Later in the afternoon I took Riley for a run. My goal was 2 easy warm-up miles with him, then 2 harder miles alone. But... that's not the way it worked out. Riley is skittish around some people and pets, but not all, so I have to be very observant when we're out in public. We usually run very early in the morning with very few people out. But we ran this afternoon with lots of people out walking or doing yard work. We saw a boy about Kyra's age walking down a sidewalk and I paid close attention to Riley since we were on the same side of the street. I said hello to the boy and Riley didn't react but kept jogging along beside me. Within seconds, we heard a dog barking on the other side of the street. The dog was lying in the front yard while the lady-of-the-house was raking leaves. The dog barked at us and I looked over at it. Riley was still jogging on my left side. But then the other dog got up and ran across the yard; so Riley crossed in front of me towards the dog. My eye was on the other dog and Riley darted across my path before I could stop my forward motion. I tripped over him or the leash and fell flat onto the pavement. The boy that we had jogged past asked if I was okay as I called for Riley to "come" since I had let go of the leash in my fall. I told him I was okay, just scraped up, and continued calling Riley to "come". He kept running, occassionally looking back at me. Obviously "come" isn't a command that he responds to. As he got farther away I began to panic. When he looked back at me, I told him to "sit" (with my words and hand signal); a command he always responds to. And thankfully, he sat! So then I told him to "stay" (again with my words and hand signal); and he did. Then I continued walking towards him and picked up the leash. He was by this point about 5 houses away. But thankfully he "sat" and "stayed". I'm so glad he obeys to at least these commands! Thank goodness for puppy training! After picking up the leash, we continued back towards home. My hands were bleeding and my left hand was throbbing. I debated about whether to continue with my original plan. I dropped Riley off at home and then headed out the door for another loop. But by the time I made it to the end of the street, my left wrist was quite swollen and in lots of pain. So I stopped, walked back home, and called it quits. Oh well, 2.1 miles is better than nothing...I showered and then went to watch Kyra's friends: Sophia, Natalie, and Bryn perform in the ballet recital of The Grinch. They were great! I enjoyed watching the performance with Ty, Will, Lisa, Gary and Mark. I wish Kyra could have been there... Afterwards, I took Sophia and Natalie to Laurie's house so Will and Ty could go to a fund-raiser event near the performance. I enjoyed chatting with Sophia and Natalie in the car, but I sure wish Kyra could have been there with us... Hope she's having fun with her dad!
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