Gracie is a border collie. She was going to be adopted by us and she came over for a visit. She was a small one, not so long legged and a little bit of a scaredy-cat. Within our first 10 minutes, she had a run-in with Clyde.
Clyde has a backstory, once upon a time he had to hang around Charlie the Border Collie. Charlie used to live at the old house at 200 Fiskehill, where Clyde now lives. We were building a house on McGilpin Road, which backed up to the old house. Charlie could never quite figure out why he was never allowed to go home, and why this big dog was in his room in the kitchen. They had a love-hate relationship for at least a year and then got over it.
Fast forward about five years, Charlie had died, we went two years without a dog and decided to bring home Gracie. Now, at that point, Clyde was king of the Hill. He thought our yard was his yard and that our back deck was his back deck and he was very protective of the old house our house and all the acres that surrounded it. So, the minute Gracie showed up she was a threat. We also found out that our neighbors had proceeded to get another dog. So now it’s a two on one situation. There was no way Gracie was going out run the two of them. A three month battle ensued. A handful of course words were said, a fence was put in and the wall had to be built.
Charlie was a rescue and I used to call him the dog that saved me… Used to force me to go for walks, irritate me, distract me, etc. he came right after stents. Over the last couple of years, I had grown a bit lazier, a bit fatter and can easily waste time watching YouTube videos.
I had been pestering Shelley to get a dog, we weren’t traveling and we’re pretty set in our routines. While a dog would be a little disruptive, it would be better for us to have one than not.
Shelley was more hesitant than I, but that’s primarily because she did not like the mess. I on the other hand, really wanted it a slightly better reason to go for a walk than just my health, I now could say “Gracie wants to go for a walk and I’m just bringing her, total delusion, but I liked it better”.
She has been a total pest, 30,000 steps per day, 4 dog beds, toys … for free dog, she cost a small fortune, I had to put in electric farm fence just to keep her in. And if you leave her unattended for more than 45 minutes or an hour, she will figure out a way to get to the other side of that fence.
Since her arrival I have lost over 17 pounds, I walked 20,000 of those 30,000 steps. She goes for six full walks a day. First one is at around 4 AM, in the woods in the dark. It’s after she’s had breakfast and doesn’t want to sit around. Then she has another one before PICKLEBALL, then one after Pickleball then one after lunch, then one after her dinner at 3:30 4 o’clock, then another one after our dinner. And a couple of smaller ones in between. It’s a little bit crazy, but just picture all those other hours, sort of hanging around, it wasn’t good.
Well, it’s almost 3:30, time to feed the dog.