Emmy's experiences over the first month
To anyone reading this blog, please feel free to ignore this post. We wanted to put together in one place our memories of how Emmy's been doing. Given that goal, the post will no doubt sound more than a little goofy... Please excuse.
Flight over. In the middle of the night while Maxine and I were trying, largely unsuccessfully, to sleep. Maxine was awakened by me tapping on her leg. It wasn't really me. It was Emmy, who escaped from her Sherpa -- somehow opening the zipper from the inside. Emmy spent the rest of the flight curled up next to Maxine's leg.
At Bartelemy Cheese Store. Bartelelemy gets reviewed as one of the best cheese stores in the city. Fortunately, it's also one of the closest to our apartment, so we've gotten into the habit of going there if we want some cheese. Maxine goes in to select cheeses and I stay outside with Emmy (holding her this particular time). It's a small store with only 3 people working. While I was outside looking through the window, one of the staff came out holding a small pile of cheese shavings. I thought she was offering them as samples to the other people who were looking through the window until she said, "pour the chien". Emmy enjoyed!
Parrotheads tailgate at the Eiffel Tower. We've covered that in another post, so I won't dwell on it here. It's just a happy memory to me, thinking of Emmy wandering among the 70+ people sitting on the lawn, making friends on her own, wearing a lei around her neck to show that she was part of the group. Afterwards, we asked people on the Facebook group if any of them had taken pictures of Emmy (because we hadn't). At least 15 pictures of Emmy were posted in turn -- apparently she was posing with people...
It didn't take long for Emmy to learn her way around. She knows the door to our apartment building and which streets are the noisy ones. It hasn't always been great for her here. She doesn't like noise and loud trucks and motorcycles are an inevitability. So, lots of days her bathroom "walks" take less than 5 minutes with her pulling back to the apartment door when she judges that she's done. We've been trying to convince her that there are sometimes good things that come from being on the street though. Whenever one of us is coming home late, the other will bring Emmy down to the street so she can be "surprised" to find us calling to her from down the road. We hope it helps.
Truth is, though, she prefers to sit a home on the sofa. She'll go outside when we ask her to, but try to complete her business and drag us back. We'd envisioned taking her to cafe's, window shopping in the neighborhood, walks along the Seine -- but none of those really appeal to her. She's loyal and willing to put up with all of this, but we're pretty sure she'd rather be home. We've done what we can to accommodate her AND we'd warned her when we adopted her that there'd be some travel in her life, but...
We're also trying to make it a point, at least while the weather holds up, to go to the Louvre off leash dog park 2x/week. We've already posted about that as well -- she really seems to enjoy it. Once we start towards the Seine she knows where she's going and begins to lead us across the bridge and towards the Louvre. It bears mentioning that we've been on the grounds of the Louvre 5-6 times so far on this trip, but didn't go in until this past week with Tom's goddaughter. It's really more a dog park to us than a great museum.
The apartment is around the corner from SciencesPo Paris which is the French equivalent of an Ivy League college. We're not entirely sure why, but they have security guards in black blazers at the entrances checking ID's before letting people pass. Except for Emmy who often walks in to the limit of her leash to check what's going on, and to get away from the street noises. The guards seem OK with it.
Last weekend Bill & Emily visited. Emily is 12 and has a dog of her own at home. But, we're pretty sure that Helene is nothing like Emmy. After Bill went back to Toulouse, Emmy spent the next 2 nights sleeping with Emily (yes, the names are close). First time Emmy has willingly stayed with someone other than Maxine and/or me. In the middle of each night I checked in on things and while Emmy looked up, it was clear she was just fine where she was.
So, both Emmy, as well as Maxine and I, are at the halfway point in our trip. We've enjoyed both new things as well as repeating old things. Even more than on other trips, we feel no need to be touring 24/7 and instead have adopted a more relaxed regimen. It works for us, and works for Emmy...
