Kennel cough sucks.
We did not take Zara to the dog park at all this weekend because she currently has two separate illnesses: a yeast infection in her ears and kennel cough. We took her to the vet last weekend for the yeast infection when we noticed she was scratching her ear a lot and it had some sores in it. Thankfully that has cleared up but we are still cleaning her ears every other day and putting in medicated drops twice a day.
Toward the end of the week, we noticed that Zara was sneezing and sniffing a lot and her nose was dripping doggie snot. Another trip to the vet on Friday and it turned out she has kennel cough. :( We didn’t get the Bordetella vaccine for kennel cough because we’re not planning on boarding her at a kennel and I didn’t realize that it was something she could catch so easily. I guess we will be getting it in the near future. I’m sure she caught it at the dog park.
On Saturday, Chris and I took Zara hiking in the afternoon. We went to Turkey Run Park again because I assumed (correctly) that there wouldn’t be too many other dogs around. Last time, Zara and I hiked on the Valley Trail but this time, we went on the Potomac Heritage Trail which runs directly next to the Potomac River. It was definitely more technical than the other trail and had several rocky sections. Zara was hesitant at times but with a little encouragement, she climbed right up on the rocks. After a while, the trail became flatter and wider and Zara began trying to pick up every stick in sight!
We hiked for about an hour and a half and then headed home. The puppy was quite tired after that!
On Sunday morning, I took Zara to walk around Old Town Alexandria. I wanted to go to a new place for a walk and I found that several of the stores in Old Town allow dogs. This website lists them all. After we parked, I walked Zara down to the waterfront and out onto one of the docks. There were lots of geese, seagulls, ducks, and pigeons. She was a little freaked out by the noise the ducks were making. She seemed most interested in trying to hunt the pigeons. We walked onto the dock past some boats and I managed to get a photo of her. Excuse the electric box on the side – it was the only place she would sit! I was a little worried she would try to lunge off the dock after a bird but she didn’t attempt that.
After checking out the water, we headed to the Torpedo Factory, which is a large industrial-style building that actually used to be a torpedo factory but now is divided up into lots and lots of artist studios. It’s a cool place to visit – many of the artists are in their studios on the weekends and they also have artwork for sale. Since the Alexandria dog-friendly website said that dogs were allowed, we went inside and looked around. I didn’t go into any of the studios because I didn’t want Zara too close to anyone’s expensive artwork!
After visiting the Factory, we walked up the street to The Dog Park, a pet store, looked around, and then headed home. All in all, a good weekend, and Zara is already feeling better from her kennel cough. :)
