10 Things I love About Lady + the weekend and our upcoming trip

We woke up this morning to a couple of puddles on our bed. Lady had leaked. Twice. She hasn't leaked since coming back from Vermont and she has never leaked twice. Nothing really has changed with her bathroom or food routine so it left me kind of perplexed. I thought maybe it was her Proin pill that she takes at 3 pm. She gets half of a whole pill then but I had broken off the piece a little small.

Nonetheless I quickly got all the dogs out to the backyard at 6 in the morning and after feeding them I got to washing all our sheets. Thankfully our Casper mattress has a waterproof bedding cover accessory which we promptly got because we knew Lady had incontinence issues and it has been a lifesaver for us and our mattress the few times she leaked on our bed.

We never scold Lady when she leaks. But perhaps she is intuitive in a sense that she acts incredibly apologetic afterwards. Or maybe it's me putting my human thought process on her. But while outside in the backyard, Lady kind of hung out near the far fence, looking over at me from time to time. I thought she was just on the look out for rabbits. She is usually one of the first dogs done doing their thing but this morning she was the last of our bunch. I motioned for her to come over to the deck so I could wipe her feet and she gingerly trotted along, nudging and burying her head in my chest when she got near me. Perhaps her way of saying, "I'm sorry." As I did with Piri and Bartles, I talk to her. Often. And this time I said, "It's ok Ladybug. We got a new washer and dryer and they could use a little extra cycles to do their mean lean cleanin routine." I smiled too to let her know that all was good. And when I smile, she smiles. Or her tail does. I feel like it's her way of telling me that she understands. 

There are a lot of things I'm fond about Lady. But if I were to list 10, it would be: 

1. Her "drab... no rabbits this morning" face. She truly does look so bummed.

2. The way she hops around whenever she's excited. It's almost as if she can't contain all her joy and so her legs and tail and ears all go in different directions. 

3. Her folded lip whenever I have an incredibly tasty treat in my hand. She stays frozen that way so that she doesn't miss the most tiniest movement of the treat. She has it completely locked on.

4. The don't stop scratching my chin swipes.

5. Her upside down morning greeting.

6. The rare barks we hear every once in a blue moon. I almost want to record her barks because we hardly get to hear it. 

7. Her happy tail. Her happy "smiling" tail.

8. Her healthy and voracious appetite. After seeing Piri and Bartles have very little appetites when they were sick, it's so incredibly fulfilling to see her love food and eat so well, too.

9. How she stays by me always. Recently I have taken up yoga and she stays with me while I practice. Sometimes I catch her in positions that almost mimic certain poses like hands to heart, child's pose and of course, downward dog.

10. Her frosted face. There is just something so incredibly soothing and loving and sweet about frosted faces. Hers especially.

Well, it's finally Friday friends. What are you up to this weekend?

Yangkyu and I are going away at the end of August and it'll be our first trip without Lady. While we wish she was coming with us, the drive would've been incredibly long (36+ hours roundtrip) and I couldn't ask Yangkyu to take that on by himself because I don't drive. While we still hope to have that road trip out West with her, this time around we'll be headed out to Utah just the two of us, and Lady will get to hang out with Bartles' former foster mom and her adorable crew of cockers. I was so worried about finding a place to board Lady and wasn't going to go on this trip, but both Lady's former foster and Bartles' former foster moms reached out to me to let me know that they can watch her while we go away. We love them so much for their ever expanding hearts.

While in Utah, Yangkyu and I will be visiting my old childhood friend and her mom who has always been a second mom to me and also do a little hiking at Zion National Park and also get a taste of the Grand Canyon. We'll be glamping out under the night sky to stargaze, something Yangkyu always wanted to do with Piri, and hopefully getting some incredible views during the daytime as well. I've also decided to just take my Fujifilm x100T this time and not my bulky Canon and I hope this is the right choice (although I feel like I may change my mind last minute).

While Yangkyu and I hiked here and there, I have recently gotten really hooked and promptly bought our first pair of legit hiking shoes. There are a few other items that we purchased for this time (and for future hikes) like trekking poles, waterproof bag and socks, and so this weekend we'll be doing more planning for our trip, watching a couple more documentaries about Zion and National Parks in general and figuring out some Virginia and Washington D.C. based gifts we can bring for our friends. So far, this place look very promising.

Have a great weekend!