Annual picnic

Guilt. Yeah, that's it. It's got to be guilt.

No one loves grass and the great outdoors more than my dog. But most of her life is spent indoors, eight floors up from the nearest patch of grass. It hardly seems fair.

So today I decided it was time for my annual picnic with Mimi. The only way to go was by e-bike.

I got my front-loading doggy backpack, dressed her in a sweater to protect her from the wind generated by the e-bike's motion, and drove through the downtown area of this city of several million to take my doggy to a nice big park. I had both hands on the e-bike handles, and Mimi sat in the backpack, leaned against me, and had her front paws resting on my arm most of the time.

As a foreigner, I get stares when I am on my e-bike by myself. So imagine me having a mammal strapped to the front of my body, a mammal that everyone is inclined to think is probably a baby until they get a closer look. We got a lot of stunned looks and laughs. We're kind of used to it though. At least I am.

Mimi was so excited that for the first ten minutes or so I thought she was going to have a nervous breakdown. Then she relaxed and enjoyed every minute of the rest of our outing. 

 I found a good spot at the park where I could let her off her leash. She ran like the wind.

That's a smile on her face, case you couldn't tell. Only a dog momma knows when her dog is smiling, and that dog is definitely smiling.

Trees! Grass! No cats? Unbelievable. When it was all over, Mimi's legs were green from running through freshly cut grass.

Oh look! Water! She didn't drink it of course. I brought bottled water and a bowl, and she drank a lot of that good clean water, even though it didn't seem to stop her tongue from hanging out the entire time.

A fun time was had by all during our 3-1/2 hours away. It was perfect! Obviously I had a little trouble getting any photos of myself, so I hope you don't mind seeing the same things my eyes got to see.

Tonight? Bath time for Mimi!