Sunday at the Park....

Such a beautiful Sunday afternoon!  We decided to take our ever-improving puppy to Sycamore Shoals for some much needed exercise on the wonderful jogging trail they have there.  It runs along the river, and is delightfully cool and shady, with benches and such scattered in strategic places.  Just the place for a late summer stroll.

Apparently, Luggie was not a duck in his former life, because just the smell of the river is enough to set him trembling, even if we're right there with him.  A water dog, he apparently is not.  However, he's still very young, and in recovering health, so we're not ready to throw in the towel quite yet.

Behind the fort, there is a huge grassy field, used for staging the actors, stunts and such during summer productions and reenactments.  Since it's so nice and open, we decided to let Luggie off his lead and give him a chance to run a bit.

As sick as he has been, he's getting quite obviously (at least to us) stronger every day, so we've done what we could to make sure we give him plenty of exercise to build up his strength and endurance.

Here, Keith got in the middle of the field, and I stood on one end.  We took turns calling Luggie to us, and he'd run wildly from one of us to the other until he was completely and blissfully worn out.

It was so wonderful to see him flying over the surface of the grass!  It makes me tear up, thinking about how sick he was when we first took him to the vet...the poor little thing was so ill and weak he couldn't even stand on his own!  No hair, and a terrible cough...

...and now, just look at him go!

I couldn't love him more.