Sunday

We gulped down our coffee and headed to the causeway with Toby before sunrise. It was another foggy morning.

We couldn’t see the water at all.

We dropped Toby off at home in his crate and went to The Chatterbox for breakfast. We had hamburgers on our first visit back in July, so we wanted to give their breakfast a shot.

It’s an unlikely location inside the local bowling alley, which appears to be very high tech and clean. The machines keep your score automatically, which tells you how long it’s been since I went bowling.

My Dad said the coffee mugs were the perfect size. We got multiple refills.

We ordered pancakes, eggs, and bacon. It was good to be served and not have to do dishes. The food was acceptable, not as good as The Covered Bridge. The service was excellent.

The car got messy from this morning‘s causeway outing, bird crap, sand, and dirt streaks from the condensation. I washed, dried, and vacuumed it to get it looking good again.

We weren’t hungry for lunch so we had a bowl of cereal. Then we hopped on our bikes and headed downtown to pick up some dog food for Toby. It was 79 degrees and people were everywhere. We stopped at Kafe Racer’s bike shop to listen to live music and people watch. Clearly, it’s not a typical bike shop. There were gift booths outside.

We passed these condos under construction on Main and Highland Avenue. They will be townhouses (stairs).

The garages are on the interior of the development. These are near Happy’s Bayou Bites.

Further east on Main Street, these condos are going up. They are also townhomes. The are located at New York Avenue, near Patricia.

We made it to the pet store where they were having a street fair of booths for selling arts and crafts. There was music, too. It was so crowded it was hard to move, definitely the most people I’ve been around in almost two years. Anyway, we got a free bag of dog food and a doggie gift bag of treats. It was a good thing we rode our bikes; there was no place to park. I was so overwhelmed I didn’t think to get a picture. Turns out that it’s not a typical pet store either. They were crazy busy.

We got home and John was playing with Toby and giving him his new treats when all of the sudden there is blood on the dog bed and on the white tile floor. John calls for help and we try to figure out where the blood is coming from, mouth, foot, body??

We see footprints so John held Toby while I inspected Toby’s foot. Toby freaks out and pees on John’s foot (submissive response to fear). John freaks out. I step in blood and urine. Toby gets loose and heads for the white rug. Then our bed.

While he’s elevated, I try to inspect his bloody paw. He submissively pees a gusher on our bed spread. John starts feeding him treats so that I can inspect the foot without getting peed on. I can’t see anything but blood. I have to go get my phone for the light. I finally spot the source. I wiggled my fingers through the blood and grab what was sticking out and pulled, as you can see above. I’m not sure if it’s a foreign object or a scab, but it gushed more blood.

Then my sister called. I’ve been looking forward to talking to her ever since she got back from Costa Rica. I had to interrupt the call with my bloody finger on the automatic reply, “Can I call you later?”

Toby never flinched. He was more interested in the treats John was feeding him. I got the Bactine and squirted the wound. 

Eventually, the bleeding stopped, but we’ve restricted his recreational walking until tomorrow. 

Then we set about cleaning up.

A fire truck came through our neighborhood last night, all lighted up and sirens blaring. Toby was not amused. We could have used some paramedics tonight!

Sweet boy.

Today’s bike route to downtown via the Pinellas Trail and east on Main to the Dunedin Pet Store.

Miles walked: 7.2

Miles biked: 8.82