Best Friends (Part I)
I'm sure it was because Harley and Livy hadn't seen each other in a long time so they were super excited to see each other from the minute we arrived. That combined with the difference in size made for a difficult first day.
Arriving early (8:30) intentionally knowing that Harley was given breakfast at her regular time...3:30 am (the time my son leaves for work), I knew she'd have to go out around 9. In fact, the first thing we did was take Harley out.
To be perfectly honest, I think that when I told Livy "out" and she jumped to the ground, she wasn't expecting something quite so big. Livy only weighs 28 lbs and Harley weighs 85 lbs. She's a large dog and the most gentle soul you'd ever want to meet.
Needless to say, Harley is just a little intimidating...gentle as a lamb, but intimidating. And when she approached Liv, Livy would back away and keep her distance. I think she thought she'd get trampled...poor thing. Throw into the mix that we were on her turf, going into her house, I was surprised that Livy followed me inside at all as I carried in our stuff.
Furthermore you know dogs...they have to sniff everything. So as I brought our stuff in from the car, Harley had to scrutinize the bags as if we were going through security at the airport! Livy KNOWS her bag as we use it each time we go anywhere. Well, she saw Harley sniffing it and actually looked at me as if to say, Mom, that's mine...don't let her touch it! Let's just say there was a lot of reassuring going on for each of them.
Taking "the kids" outside to play mid-morning, I picked up Harley's frisbee (that looks like a waffle) and showed it to Livy, who was on my left. Harley was on my right a few feet away. Tossing the frisbee into the air, Livy took off like a bat and Harley took off after Livy, except rather than going around me, she plowed right into me hitting the right side of my leg near my knee. As I mentioned before, she does not know her own strength so even though I'd let out a loud ouch the dogs continued to run. But damn, my right knee hurt so bad, the first thing I thought of was go find some ice.
Limping to the house I noticed that I couldn't put all my weight on my right leg and when I went to step up the steps into the house from the garage, it hurt pretty badly. For the remainder of the that day I iced it as much as I could. The problem was that I just couldn't move fast enough to keep Harley away from Livy's food when supper time rolled around so that first day Livy got hardly anything to eat.
Sleeping that night was very uncomfortable because I couldn't straighten my leg nor bend it. The swelling had set in. That night every time I got up to go to the bathroom, it killed me to get out of bed, and walk, let alone stoop to sit! The "kids" were so good that night. They must have known I was hurting.
The next morning, I knew it just had to be a better day. And thank goodness, it was. Oh, I still hobbled around, wincing in pain, but the dogs had calmed down. Actually I think they were just exhausted. You know the saying, a tired dog is a good dog. Well it's true. Other than fighting the food battle, they were great. 
Sitting here on the LR sofa, telling you this, I know the rest of the week will be fine. Livy's talking in her sleep as she lays sprawled out next to me, and Harley is in her favorite spot, draped over the corner of the sofa, and I'm on the mend. It'll be dinner time for them soon. Yes, I'm in "the company of dogs" and we've got this....I hope.
seeing, saying, and sharing...
Best Friends...
to be continued
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