Meet Meeka!

My roommate and partner in crime is a 3 year old Whippet/German Shepherd mix named Meeka.  Isn't she cute??

This morning, I decided to take her with me for a short, 20-ish minute run.  It was a gorgeous day, so we drove to a trail that runs along the wash (read: dry river bed) throughout a lot of Tucson.  There was actually water running, so that made it even better.  She wore her orange Zumba® bandanna for the occasion.

Meeka was SO excited, the first 10 minutes were what I expected, with her running everywhere but me mostly able to keep up a decently consistent pace.  There was a place to go down to the wash, so I took a break to let her play in the water.  She loved it, but was kind of scared of the mud (she is a weird dog, afraid of everything!).  The day was so pretty, I decided to just keep walking.  We went a mile down the trail and then turned around.  The next mile was pretty uneventful, until it came to finding the car.

I completely forgot where I had parked!  We walked up and all through one shopping center, back down the trail, back up the trail, through another center...and I still couldn't find it.  Probably half an hour later, I finally figured out where we needed to be going--about half a mile from where we were.  At this point, I was dragging a panting, exhausted dog.

After walking/running a total of 3 1/2 miles, this is how she spent the rest of the day.

Overall, it was an adventure well worth the time to be outside enjoying the fabulous, clear day!  We'll see if she'll be excited to join me again.

I was offered free admission to a mud run nearby tomorrow, so I might just do it and see how it goes!  Wish me luck!