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Bonita’s First Walk

Now that Bonita seems to have imprinted on me and is my little shadow, I thought she might trust me enough to go on a walk. I wanted to see how she would react out in The World since it would literally take more time to drive to the vet than for us to walk.

Bonita clearly understands what a leash is. I walk her around the yard daily and she gets so excited when she sees the leash. She doesn’t understand yet what a harness is, but she is super patient while I get it on her — it still takes me a few tries!

She was nervous about leaving the property, but after that, she was like a new dog. My belief that walking her in this neighbourhood would put me on a “stupid s*** gringos do” page was warranted — we accumulated quite a pack of barking dogs on our adventure, as well as some bemused stares, but Bonita handled them with complete equanimity — she’s used to being surrounded by packs of barking dogs and if mom is there, who cares about a few stares?!

She was curious and clearly happy to be out. She did pull at her leash a few times, but mostly stuck by me. I don’t think I’ll need to teach her “heel.” She handled both the quiet side streets and the busier 21 well, so I think she’ll be just fine along super busy 60 for a couple of blocks.

As we were on the home stretch, a man stopped me to chat about her! He said she looked stressed to him, but once he knew that she was on her very first walk, he said that she actually seemed to be doing very well in that case and that I clearly had a good handle on her. I liked when he said she is “bonita” and her ears perked up. My girl knows her name!

Walk are definitely not going to be a daily thing, unfortunately, due to the amount of disturbance we caused with all the loose dogs running about and barking. None seemed vicious or dangerous, but I can imagine how annoyed the neighbours would be if this were a daily occurrence.

What progress Bonita has made in her first month here! I have a new dog almost every day, one that is less timid and more affectionate. I can imagine it will be a few more months before all her secrets are revealed and I know who my Bonita really is. I have to say that having her tucked up tight next to me as I write this versus sitting at arm’s length as she would have been until a few days ago tells me that, clichéd as this is, the best really is yet to come.

11 thoughts on “Bonita’s First Walk”

  1. Rae, I have been enjoying your blog for quite some time and have kind of lived vicariously through you while you traveled. But when you write about Bonita I enjoy it on a different level, because I know from my own experiences what love and happiness we can receive from our fuzzy four legged friends. Reading about her has been a highlight of my day. Thank you for sharing with us.

    • I thought your but was going to be “OMG, are you going to be one of those bloggers who just talks about her dog now?!” LOL

      Thank you so much for this comment. She’s brought a lot of joy into my life and I’m glad the joy is spreading to others. <3

      • Rae, Bonita is such a large dog with long legs; is there a nice dog park nearby where you could take her to run and stretch her legs? It’s really no different than the need to take a kid to the park to run and play.

        I noted how healthy and rich her fur coat looks; have you been brushing her or is it the shampoo you are using? Also, you might have said, but what would be your estimate of Bonita’s age. Overall, she doesn’t look as though she is much passed puppyhood with such a rich fur coat.

        • She does not need to go to a park to stretch her legs. She has a huge yard to run around in. No way I’m going to risk her getting loose so she can run off or be hit by a car or be poisoned by some food she finds.

          Her coat is looking so nice because of her diet. I’ve got her on a super high quality pet food and it’s making a huge difference compared to when I brought her home. She has zero fur on her belly.

          She’s 11.

  3. She’s making progress by leaps and bounds. OK, maybe she’s not leaping and bounding yet but you know what I mean.

  5. I love reading about the life of you and Bonita! After what you told me about her history, I am sure she is loving all of the love and attention that you are giving her, which she probably lacked most of her life.

    Hope you can get that video because it sounds exactly like my Jack Russell terrier, who is more apt to do that if I dangle a chew stick above his nose. LOL

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