Her Dogs Didn't Even Have the Energy to Be Barking

Givhans Ferry State Park has a nice nature trail that (according to the sign) is 1.5 miles long. On Saturday, we walked it with both dogs twice. The second time we turned around and went back through for a third time since the trail didn't loop. We preferred walking in the shady woods rather than along the sunny road back to the campsite.

The water was very low so we didn't really have to worry about puddles or overflowing water ways. Thankfully, nature chose not to remedy that until Monday (when we -and our equipment- were all safely home).
We really should take Rocky on more walks. He thought it was one huge adventure and attempted to lead the way every time. You can see the result of his pulling on the leash in the Chick's hand above when I dared to ask them to hold still for 30 seconds to take a picture.

At first, Nipper was having a big adventure too. Of course, she didn't feel the need to cut a trail. She was perfectly content to walk with us at our pace.

She is, however, 12 years old. She has doggie steps to get on the bed. So you can imagine that by the end of the second hike, she was pretty worn out. Of course, that isn't even counting all the walking to the trail entrance and back plus everywhere else we went on the campground.

When we turned around to go back through for the third time (to avoid walking on the asphalt road), she gave me SUCH A LOOK. I really believe she might have been telling herself to just keep going and get to the end so she could get back to the campsite. And when I turned around, she actually stopped, physically stopped, and gave me the look.

But when I said to come on, she dipped her head and trudged on. Unfortunately, her get up and go had gone away. And she got slower and slower and slower until she wasn't even attempting to keep up with me.

I took pity and carried her for a ways. She didn't even protest. Any other time, she would only have put up with it for a few minutes. After my arms got tired, I put her down again hoping that she had rested enough being carried to get back.

Nope. She gave it a go but started falling behind within a couple yards. This is how she made it back to the trail entrance.

We walked from the trail entrance back to the campsite at a snail's pace since Hubby had gone to the scout campsite to check on the boys.

As soon as we got back, she took a sip of water and walked straight to the tent whining to get let in. I opened the zipper and she walked right in and climbed onto the air mattress.

Where she lay down and took a long nap.

Rocky was tired too but he wasn't taking any nap without some human company. After a while, the Chick joined him for some down time (reading and listening to her MP3).

Poor Nipper, however. I think she might have sat down and refused to move if we even headed in the direction of the nature trail.