Here is something I’ve learned in the past 2 weeks: Living in an apartment, after living in a house, sucks a big one. I think both, Alev and I , are feeling the same way. But I don’t think we’re feeling it as bad as Sugar. She went from have a 1900 sq ft house to lay around, to a 800-something sq ft place. We can tell she is already feeling couped up. It doesn’t help that there isn’t any where to really walk here. Before we had a big neighborhood, now we can walk the entire complex in about 10 minutes. Outside of the apartments, in every direction, are highways and frontage roads. Not really a great place to exercise her.

On Saturday, I decided to take Sugar to two of her favorites places, the doggie park and Petsmart. The doggie park is right next to our old house. When she recognized the area she started getting really excited, not sure if she thought we were going to the house or what. As soon as I let her out of the car, her mood changed for the better. She enjoyed all the sniffing of butts and wide open space.

She lets me know when it’s time to go, she will either lay down or walk towards to exit gate.

Our next stop was our local Pet Smart. I have no personal preference in pet stores, but Sugar loves Pet Smart. It’s the only place we have found that have chinchillas and hamsters at her eye level. When we get to the entrance she will start pulling toward to cages. It’s funny because she never pulls on her leash. Once she spots her rodent friends, it’s near impossible to move her away from them. If you start walking away, she will lay down and not get up. When we do get her away from them, she will try to get back. She is just fascinated with these things, no idea why.

After our trip, she crashed for the rest of the day, occasionally waking herself up when she snored too loud. Tonight, we’re going to head out to the Walnut Creek park for some hiking.

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