A visit with Garnet

On the last Saturday in April we made a trip to city where Garnet lives, about an hour’s drive away. After our usual Saturday morning chores we hopped into the car, complete with a gift for Garnet (bought at Lovely’s training session the previous night), and set off. It was a great day – sunny, warm, relaxing. We arrived in time for lunch – my contribution being a lentil salad and a honeydew melon – and after tucking in for a bite, spent the afternoon having fun! Garnet’s family has a trampoline in the backyard which the kids played on most of the afternoon while Mama Garnet and I chatted about life, dogs, the nanny situation, and everything.

Garnet has grown a fair bit since we last saw her at the end of January, though she’s still a lot smaller than Lovely. Her family expressed some concern that she’s not growing faster. I think she might end up being a smaller dog at full growth, though she does still have a good six months more of growth coming. (I hope the slow weight gain is not related to the loss-of-weight spell she had when she was 2 months old. She seems now to be perfectly healthy now!)

It seems to me that Garnet has mellowed somewhat since small puppyhood. Just somewhat – she’s still quite lively and active, but didn’t seem quite so prone to bugging Lovely as when she was little. She and Lovely got on fairly well, except when Garnet tried to steal the ball Lovely was playing with! (Actually, they mostly ignored each other, but that’s an improvement from when Garnet would bug mama and Lovely would snap at her!)

Late in the afternoon we visited that city’s version of an off-leash dog park by the river, which was a first for all of us. It was quite pleasant and not nearly as crowded as the one we go to at home. Then we had a supper of barbecued hot dogs, chips, salad and fruit.

After supper we all headed off, in separate vehicles, to another town about halfway between our two cities where Mama Garnet had seen advertised that the African Children’s Choir would be performing. When we got there – just as the concert was about to start – we were both surprised at the small number of cars in the parking lot, thinking this concert would have a big draw factor. Once inside, it became apparent that we were victims of (somewhat) false advertising – it wasn’t THE African Children’s Choir, but the Canadian-African Children’s Choir from our home city. Still, we stayed to enjoy the music, which was quite good. As nine o’clock approached, however, and we less than halfway through the printed program, I decided we’d leave at the intermission as we were all getting tired and it was getting late! But as soon as I made that decision the organizers jumped to the last two items on the program, effectively cancelling intermission, so we stayed until the end of those two items. Before heading home we availed ourselves of the yummy snacks laid out in the church basement.

It was a long day but lots of fun, and so nice to visit Garnet (and her family of course!).