Aside from the Emmy-out-and-about-in-Paris photos which we're documenting elsewhere, her experience of the city is mostly about hanging out in the apartment:
Flight over. In the middle of the night while Maxine and I were trying, largely unsuccessfully, to sleep. Maxine was awakened by me tapping on her leg. It wasn't really me. It was Emmy, who escaped from her Sherpa -- somehow opening the zipper from the inside. Emmy spent the rest of the flight curled up next to Maxine's leg.
At Bartelemy Cheese Store. Bartelelemy gets reviewed as one of the best cheese stores in the city. Fortunately, it's also one of the closest to our apartment, so we've gotten into the habit of going there if we want some cheese. Maxine goes in to select cheeses and I stay outside with Emmy (holding her this particular time). It's a small store with only 3 people working. While I was outside looking through the window, one of the staff came out holding a small pile of cheese shavings. I thought she was offering them as samples to the other people who were looking through the window until she said, "pour the chien". Emmy enjoyed!
Parrotheads tailgate at the Eiffel Tower. We've covered that in another post, so I won't dwell on it here. It's just a happy memory to me, thinking of Emmy wandering among the 70+ people sitting on the lawn, making friends on her own, wearing a lei around her neck to show that she was part of the group. Afterwards, we asked people on the Facebook group if any of them had taken pictures of Emmy (because we hadn't). At least 15 pictures of Emmy were posted in turn -- apparently she was posing with people...
It didn't take long for Emmy to learn her way around. She knows the door to our apartment building and which streets are the noisy ones. It hasn't always been great for her here. She doesn't like noise and loud trucks and motorcycles are an inevitability. So, lots of days her bathroom "walks" take less than 5 minutes with her pulling back to the apartment door when she judges that she's done. We've been trying to convince her that there are sometimes good things that come from being on the street though. Whenever one of us is coming home late, the other will bring Emmy down to the street so she can be "surprised" to find us calling to her from down the road. We hope it helps.
Truth is, though, she prefers to sit a home on the sofa. She'll go outside when we ask her to, but try to complete her business and drag us back. We'd envisioned taking her to cafe's, window shopping in the neighborhood, walks along the Seine -- but none of those really appeal to her. She's loyal and willing to put up with all of this, but we're pretty sure she'd rather be home. We've done what we can to accommodate her AND we'd warned her when we adopted her that there'd be some travel in her life, but...
We're also trying to make it a point, at least while the weather holds up, to go to the Louvre off leash dog park 2x/week. We've already posted about that as well -- she really seems to enjoy it. Once we start towards the Seine she knows where she's going and begins to lead us across the bridge and towards the Louvre. It bears mentioning that we've been on the grounds of the Louvre 5-6 times so far on this trip, but didn't go in until this past week with Tom's goddaughter. It's really more a dog park to us than a great museum.
The apartment is around the corner from SciencesPo Paris which is the French equivalent of an Ivy League college. We're not entirely sure why, but they have security guards in black blazers at the entrances checking ID's before letting people pass. Except for Emmy who often walks in to the limit of her leash to check what's going on, and to get away from the street noises. The guards seem OK with it.
Last weekend Bill & Emily visited. Emily is 12 and has a dog of her own at home. But, we're pretty sure that Helene is nothing like Emmy. After Bill went back to Toulouse, Emmy spent the next 2 nights sleeping with Emily (yes, the names are close). First time Emmy has willingly stayed with someone other than Maxine and/or me. In the middle of each night I checked in on things and while Emmy looked up, it was clear she was just fine where she was.
So, both Emmy, as well as Maxine and I, are at the halfway point in our trip. We've enjoyed both new things as well as repeating old things. Even more than on other trips, we feel no need to be touring 24/7 and instead have adopted a more relaxed regimen. It works for us, and works for Emmy...
Aside from the Emmy-out-and-about-in-Paris photos which we're documenting elsewhere, her experience of the city is mostly about hanging out in the apartment:
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