Sociabulls, Scabby Dog and Food Trucks

It's been a busy week for the pooches, starting with our first "Sociabulls" walk last Sunday morning. I've been excited to take Bilbo along on one of these training walks organized by Two Pitties in the City so when they announced they'd be in Humboldt Park, just a few blocks from me, I signed up straight away.

We met up in the formal gardens and set off for a walk round the park. Buster was a perfect little angel but Billy, of course, threw some seriously impressive tantrums and dogdad took him out of the pack for a 20 minute run to blow off a bit of steam. He managed to almost cool down by the end of the walk and posed happily for a few pictures.

Buster had a good roll around in the grass to wear out the last of his energy and the two did some serious snoring when we got back home.

As the rules of the club specify one dog per person, Miss Flower couldn't join in, so she got her own outing afterwards and joined us for brunch on the patio of a local restaurant. I wouldn't swap my Bilbo for the world but it's definitely been fun having a come-with pooch around, especially as I can take her on public transport. I'm astonished that the lady is still with me (and, if truth be told, more than a little tempted to make it permanent) as she's such an adorable, snuggly little nugget. One family has fallen in love with her but we're still working on whether their dog is willing to come around to their point of view! If anyone you know is looking for a 10lb dancing snugglebug who can live with dogs, cats and kids, please share her profile.

By the time the weekend was over, scabby dog Bilbo was becoming a seriously scratchy mess and I'd resorted to the dreaded cone of shame in order to protect his itchy eyes. At the vet we discovered that he has a skin infection and received a barrage of antibiotics, antihistamines and special shampoo. Luckily it can't be passed on to the other pooches so there's just the one miserable hound to deal with.

Wednesday was outing time for Flower-power again and we started the evening at Waggin' Wednesday hosted by Chicago Party Animals and Fido to Go. She was more interested in snuggling up to the people than running around with the big pooches in the off-leash area but she made sure everyone knew how adorable she is and modeled her new "adoption jacket" - my first shot at creating a pattern for the foster dogs.

After munching on some yummy food from the food trucks we headed off to a people party - the start of the season get-together for Wicker Park Choral Singers. After working the crowd for a while, she clambered up to snooze on my lap by the fire pit while I imbibed plenty of rather delicious sangria.

We closed out the week the way we started, with another Sociabulls walk! This time we just took Billy along and after a hefty tantrum when we first arrived he did beautifully for almost the whole walk.

We can't make it to next week's walk but I'm looking forward to joining in again when the club is back in our area (or when I finally learn how to drive?!)