Today was actually great. Got a late start to the morning because of course I’m not sleeping the greatest lately. Then we were off to my hawk walk at the Ireland School of Falconry. This has been a bucket list item of mine for awhile courtesy of Nora Robert’s fantasy books. I got to fly the largest hawk in the school and she was absolutely stunning. Her name was Putóg which is olde Irish for pudding. They named her that after sticky pudding because she’s so solid and never loses her footing. It was very cool to see how silently she flew through the woods. Her ability to fly so quickly through very small gaps was incredible. This was one of my favorite experiences I’ve ever done and would highly recommend it to anyone that gets the chance to do it in their lifetime!

Following the hawk walk, we went to Moore Hall. It was the ruins of an old estate that was burned down during the Irish civil war in the 1920s. Ivy has completely taken over the manor and it was stunning. There was also a beautiful garden overgrown with a field full of wildflowers. It was beautiful. After that it was mid afternoon and we headed to Donegal. There were some cows being herded up a road that we had to stop and wait for but we didn’t mind. It honestly felt kind of magical. Then we stopped at what I thought was supposed to be some caves but ended up being a very steep hike up through field of sheep to the top of a hill where the hilltop fairies live. Sorry mom they didn’t wat to come out today so I wasn’t able to bring one home for you. There was a sign at the top saying to leave a gift and whisper a wish into the wind for the fairies. We didn’t bring anything up with us so I braided together some wildflowers for my offering. The wind was STRONG up there so I’m hoping every fairy in Ireland heard my wish.

After the hike we were all pretty hungry so we found a place on the coast to have dinner. We went to the Strand Bar in county Sligo and it was PHENOMENAL. The Irish stew, and beef stroganoff were definitely foodie highlights for the trip. Dinner was followed by baileys and coffee and an Irish whiskey for Kevin that was the perfect way to end a cold, rainy, windy day.

We got to our bed and breakfast and the host here is the sweetest lady. She cooks the breakfast to order herself every morning so we are very much looking forward to that. We told her that we were looking forward to a good nights sleep since we had a sick pup back home and we shared our experiences about loving and losing and fighting for our sick animals. She seems like an absolute sweetheart and it makes our stay here seem so much more warm and cozy. I always love running into people who have such a huge love for dogs like we do.

Still not a lot of updates about Rex unfortunately. Some tests have come back but they’re not giving us a ton of answers about why he’s as lethargic as he is. Our wonderful sitter has gone to visit him every day though and she said he seems a little more perky today. We got video of his nub waggies when she said hello to him, and he rolled over for her so he could get some well deserved belly rubs. She told us the staff wouldn’t stop telling her what a sweet boy he is, and we can’t help but agree. As big of a menace as he is, he’s the sweetest boy in the whole world. More updates to come when we have them!