Our First Big Outing

We had a big day for ourselves over here. Boney took her first big outing since radiation began to take its toll. First, the other day, we walked all the way around the farm across the street. We took our time, but she wanted to do the whole big loop. In fact, I started to walk towards home before we went ALL the way down to the river and she stopped dead in her tracks as if to say, "Hello! This is my time, and I want to see the water!" So we went down to the river, surveyed the property, and turned around and came home. She picked up a couple of sticks along the way, threw them around and even jumped up once (She pretty much said, "ouch" on the landing).

Well, today was even a bigger day. We got up at 5:45am (yes, that is AM not PM), we gave Arrow her pills, fed her and then packed up the car for a trip to Saratoga for the Head of the Fish regatta. Sally was rowing and wanted her good luck charm there (in case you were wondering, I am not the good luck charm...She rubs Arrow's head for good luck before a race -- not mine). It was a two hour drive and Arrow snuggled with Sally in the back seat of the car. Just so you don't think I was driving Ms Daisys around, we had another rower, Maryellen in the front seat. We got to the regatta and she walked quite far to our muddy and freezing cold spectator spot. We set up my chair and her blanket and set out to watch Sally's 11am race.

Now let me set the stage just so you know how we were both dedicated fans. The regatta was MUDDY! Rain all day yesterday left the grass rather gross. If you remember how much Arrow loves puddles (and yes, I do too!) you'll know that she walked an obstacle course around all the open water. We had to arrive at the regatta for 9am (two hours before the race). OK, we can do that, no problem. "Hopefully when the sun comes up it will be warmer than 30 degrees outside" Boney and I said to ourselves. As we sat there, Sally gave us the good news. The time of the race wasn't 11am. It was really NOON! Not only did we get up an extra hour early, but we got to sit in the freezing cold for another hour (which turned into an hour and a half because there were delays)!

So Boney and I made some friends. She has really taken on a whole new attitude. She has always been overall friendly, but most of you know she has her skittish moments where she doesn't want to meet new people and she doesn't want to be pet. She was sooo relaxed at this regatta. She was going up to people and putting her head in their hands, leaning up against them, and nudging them with her nose. Sally and I thought she was saying, "Hi, I'm Arrow, I have cancer. But I'm a survivor! Aren't I cute? I would like it if you would pet me."

Here's who we met. The two people sitting next to us loved her. They were freezing to death waiting for their college aged daughter who was rowing for guess where? Binghamton! Small world I thought. (A digression, these two asked me if I had a daughter in the race. Now mind you that today's races included college and masters rowers. So my daughter could have been 20 or 30+. Either way, I felt quite old). These people really liked Arrow. We discussed her radiation and they told me about their 16 year old poodle that they just had to put down. They loved the dog so much and wished us both luck.

Then we met a man who just thought she was the cutest thing. We talked about her cancer and then I said, I had no idea how radiation burned the skin. To which he said, "Neither did my mother, but I tell her as long as it gets rid of the cancer its worth it!"

The next couple we met had a nine month old golden retriever with them. They said they just recently had to put down their 9 year old golden who had a brain tumor. They decided not to treat the dog as the chances of success were very small. We are lucky they said and wished us the best.

We met many other people throughout the day who smiled at her or stopped and asked if they could pet our dog. We learned that everyone had a story and that story was sometimes sad, and sometimes inspiring, but they all revealed a little bit about strangers and the commonalities between us. All in all she had a great first day out (better than Sally's row apparently) and is happy to have spent it with both of us (despite the cold).