A day in the life...: The heat of the day...

Friday, June 12, 2009

The heat of the day...

7:06 AM | Posted by the road less traveled... | Edit Post

During our stay here in St. Augustine on a very hot day you will often find us sitting out on the upper deck over looking the ocean....enjoying the ocean breeze.
We watch the sail boats go by....the joggers, and those out walking their dogs. Many of the homes in the area do not have a a fenced yard so you must walk your dogs.

The majority of folks abide by the lash law... a few do not....one such person is an older man... I am not at all sure of his age but he is indeed up there. Body bent over...walks with a cane and does so at a pretty good pace. Usually a good bit a head of him is an older shaved Golden...taking in all of the scents, marking here and there, at times stopping to wait for his person. Every once in a while there is just too good a scent that must be investigated and the man passes his dog...as he passes he bangs his cane to the ground in hopes to get the dogs attention for it is time to move on. The Golden usually resumes walking and soon once again passes his person.

While watching them the other day....in the heat of the day when you would not have caught us out walking I notice the dog walking at a very slow pace and a good distance behind his person.

To our left is a lovely home with a beautiful, lush green lawn. From the street, you really cannot access the lawn area for there is a block retaining wall...pretty smart for it keeps all those walking dogs off the lawn. On this oh so very hot day....I noticed the Golden stop in front of this house....take a moment to scratch then resume walking, however towards the wall....he then jumped on to the wall ...move forward onto the lush green grass and plopped down and proceeded to roll. You could tell it felt wonderful...cool....the Golden Retriever would then stop, rest and resume rolling around.

The man, who had not yet noticed that his ever faithful companion was no longer following him finally stopped, turned and banged his cane. The dog watched and did nothing, the man again banged....no response. The Man starts walking back towards the dogs....pausing here and there to bang the cane....still no response. Once again the man is back in front of the House....grumbling at the dog....the dog lifts his nose into the gentle ocean breeze....looks to the man....then rolls some more. Gets ups....stretches ....looks up at me and the dogs and you could clearly see just how happy he was....once again they resumed their afternoon stroll into heat of the day.

Preventing Heatstroke

Stay in the Shade

Avoid vigorous exercise.

Have fresh water available.

NEVER leave your dog in a car!!!

Please know that certain breeds of dogs....those with pushed in noses are more susceptible....and of course the seniors.