack, a large number of them having huge areas of white hair where the saddle was and rub marks along areas where the tack sits. Despite Luna growing up with horses, these mules freaked her right out as they approached us, so we did not stay long. We continued on, walking for almost 5 hours again, with stops to admire the view and chat with people who came to admire Luna. I met two groups of people from Ontario, the first Canadians I’ve spoken to at the Grand Canyon. I spent awhile talking with some people from Queensland, Australia, the guy had such a thick accent that I had trouble understanding him occasionally, but he had come to talk with me as he saw Australian Cattle Dog in Luna and wanted to know what kind of dog she is, a lovely group of people and I did enjoy the accents! One young boy asked to pet Luna and went to hug her; as I opened my mouth to tell him to back off, his mom had quickly interceded, I so appreciated it being a parent who understood dog language, sometimes they seem few and far between. Luna was very good about the hugs despite hating them, just jumping backwards away from him, thank goodness she is such a forgiving dog and so good at communicating rather than just reacting, I had not expected him to do anything like that as he had dogs and was around 9, but I guess because he had dogs that were fine with it, he thought they all were good with hugs. He then showed me pictures of his dogs as his mom apologized, I didn’t mind, I had seen several kids that appear scared of dogs which seems horribly unnatural, I appreciated a young kid with a passion for animals. One girl in a stroller had seen Luna and said “That’s a big dog!”, I had to laugh at that! For months I was sore about how small Luna ended up being, having wanted a bigger dog, but I have been very happy with her height for awhile it is a handy size! During the past few days, many people have been commenting to their partner as they pass “That is the size dog I want!” or asking me what breed she is as she “is the perfect size”, one person today seemed shocked that she is a mutt, funny. She met a tiny 1-year-old Yorkie that was insanely excited, she did not know what to do with it, she ended up laying down beside it a little while after presenting her belly to the 3 adults crowding over her as the tiny terrier leapt at her face; an anxiety producing experience for her that ended with her being quite comfortable, so it was very good. After our walk, I got a delicious veggie wrap from the deli before heading to use wifi and finally getting up to date on my blog! 






"Ok, this place is getting a little too stressful", she often uses yawning to communicate anxiety.



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