Our Saturday didn’t start slow, but it did start sunny. It has been a beautiful day – the temperature reached 68 making last week’s blast of wintry weather seem like a dim memory.

Karl and I rolled down the driveway at 7:40 in the a.m. on our way to Whitefish and the vet – no worries!! – this was a scheduled bi-annual “senior” checkup. Karl was 8 in March and is now a senior. But he checked out like the young-at-heart dog that he is getting a “Great Healthy Normal” on his report card. At our last checkup, it was suggested that Karl lose a bit of weight to ease pressure on aging joints. He weighed in down 4 pounds with 4 to go….which means at halfway toward his goal he is doing much better than Bob – or me!

We left early for our appointment so there was time for a long walk at the Whitefish soccer field park. We got there and done with our walk in the nick of time. By the time we left cars were streaming in for soccer and baseball. Kids, dogs, parents – yikes!

Going to the vet is exhausting. Karl gets anxious, I work on staying calm to help him, we wait, we both get too warm…by the time we left I wanted another shower and we both wanted naps.

The shade at home felt pretty good to a tired dog.