YOGI

As I continue sharing about the dogs in my life, I’d love to share Yogi with you. He is a Golden Retriever born in March of 2011 in the great state of Colorado. His forever family lived in California (they had already moved here from CO) so Yogi took a plane ride to meet up with them.

My first walk with Yogi was in June of 2018 and he immediately stole my heart.

Yogi and I first started walking just a half hour but it became abundantly clear within a short time that 30 minutes was just not enough for this energetic guy. We increased our time together to one full hour and that seemed to be perfect for Yogi.

When I first arrive at his house, Yogi brings me a toy so we can play for a minute or so. We don’t just rush into the walk. We greet one another, we get/give lovin’ and share toys. Sometimes, he’ll even lay back in his bed as if to tell me we could just stay home and cuddle but I know after a short time, he’ll still want to walk so we get ourselves leashed up and off we go.

To keep things fresh and exciting for Yogi, we take different routes. He has a few favorites, as do I, but we mix it up quite often. Most times we include some hill therapy and then have a photo session at the crest. While he doesn’t mind the hills, he isn’t always thrilled getting his picture taken. None-the-less, Yogi obliges me in my efforts to keep a photographic file of our time together.

Even though Yogi is one of my bigger dogs and a bit older, he does not let that hinder our progress. He is definitely on a mission when we are outside. He barely pees, he almost never poops (because he can do both of those activities in the privacy of his own back yard) and he doesn’t even really stop much to sniff. He wants to walk. He wants to walk, walk, walk. I think his goal is to be my ‘greatest distance covered’ client. Each week we walk about 3.5 miles in our one-hour allotment. On several occasions, when we run, we can even get upwards of 4.5 miles.

My greatest story with Yogi is the day in early December of last year when we decided it was a great day for a run. We were nearing the end of our time together at nearly 4 miles. I had his leash in my right hand and he was leading the pack (all two of us). I’m pretty sure he was smiling at the time because life was good and we were immensely enjoying our time outside. However, as I was making great strides in my run, I tripped over a raised spot on the sidewalk and down I went. I fell hard because we were clocking less than 10 minutes per mile. First, I went down on my knees and then the upper section of my body landed hard on the pavement with nothing to stop me but my left arm. Needless to say, the leash fell out of my hand and Yogi was free and clear. He is such an awesome dog, however, that he immediately ran right back to me and stood by my side. I was dazed, confused and hurt. A woman driving by saw what happened and stopped to offer assistance. At first, she was standing far away asking if I needed help. Clearly, I needed help and I couldn’t understand why she was staying at a distance. Then I realized that Yogi was standing guard over me and she was afraid. I then told her he was friendly and she began helping me. As it turns out, I nearly passed out from pain and I vomited. My husband was called. The police were called. The EMTs were called. All the while, Yogi was by my side.

It has been three months since that painful fall and I’ve mostly healed. Retelling the story gives me chills all over again. I was physically hurt and anxious about the fall but it could have been so much worse. Yogi could have run off without me and he could have gotten hurt or lost and my heart would have been broken. But he was so good and apparently inherently knew that something bad had happened and his protective guard dog instinct kicked in immediately. What a gift and blessing Yogi has been to me for more than 9 months and especially on that day in early December when he came to my rescue at the exact moment I needed him.

Thank you, Yogi. You are so precious to me. 💖

  

Young Yogi

Sweet Boy

Happy Yogi

Running Yogi

Golfing Yogi