Since part of our task with fostering Chiquita is to get her exposed to people and social situations, we decided to take her with us. She loves to ride in the car, but prefers the highway. She actually starts to whimper when you slow down.
Monday morning we called Red Apple Farm to see if they allowed pets. They do! So we got our stuff together and headed about 30 minutes west. It's a great little farm that has a lot of activity for the whole family. In addition to pick your own fruits (seasonal apples, pumpkins, peaches, berries, and more), they also offer hayrides, farm animals, a BBQ pit set up on weekends, and a country store full of all the apple-y goodness fall has to offer.
Chiquita did pretty good on the way to the farm but was so excited once we pulled into the lot. She rode the whole way in the tailgate area of Dave's Jeep, but having to stop and get directed by a guy in the parking lot caused her to spring to the back seat and practically lick Dave's ear off trying to meet this new person. Once parked, she did get back into the tailgate for Dave to let her out, so there is progress.
We got directions to the apply picking, and Chiquita was in seventh heaven with all the attention. She got lots of pets and even got to lick some friendly people. There were an awful lot of distractions, but she did pretty well. There were even times when she listened! She made friends with a few little kids and gave them gentle licks, which was good to see her interact well with little ones. And she even met another doggie friend. That went...OK. They were friendly at first and then something happened. We're not sure if the other dog aggressed or if there was some misinterpreted barking, but she let Dave pull her away onto other things.
One cool thing about the farm is it's wind turbine. The farm is powered by a recently installed 15kw windmill. A brisk New England day, the turbine spun the whole time we were there, and it was remarkably quiet.
You can sort of see it behind this barn. I was trying to take a picture of the hayride, but didn't turn out so much. :)At least the orchard had other things going on and Chiquita got some good exercise, because the apples left a lot to be desired. We were able to pick about a dozen Yellow Newtown Pippins (yeah, I'd never heard of them either), but the Baldwin trees were wiped clean save for the tiny and frost damaged ones. Disappointed, I ended up taking my meager bag to the country store to pay, only to find some beautiful McIntosh apples there. So I picked up a bag there.
I showed true restraint in the country store, because all you could smell were amazing apple baked goods. I did cave in and bought one apple cider doughnut for Dave and I to share, but I refrained from the pies, the dozens of doughnuts to take home, the apple cider and even the homemade fudge.
We got back to the car and enjoyed our doughnut while Chiquita got a cookie and a last little lick on a 2 year old girl coming by on a wagon. Lucky for her she had the sense to keep her cookie in the hand farthest from Chiquita.
We figured the ride home would result in a sleepy puppy, passed out in the back. Unfortunately she was still wound up, and as we were on the highway, before I could stop her, she had jumped into the back seat with no hope in getting her back.
This is what a bad dog looks like.So Chiquita didn't earn any cookies for the ride home. But considering she's probably never been exposed to that many people and animals (and pigs at the farm) at one time, she did pretty well. She's only a year old, and still a puppy in many ways, so we're calling it a win. We'll just have to keep exposing her to break some bad habits.
Meanwhile, I have to find some recipes so I can bake up some apple cookies with my Yellow Pippins.
No comments:
Post a Comment