It's his world, I'm just living in it...

It's no secret who runs my life:

Yes, this 10-pound brat wiener dog, as evidence by my lack of willingness to even kick him out of my own bed! Judge all you want, but if he looked at you with the eyes he gives me, you'd do the same thing... (sucker, I know).

He even rules the roost when sleeping... J.D. and I affectionately refer to this as "my Woody scarf" for obvious reasons.

(OH MY GOD, this reminds me of the SNL Taxmasters commercial spoof from the Jane Lynch episode... so creepy and so hysterical all at the same time. Please watch it and try not to cringe!)

Today, Woodstock and I shared a nice fall day outdoors. Honestly, it was over 105° all summer and I never once took out my bathing suit. Now that the weather is in the 70s and 80s I can finally lay outside and catch some rays! I went inside to look for my current read (Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald) and was pretty bummed to see what happened to my once perfectly-laid-out towel.

"So SORRY to interrupt...."

He also has been dictating our walks lately. Last week I wanted to take Woodstock for at least a mile or two walk. When I walk him on his harness, he basically drags me. He's small, but he's a strong little guy and he likes to walk very, very briskly. So I figured, what the heck, why not try to run him? And we literally ran for half a mile together. I went gingerly because I wasn't sure how far to push him, but we eventually ran/jogged over 3.5 miles! And on his first run, he was faster than I was ready to run (thanks to the bum knee) and barely had to rest after. Look out, Wiener Nationals! Really though, my goal is to enter him in that. It's not even funny how serious I am.

The stats:

Not bad for my first "run" in over a month. I also noticed that before I hit the second mile, my knee was not in pain at all! However, after the 5K distance it did start to bother me significantly. Nothing a little ice couldn't fix. And it didn't hurt as much as it usually does the few days after the run. So this leads me to believe that I am ready to get back into running. Not the eight miles I was averaging when I injured myself, obviously. But baby steps. I'm going to try to ease into it with the Couch to 5K program. From there, I can gauge where my knee's at and see if I need to continue my running hiatus, or if I'm ready to get back into my distance running. I really hope I'm ready for the latter...

I'm going to throw you a curveball to finish this post. I think I've sort of adopted a cat. This cat, to be more specific.

I don't know anything about the cat, so please don't ask. I don't know what gender it is, who he/she belongs to, what it's name is... nothing.

But he's a very friendly cat (yeah, I just decided without any veterinary training that it's a boy). So friendly that he's followed me into my house several times. And he's also found his way into my garage where he's been accidentally locked up, oops, sorry cat :-\ Seriously though, he comes and nudges the columns by our front door every night, I can hear him meowing at the door -- Woodstock hates this btw, every time I say let's go see if the kitty is here, he scrambles to the front door, barks his little heart out and paws at the door. He also likes to sleep in the giant flower bush in front of my house. And he brings me presents. Last week it was a lizard wrapped in entrails, the week before a dead bird. How sweet. This morning he even sat in the driveway while J.D. and I both washed our cars. It's bizarre, but I think we "have" a cat now.

Anyways, that's it for me. I'm off to find something for my little life ruler to do because he's eaten through all of his allegedly "durable" toys in minutes. Does anyone know of any good toys a 10-pound dog can't chew through?! He's chomped through a Kong to put it into perspective...