Unleased and unbound

Last night, I posted two pictures of Jersey.  One from a few years ago, the other more recent.

The top one was taken at Sandy Point State park outside of Annapolis, Maryland.  We had recently moved across the country from our home in Aurora, Colorado.  In Aurora, there was the most wonderful off leash dog park ever.  It's within the confines of Cherry Creek State Park and it is truly a doggy Disneyland.  It is a HUGE expanse of land with miles of wide open spaces, trails, streams, forests, arroyos and lots of friendly dogs.  It is so big it never looks or feels crowded and it wasn't too far from our house.  When there was snow on the ground and Jersey and I had the place to ourselves, I would snowshoe way into the back of beyond.  Jersey would lead the way and we would explore the most out of the way places. In the spring and summer the creek that ran through it would be swollen with water, overflowing the bank, full from the melting snow.  Jersey loved nothing better than running up it, through it, across it and drinking it.  I have some pictures of us somewhere that I'll post when I find them.

After we moved and after a lot of research, I was very dismayed to find there was nothing even remotely like it where a dog could freely run and roam.  The closest I could find were some Maryland State Parks that had relaxed rules about allowing dogs, on leash, in the off season from Labor Day through Memorial Day.  The best one I could find, close to water with open space and woods to explore was Sandy Point State Park.

Sandy Point is on the Chesapeake Bay and is bordered on one side by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.  It's only 28 miles from our house and is an easy drive.  Really it's only easy when it's not rush hour or when it's not a friday afternoon during the summer months when traffic stretches for miles with cars full of people escaping to Ocean City.

It's one of three places I have found within close proximity of our home where I can covertly let both dogs off leash and allow them to run to their hearts content.

The picture was taken a couple of months after we arrived in Maryland.  Jersey finally had some space and a large body of water within which she could run, wade and explore.  She also discovered she likde to eat jellyfish.  Not the dangerous red tentacles or guts but the translucent tops which would wash up on the beach.  I guess for a dog, they're a delicacy.

It's a picture of her making a decision about where she should go next.  Should she dig a hole in the wet sand at waters edge? Should she run to the end of the beach and explore the jetty? Should she try to find some deer or other critters in the woods and run after them?

Sadly, they are all memories for her now.  She's sad she can't run, she's sad she can't snuffle in the water by the jetty and look for whatever it was that caught her attention.  She's sad she can't chase the seagulls that would gather in flocks at waters edge.  I think she dreams of it though.  She'll be sleeping and she'll twitch and seem be running.

These things which she can't do anymore is the biggest reason I am so thankful we took her to sit on the beach in the sun a couple of weeks ago.  I posted a picture from that day.  She could walk much easier than she can now.  It was the day she was determined to walk down the beach to get to the jetty.  After that visit, she's had a steady decline in her mobility.

I think though she is determined to get back there.  I can see it in her eyes and feel it in her spirit everytime I pick her up to carry her outside.  That's why I gladly walk up and down the stairs with her even though she's 80 lbs and it's destroying my wrists, arms and now my knees.  She wants to run and dig and explore with the same unbridled joy which I'm convinced still courses through her system.

You go girl!  We're going to make it happen!