Stinging nettles

Seattle is experience hot and humid weather. Finn and I met my friend Mike - without Alice - for an early morning run, hoping to beat the heat. We started at the south end of Tiger Mountain Trail, knowing it would likely be overgrown.

Finn found the one stream with enough water still running to get his belly wet and cool. Had the girls been along, Maia would have been exploring the tunnel made by the culvert. She loves tunnels and culverts, I think because when she was a puppy she surprised a raccoon in one, an event that made a BIG impression! Finn couldn't have been less interested.

Sections of the trail were very overgrown. Finn was in the lead, but he's too short to remove many of the spider webs I ran though, swatting them from my face. (This is a section of trail that gets little use so I think I ran through a week's worth of webs and spiders.) Nettles don't seem to bother Finn, lucky guy. I, on the other hand, finished the run with legs covered in itchy red blotches. While stinging nettles aren't fun, I'll take them over poison ivy any day. At least the nettles stop stinging after a hot shower.

Mike took this photo at our turnaround point. We covered about 10.5 miles today. Plenty, on such a warm morning. Finn enjoyed the trail, but I could tell he missed Alice, his girlfriend and partner in trail crime.

Alice is on the injured-reserved list; has been for over two weeks. Mike noticed recently that she was limping and unwilling to bear full weight on one hind leg after some long runs. Then, after a forced two week rest (which she bitterly disagreed with, according to Mike), she was playing in a creek last week, and later that day refused to put any weight on that leg at all. Off to the vet she went, and received a diagnosis of ACL tear. Wow. She'll be visiting a surgeon early next week, to learn about the latest ACL tear repair procedure for dogs. Alice is only five, and a very active dog, so Mike's pretty certain she'll have the surgery. They're facing a long and painful trail of recovery and rehab - perhaps more painful for Mike, to watch, feeling helpless - but doing nothing doesn't seem like a good alternative. Alice is so fit that I'm sure her recovery would be much faster and better than an older, out-of-shape dog.

I shared with Mike my own experiences with surgeries for Maia over the years, and lessons learned. Things like: injectable pain killers work much better for her because the pill form often upsets her stomach, making her throw up and refuse to eat. Even changing the type of pain killer often helps; she doesn't do well on Deramaxx, but does fine on Novox. Figuring out how to keep her from pulling out sutures, or licking the wound too much, causing skin abrasions and sores (old sweatshirts, cut to allow them to be worn by her, worked well at covering her elbows, the sight of her surgeries over the years; not sure how to protect a knee). It seems that hair growing back where the IV area is shaved on her foreleg is annoying so she always licks and licks until a sore opens if I'm paying close attention. We go through lots of vet wrap soaked in Bitter Apple after surgeries!

Mike and I talked about the option of swim therapy when Alic is ready, although we both laughed at how annoyed Alice, a Samoyed who hates getting even her belly wet, would be with swimming; my Malamutes would refuse as well. I suggested Mike take a video cam to record any swimming sessions, as the howling from Alice would likely be amazing! But pool therapy may just be the best way to rehab Alice after her surgery, since should could start using her legs and bending that knee without jarring and weight.