So at work we have a thing called the Atlassian Foundation. Basically we get five days a year to take off work and do charitable things. We (by which I mean myself, kungfupolarbear, and a couple of co-workers) helped out at Monika’s Doggie Rescue last Friday.
Wow. It wasn’t what I was expecting at all.
The dogs they take in were all a day shy of being put down, so they tended to be smaller dogs and with much more problems than your average dog. We took a few of them out for walks, and helped with the laundry that needed doing. The first dog I was walking had a problem where if he’d see another dog that wasn’t from his “group”, he’d start borderline screaming and would turn around and try to bite whoever was walking him. The person from the rescue place obviously warned me about this and what to do, it wasn’t like it was unexpected, but christ. Not a good start. And sure enough, we ran into some random dog while we were out for walks and the dog did exactly as described. It happened again on the way back to the place, fortunately I managed to avoid getting bitten, but bloody hell.
We did hung out some laundry, then took a second batch of dogs out, which were thankfully much better behaved and the walk was quite uneventful. The third batch, the dog I was walking kept stopping to look back and bark at the other dogs and I kept having to literally drag him to get him walking again. I ended up talking a different route to the others so he’d actually focus and start walking.
The reason this post is titled “Ow” is because I was wearing my regular boots and made the mistake of running, borderline sprinting on one occasion, to give the dogs a bit of a workout. I was thumping along flat-footed and the boots have no padding in them. The end result is that I think I bruised my hips or something because I was sore as absolute buggery on Friday night. We had Lily over the weekend, and I was sore but not too bad, but when I woke up on Monday morning I must have slept funny or something because I basically couldn’t bend at ALL. It’s currently just past 10pm on Tuesday night and my lower back is still sore as hell. I’ve been working from home both days, and will be again tomorrow, because owww. It’s getting better, but unfortunately Dencorub seems to be the only thing that actually does anything, and even then it’s not totally improved.
kungfupolarbear didn’t escape unscathed either, the first dog she was walking was solid muscle and kept pulling on the lead very strongly throughout the whole walk. She was leaning back to keep the dog in check, and as a result has sprained her leg and hip muscles. 🙁