Day 6: SUNDAY

The whole family woke up around 8.  Scott took Mikeyba out for a quick morning walk which yielded both robert and moses because Mikey's AWESOME. 

I had to run to the bodega for coffee and didn't take Mikey. Dogs aren't allowed in there.  Dog owners are discouraged from tying dogs outside stores while running in, even just to grab coffee.  

There are plenty of reliable sources who feel pretty strongly that tying your dog outside a store is a bad idea.  It's hard to say how many dogs really are dog- napped, but at the very least,  dogs feel really stressed when tied outside.  For that reason, I play it safe with Mikey.  He stayed home.

We cleaned the house today.  Mikeyba is unfazed by the vacuum cleaner.  That's more than I can say for Panzer the cat, who freaks out and scrambles away.  Maybe there's a vacuum brush in Mikeyba's future!

Today Mikeyba will meet four of our friends and have a nice long walk around Smorgasburg. 

Taking a dog to a food fest is risky but we'll feed him a little before we go, bring snacks for him, and discourage our friends from feeding him people food.  We'll also practice "sit" in that high- distraction area, with different people testing him.  I'll let you know how it goes!

(Later)  Smorgasburg was INSANELY crowded.  It was too crowded for us humans, and certainly it was too crowded for Mikey!  There were lots of interesting, tasty- looking foods, but the crowds and long lines were too much for us. We didn't stay very long.  It was certainly not this crowded the two times we went last year.  Later it occurred to us that it was the first day this year and everyone was crazy to get out of the house and get some sun. 

Mikey had a hard time in that crowd.  We could tell because we nearly had to drag him through all those people.  He really didn't want to be there.  But he still handled it pretty well.  He didn't bark, whine, or tremble.  That being said, Mikey still did very good "sits" despite lots of noise, crowds, and traffic. What a great dog! We decided to go to a restaurant so Scott walked him home and met up with us at the place.  (Remember, no tying up the dog outside!)

Here's the thing about Mikey: he still walks extremely slowly, even with his trimmed nails and gradually increasing physical activity.  How slowly?  Really     v e r y       e  x  t  r  e  m  e  l  y       s  l  o  w  l  y.   This isn't a problem, especially with the right kind of owner, but potential adopters should know about this.

These guys could beat Mikey in a race.

At twelve years old, Mikey is a canine senior citizen (in excellent health), and he'd be absolutely perfect with a human senior citizen as his owner!  Especially an owner with mobility issues, or someone who just had foot surgery. Even someone on crutches can easily take Mikey for a walk!  

He loves to stop and sniff every stain on the sidewalk.  Mikey is not one of those dogs who will yank you down the block, grasping at the end of the leash!  (Those poor people always look like they can't control their dogs!  Mikey's owner will never look like that.)  

Not Mikey's style.

In addition to that, Mikey has zero interest in playing fetch, or tug of war, or rip- the- rag.  There's no need to buy him chew toys, because he's just not interested.  And of course, he never barks, whines, growls, jumps up, chews, or digs.  He has no issues with food guarding.  

Mikey like to keep it simple!  He goes on walks, eats his dinner, patrols the house a bit, and then curls up in his bed.  He's practically a cat, except that you have to walk him, and you can teach him tricks.  He's such an amazing old boy.

Tonight he had a bit more than half his dinner and right now he's lying in on his bed, dozing.