She is keeping us on our toes. And I’ve still been out hiking, but shorter distances. I haven’t done a hike with double-digit miles since June 7.

I was starting to get back on track this month, despite the unusually wet weather that has kept the trails sloppy. And despite the heat. I was ramping up my training and trying to get back into the shape I was in early June.

Then, two days ago, I was outside with Randi after it rained. She jerked really hard on the leash, and I slipped and fell, dislocating my shoulder. I let go of her leash in the process and had to call Lance from the backyard to have him rush out and help me. Thankfully, she stayed in the yard. I stomped on her leash to stop her, but once we got back in the house, we had to coax her into the crate (she wasn’t yet crate trained) so Lance could take me to the ER since my right arm was flopping uselessly at my side. 

My arm is in a sling currently. No hiking for me this weekend, then. Because we are still getting significant amounts of rain. The trail conditions are muddy and slippery. I can’t use my hiking poles, and I don’t have the use of my right arm to brace myself if I fall. The best I can do is the trail simulation on the treadmill at the Y. And we’re supposed to be getting severe storms today anyway.

So with the weather, personal events, and now this injury, I keep missing out on training.

By the way, the ER doc gave me the all-clear to do Mammoth. But I am following up at Orthopedic One on Monday and will ask that doctor just to make sure.

So, about Randi…

We went to the shelter on June 20, intending to meet a specific dog we were interested in fostering. We didn’t want to commit to adopting yet, but we wanted a dog in the house and still had all of Blitz’s stuff and a bunch of food and treats. The night before we went to the shelter, Lance saw a new listing for a Lab mix. He’s always been partial to Labs. So he asked if we could meet her, too.

We met her first. We were told she was highly anxious around strangers, but she immediately came up to us, tail wagging, and sat down by our feet. That sealed the deal. She chose us, and there was no way we were leaving without her. But she was an adoption, not a foster.

She looks a lot like Reece, only smaller. About 20 pounds smaller. She’s more Blitz’s size in terms of weight. But she is still in her puppy phase, which has proven to be challenging. She has now escaped twice from the house, stopping traffic on our street. (And causing me to trespass through neighbors’ yards while chasing her – she thought it was all a game while I was terror-stricken that she would either get hit by a car or disappear into the woods to be gone forever.)

The first time she escaped was just three days after we adopted her. I opened the front door to go out and water the front flower beds, and she slipped past me and sprinted across the street toward the German Shepherd catty-corner from us. In a yard with “Beware of Dog” signs everywhere. However, the dog proved not to be vicious at all. It was, in fact, trying hard to get away from Randi. And the woman living at that house was trying to help me get Randi back. Meanwhile, Randi kept criss-crossing the street. Cars came to a dead stop. This went on until she finally collapsed in our front yard, and I was able to grab her.

Yesterday, she slipped her collar and went to our next-door neighbor’s yard. Thankfully, we’re friends with them, and they came out to help me. They lured her into their backyard and closed the gate, so I was able to get her back. I owe them some banana bread or something. (This is not the first time they’ve done nice things for us. She also gave me a bunch of manure for the garden because she has 2 horses and 2 donkeys.)

By the way, we don’t have a fully fenced-in yard. Fencing in five acres is expensive, and we didn’t need it with Blitz. He never tried to leave. Lance is fencing in a smaller area specifically for Randi, but it’s not done yet because Home Depot sent the wrong fence posts. Lance didn’t realize this until after he already installed them, so then he had to order the proper fencing. That only just came yesterday. Randi is always leashed when we take her out.

Anyway, her collar has been changed from the one she came home from the shelter with to a martingale collar. Which is supposed to be slip-proof. I also bought a hands-free, shock-absorbing leash, which will hopefully allow me to control her better and avoid further injury. She is insanely strong for a 39-lb dog and can easily drag me across the yard.

We also have her enrolled in training (which we missed on Thursday on account of my injury), and we’ve joined Sniffspot so we can take her to private dog parks. She’s not socialized yet and is highly reactive around other dogs.

So that’s been life for me lately.