Hooky by Mollie standards anyway… this past weekend I had the stomach flu so I called into work and proceeded to take my dogs to dogapalooza (technically I still could have worked). Just a little local thing they do every year, kind of like a carnival for dogs. We mainly went for what’s called a lure course; Bishop is obsessed it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5dGSNyB0uY

He screamed and threw a fit the entire time we were in line. Scared the holy hell out of some people (other’s who understood the body language just laughed and joked at him). They loved watching him and Clovis run after that little bit of trash. We ran them till they were foaming at the mouth. Even leading them away they were still pulling to get after it. Brought them over to one of the watering areas they drank and Bishop even laid down in the kitty pool (he hates water).

We walked around and I noticed a herding demo going on. Bishop cried and pulled to get at the goats but Clovis just stood there watching them. After sending Bishop away I signed Clovy up to try his paw at herding. The head guy warned me about letting him do this that it could bring out some intense prey instincts that could ruin him as a pet. I explained that Clovis seemed very interested in the prospect and I wanted to see how he’d react. He seemed a bit more alright with letting us go in after that. Clovis’ reaction was interesting to say the least. He tugged on the leash every so often but aside from that he seemed more interested in studying a scared little goaty goats. He just wanted to figure out what they were he wasn’t the least bit interested in chasing them (yeah border collie he ain’t).

Most of the festivities were stationed around the lure course. I took Bishop over to the truffle tent where they would teach you how to train your dog to find truffles (go figure we have them in the northwest). Both Bishop and Clovis are normally very food oriented and this lady had raw beacon. Each time the lure course distracted them. After moving on I got to talking with one of the vendors and I’m embarrassed to say I took my mind off Bishop for a bit and in that lovely little moment he saw a dog chasing the lure. He wanted to help this dog chase it and proceeded to yank me several yards till I got my footing and got him to stop. Hurt my finger pretty good too.
So we saw fit to take them back to the course. At this time my mother had been talking to a lady with a six year old boy. He took quite a shine to Bishop (and why not he’s awesome) despite Bishop tugging at the leash to get at the lure again. The boy continued to pet Bishop while Bishop tried to look around and over the small child I was worried he’d knock the kid down (I’m not used to people not being afraid of my dog). Bishop and Clovis were never trained to be around kids (though Clovy dose excel at being tortured by them). So imagine my surprise when the boy just up and hugged Bishops head. Bishop is not a dog that likes being hovered over by people he gets a little spooky. But Bishop took the hug and even gave the boy a kiss. Anywho the fair thingy went very well. Tired the boys out, won some stuff in the raffle and nobody got bit or run over.

So remember when Bishop jerked me around? Well after I got home I put it in a splint. Went to work for two days and my finger wasn’t getting better bruises had developed on either side of it. Went to the doc took some X-Rays and was told it was a very bad sprain and to keep the splint on for a few more days. The next day I got a call from my primary doctor saying that it was fractured and I had to keep it in the splint for four weeks.

So in conclusion: Playing hooky leads to bad things, never forget you have a hyper one-year-old 90lb bulldog on a leash, and doctors in a hurry have a tendency to misdiagnose and tell you to move a digit that is best left still.