We were out on an extended Saturday walk this morning, and I was a very bad slave. 
Dudley and Minnie were behaving quite well on our walk, not trying to yank my arms from the socket anytime a rabbit or squirrel showed up, just taking things easy and sniffing all the early autumn smells.
Well, as we were leaving the neighborhood commons, there is a huge old Walnut tree. The tree had a bumper crop this year, walnuts everywhere, still in their husks. (Anyone who doesn't know, walnuts come off the tree with an outer layer I call the husk, which makes them a little bigger than a tennis ball, and fairly hard.)
I have always liked kicking things like walnuts, early apples, anything like that, down the sidewalk as we go along if something kickable happens to be found enroute. Kind of a silly game, see if I can keep it on the sidewalk as long as possible.
So what did I do today? There was a real nice round green walnut on the sidewalk, it may as well have shouted "Kick Me!"
So I kicked it.
Pretty hard.
And hit Dudley right in the side of his face with it!
Of course I immediately felt terrible about it, stopped right there and checked him out. He had barely reacted when it hit him, and he didn't realize that I had done it, so he wasn't afraid or cowering. I couldn't find any evidence that anything had happened at all, so I just apologized to him and on we went.
This was a few hours ago, of course I still feel bad about it, but I keep checking him, and he is fine. No swelling or anything, and he's totally being his regular self.
He has no clue why he got extra treats, but he asked no questions, just munched 'em down!
I hereby promise to be a better slave and to never again kick projectiles that could hit my hound buddies!
Dudley and Minnie were behaving quite well on our walk, not trying to yank my arms from the socket anytime a rabbit or squirrel showed up, just taking things easy and sniffing all the early autumn smells.
Well, as we were leaving the neighborhood commons, there is a huge old Walnut tree. The tree had a bumper crop this year, walnuts everywhere, still in their husks. (Anyone who doesn't know, walnuts come off the tree with an outer layer I call the husk, which makes them a little bigger than a tennis ball, and fairly hard.)
I have always liked kicking things like walnuts, early apples, anything like that, down the sidewalk as we go along if something kickable happens to be found enroute. Kind of a silly game, see if I can keep it on the sidewalk as long as possible.
So what did I do today? There was a real nice round green walnut on the sidewalk, it may as well have shouted "Kick Me!"
So I kicked it.
Pretty hard.
And hit Dudley right in the side of his face with it!
Of course I immediately felt terrible about it, stopped right there and checked him out. He had barely reacted when it hit him, and he didn't realize that I had done it, so he wasn't afraid or cowering. I couldn't find any evidence that anything had happened at all, so I just apologized to him and on we went.
This was a few hours ago, of course I still feel bad about it, but I keep checking him, and he is fine. No swelling or anything, and he's totally being his regular self.
He has no clue why he got extra treats, but he asked no questions, just munched 'em down!
I hereby promise to be a better slave and to never again kick projectiles that could hit my hound buddies!
