The morning was very mild and very grey, and the world was very lovely.
A few degrees above freezing, we headed out................
Picking up one short and winding paved trail after another, we meandered our way around the grounds of the Cody Public Library.
During the summer this is a beautiful green space.
Large man-made ponds and flowing streams that dominate three sides of the library, well manicured green space, flowers and trees, picnic tables....a beautiful sanctuary away from civilization.
During the winter it is equally beautiful.
Nature in the city.
I walked slowly, letting Kory take the lead.
Walking when she wanted to walk. Stopping when she wanted to investigate whatever important bush or pole or bench had caught her attention in that particular moment.
It was all very quiet and very nice, and as I watched my beautiful dog I absently wondered how many times we had headed out together for big and small adventures over the four years we had been together.
Too many to count................
It also spans the distance between the parking lot and the main entrance to the library.................
The simple plan was to pick up the snow covered gravel trails, follow them back down to street level downtown, and then wander some of the residential streets before heading back to the cottage..................
As we headed towards the trails I watched my dog with a mixture of bemusement and mild guilt.
I watched as she began to do something that I first saw her do four years earlier.
We had been walking on BLM land out at Cedar Butte in back of Atomic City.
LC and I had only had Kory for a few weeks and were still keeping her on leash full time when we walked.
Keeping her on leash until she began to understand that we were her people - her family - and as she began to learn about this new world in Idaho.
Kory had been in a shelter in Florida for months, had been two days away from being put down, had been adopted out of the shelter for us by a friend down in Florida, who kept Kory for a week until she could be flown out to us in Idaho.
We knew about all she had been through at the time, but knew nothing of her history or life before being sentenced to that kill shelter in Tampa, FL.
And so we were keeping her close to us so we could safely give her time to understand her new world.
As we were coming back down off Cedar Butte Kory suddenly started to rear up and then run the entire length of her retractable leash.
And then she did it again.
She repeated the same thing over and over and over and I watched her in confusion, trying to figure out exactly what my dog was doing and why.
A few minutes later I finally realized what I was witnessing.
I had a dog in front of me who desperately wanted to run.
Wanted to run so badly that she was running to the end of her leash over and over, because that was the only option she had.
When had she last run free, I wondered.
I didn't know.
She had been in the shelter for months.
Maybe she hadn't run in months.
Likely she hadn't run in months.
Regretfully I couldn't risk setting her loose. We hadn't had her long enough. We were 8 miles from the house in the middle of the Idaho desert.
I couldn't let her go.
But I did a few weeks later.................
As we headed back towards the top of Canal Park trails four years later, Kory reared up and ran to the end of her leash.
This time I instantly recognized what was happening.
And then she did it again.
And again.
Unlike that first time, it had only been a couple of days since LC and I had last taken Kory out onto BLM land so that she could run free.
But watching her now, it was obvious that my dog was restless. and I thought "OK baby - tomorrow we'll go out. I promise"................
We were half way down a steep trail when Kory stopped on the edge of the trail to investigate a hugely interesting snow covered sage bush.
I had just enough time to silently promise her again that I would take her for a run the next day, when she suddenly reared up and ran down the steep, snow covered hill between trails.
Caught off guard, I was immediately pulled off the trail and into knee deep snow.
Her strength, her running and the downhill momentum all pulled me so far forward that I couldn't catch myself.
I lost balance and fell.
I have a chronic hip injury. A running injury. It's not going away anytime soon. It's not going away and is what it is. I've learned to live with it.
When I fell I landed hard and directly on that hip, and it hurt.
It hurt so much that it knocked the wind out of me and for a few minutes I sat in the snow unable to move.
I still had a hold of Korys leash and when I finally looked up I saw her looking at me as if to say "What's the hold up here? Let's go already!"
With a great deal of difficulty I pulled my sorry self back up to a stand.
Walk it off Karin.............
After limping home, LC and I went for breakfast and then ran errands in town, and gradually my hip (although still sore) began to feel better.
Walking it off Karin..............
I rested for the remainder of the day and my hip deteriorated rapidly.
By that night it was in bad shape and I could barely move.
While heading for the bathroom a couple of times overnight I was literally using furniture and the walls for support.
As I painfully moved around the cottage I became increasingly resigned to the fact that I was seriously injured.
This wasn't good.
The next day I alternated between OTC pain killers, stretching, resting and whining, while LC took my energetic dog for the run that she so desperately needed.
Worried that I had seriously hurt an already ailing hip, I debated whether or not to seek medical attention, and ultimately decided to wait for one more day.
In the middle of that second night I again walked the walls and again reached for furniture, as I painfully limped my way to the bathroom.
And then I got up again just before dawn, sleepily limped my way to the bathroom, sleepily climbed back into bed and suddenly realized that I had made it without reaching for an assist. My right leg had moved in front of my left almost as normal, instead of dragging behind.
That my hip still hurt but not in that blinding pain kind-of-way that had dominated the past day and a half.
Unexpectedly and suddenly, I was on the mend................
One more historic and beautiful Cody home................
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