Poe

We got Poe from SCARS few years ago. When we had our first meeting with the fostering family, we met in an off-leash park and we could see him kind of in the distance. He was a good looking dog but he would not get close to us.

The fostering person explained to us that Poe has trust issues. He will not get close to people he doesn't know... After some discussion among ourselves, we decided to adopt Poe. It was not an easy task to bring him home as he was very scared and tried to run away.

Couple days after we brought him home, Poe got out of our yard and run away. It was the middle of December. -10 degrees. We started looking for him. We looked in the forested area across our home. But we could not find him. As hours past we expanded our search perimeter. We looked all around our neighborhoods.  After talking with one of our neighbors that claimed they saw a dog running, we focused our search in one area. It was already dark, after more than 8 hours of searching in the cold weather.

I got a call from my wife saying she head a leash rattle in the bushes. It was very dense and getting dark. We could not see anything. I tried going around the other side and we both saw Poe running to the other side of the bushes trying to get away. We were happy we found him but now we had to figure out how to catch him. We brought our other dog, Chralie in order to help out with this operation. At the end after about an hour of trying, we were able to ambush him and catch him. He was freezing cold. I had to carry him all the way home. He was very heavy and I was already exhausted from the day but at the end we got home and were very relieved.  Especially because the temperatures were supposed to drop to -25 the day after.

Now it has been few years since we got Poe. He is still nervous around people and will not come close if there are strangers. But he is doing pretty good with us. He is playful and like being petted. We are very happy to have Poe with us and glad we were able to make a change in his life to the better.

Power of our actions

There is a consequence for everything we do. It might be good or bad, but our action (or inaction) has an impact on ourselves and our surrounding.

If you smile towards someone, it might make their day better. If you don't, it might make their day worse.  Sometimes it is hard to know what is the action we should take. Should I respond and give my advice or should I just listen? But knowing that whatever we do has an impact is key.

Here is a powerful story about an action and its outcome.

Reality Check

Blogging as all other requirements are easier to do when you have your routine. Every Sunday I need to blog and I do. It is part of my daily schedule. This is the same with doing my forms, my training. All is based on a schedule. Yes, sometimes I miss a training session, but then I need to catch up. As long as I don't miss more than one in a row, it is easy to keep the momentum going. Miss another one, then it is easy to start skipping them all...

Reality check everyone - how many blogs do you have this year? OK it doesn't matter - make sure you have one for this week and make one next week. It helps everyone to stay connected. Keep blogging, keep engaging with training, remind yourself why you decided to join the IHC.

Fitness Level

Last fitness class we practiced outside of the kwoon. Being outside - sun, fresh air - brings something different to my training. It is fun, refreshing, different and did I mention fun?

I find that most of us are lacking the physical strength to go the extra mile (i.e. to be able to spar for 3 minutes without gasping out of air). I know I am constantly struggling with my cardio. What is missing? I'm practicing lots. Is it over training? Could be as my body is fatigue at times but that is still not the reason why I cannot be full force active for more than few minutes without needing a break.

I assume there are many contributes to this. Lack of sleep, lack of water, bad nutrition, muscle strain, and maybe there are more I cannot think of right now.

I want to change something and to be able to push my self further. Not sure what I'm going to do yet (any suggestions will be welcomed).