Backs and Backpacks

I hurt my back again. Some of you may remember I was off work for 3 months last year about this time with a back strain. It was not fun at all. Lots of physio, chiropractic care, massage therapy and tylenol 3's, along with some rest, and by just after Christmas I was back to work full time. Well, I did it again. Not painting this time, moving. I think I overdid it. It's just such bad timing. I moved things on Friday, Saturday, Monday, and today, lifted both items and people, and did more than I should have. I was feeling ok though, so I figured I was good. I was still lifting less than I used to. Apparently I have turned into a wuss. Rich is back to work tomorrow and Thursday so now the rest of the packing is my responsibility. Pray it gets better quickly. I have taken some advil, stretched and iced, hopefully that will be enough.

So before I realized I'd hurt my back today (I thought I was sick to my stomach - same thing happened last time), Rich and I took Chewie for a walk to get her nails clipped. We use a gentle leader to walk her which loops over her snout to give us a bit more control of her head. She can still bark, lick, eat, bite, and do all the normal dog things with this on - it's a great tool for training. The other thing we use to walk her is a backpack. For those of you who don't know a ton about dogs, Shepherd's are working dogs and like having a job to do. They also need a ton of exercise. The backpack looks like saddle bags and it's purpose is 2 fold. One, is to give her a job to do. The second is it's more work for her, so it's more tiring. A 45 minute walk with a backpack filled with 10% of her body weight feels like a 90 minute walk, so shes more rested and calm.

So Rich and I are walking her today down Old Ancaster Rd toward Govenor's Rd and across the road is a 4x4 who had stopped and yelled across the road at us. Across the 2 lanes of traffic they tell us what a pretty dog she is (we actually hear this a lot) and asked where we got the backpack. We gave them the website and they proceeded to ask us questions for another 5 minutes or so through the traffic. When they were done they did a Uturn and went back up the hill. We were walking down the hill, so they must have been going up, saw us, made a uturn to go down to find us, then went back up. So crazy what some people will stop for. Most people stop us to ask if there is beer in the backpack. Sorry, just water.

3 more sleeps till the move!