Happy Birthday....ME!

(Olympia, WA) We had nice relaxing day today at my parents house. A friend of mine from high school came over for a visit. It was really fun as we haven't seen each other for quite some time!

Then Dad and Dave (my brother) did a nice barbecue on the deck for our dinner. It was so nummy! The view from the deck was beautiful. Mom has such gorgeous plants on the deck and it is extremely pretty with the view of the sound behind them.



Today was a busy day on the water. Tugs were busy taking large loads of logs out of the port (you can't see the tug - it's off to the left).



With such pretty weather there were all sorts of boats out on the water.



Later that evening I received phone calls from both my nieces and my sister. What could be better!

To top the day off I actually got a couple gifts. And one of them I can share with all of you. Mike got me a new lens for my camera! So hopefully I can take even better pictures. My parents got me a really great WSU blanket - just exactly what I needed. It is perfect.

Tonight was a full moon. It was absolutely beautiful.....but I guess I need to learn how to take pictures at night as my picture doesn't even come close to showing the beauty we witnessed this evening.



Debbie
8/26/07

Stripping

(Woodinville, WA) Today was an interesting day for us. Even though we're very involved in dog sports we sure learned today that there is a whole dog world out there we know nothing about.

Our three big dogs are just "wash and wear" dogs. They don't need grooming - heck they rarely need a bath and I don't think any of them have ever been brushed.

Boogie on the other hand has to be stripped every three months or maybe four months. He was looking like Chewbacca (so Mike said) so it was definitely time for him to be stripped.

So we made arrangements to get this done by some very kind Border Terrier folks here in Washington. The days that were convenient for us they just happened to be up at Marymoor Park in Redmond at a large combination confirmation/agility trial.

We're lucky to get people to come watch agility trials and here everyone had to pay just to park! It was packed. There were rows and rows of RV's. We were so lucky when we arrived. It just so happened the very first row we walked down we found the trailer we were looking for. We were pretty sure we were at the right place as there were 14 Border Terriers there. Now that's a lot of dogs! I guess four isn't so many after all!

Charlotte and Robin were so very nice to us. They had a little 13 week old puppy there for Boogie to play with. Boy did they ever play hard. Boogie was a little scared at first but after a few minutes he really got into it. This little girl was only three weeks younger than Boogie yet she was only about 1/4 his size! They played for quite some time - she was still going strong when Boogie came to the side of the pen and started jumping up and down wanting to be saved! When I took him out he was panting so hard and she was still in there doing laps. Girls are tough!

With Boogie a little worn out it seemed like a good time to start his grooming. Charlotte started working on Boogie while trying to teach Mike how to do the task. I watched for a bit but then needed to walk around. So Mike stayed to learn about stripping while Wazzu and I went for a walk.

Much to our surprise there were LOTS of vendors there. There was so much stuff there and the prices were generally better than what you can get in the stores. But we didn't get to look around too much as we kept seeing all these people we know. I guess today was terrier day. There were 78 bull terriers of various kinds entered so we got to see a lot of Slugger-type dogs, many of who we knew. They are just way too cute!

Long story short, we were there about three hours. Boogie looks so much better - although a bit lopsided. They did the left side of Boogie and Mike did the right side. But who says being symmetrical is good anyway. Guess this stripping stuff takes a LOT of practice.

Charlotte walked us over to one of the vendors and showed us all the tools we needed to buy. So now we have tools - I sure hope Mike can remember what to do with all these different tools!

The rest of the day was spent getting back home! It took us two hours to get there yet about five hours to get home as the freeway was closed for a time due to a bad accident. At least we weren't in the accident!

Debbie
8/25/07

Clean Up

(Olympia, WA) Aw, back to some of our old stomping grounds. We got up early today and went to the Beaver Pond. We were the first ones to arrive so all three big dogs got to be off leash right from the start. Slugger was so happy that he got to be treated like the girls. And he showed us that he had earned it. He was the best he's ever been. He stayed right up with us the entire time. Our little pack stayed together and had a great time with each other. Mike even said, "It seems like the more dogs we have the better they behave." That sure sounded like an invitation to get another dog if you ask me!

When we arrived at the Beaver Pond it was very foggy. Last time we were here the lily pads were so green and flat on the water. They must be getting past their prime now though as they are getting brown and curled up.



I didn't feel as though I got very good pictures today but thought I'd share a few of them with you.

We saw a few newts just under the water.



As soon as we got on the dock these four ducks came swimming over to us. They followed us all the way around the lake. I'm guessing a lot of people must feed them. Even when Wazzu walked down to the water and was less than a foot from them they didn't move away. Here they are coming toward us as we stood on the dock watching the newts.



We've seen bigger slugs than this although this one was pretty big. But this was a different color than most we see. It must have been sleeping as we didn't hear it crunching any leaves (sorry, inside joke)!



This duck wasn't as energetic as the four that followed us around. He must be the duck that likes to sleep in.



After the walk it was on to more pressing tasks. We didn't keep a lot of stuff when we moved out of our home almost three years ago. But what we did keep is stored at my parents house in their storeroom.

Unfortunately, they had a pipe leak which they didn't know about for quite some time. In addition to other places, it leaked into the storeroom getting a bunch of both their stuff and ours wet.

So we were going there today to look through our stuff and see what might have been damaged. Mom was really nice and had already done a lot of the work for us. But when we arrived Mike noticed that our freezer was dripping. Actually Sparkie noticed it first and Mike saw Sparkie checking out the freezer.

So instead of working on the storeroom, Mike had to take everything out of the freezer and figure out what was ruined and what we could keep. Then he had to defrost the freezer and clean it all out. The dogs sure all wanted to help with that chore!

Debbie
8/24/07

Homeward Bound

(Bend, OR) Can you believe it? When we got up this morning they informed us that they'd be finished with our RV by 9am. The factory couldn't do this stuff in two full weeks and this place finished it in three days and one hour. And great customer service too!

After they finished, our cabinetry guys that are doing some more custom work for us are conveniently located just across the street had about an hours worth of work to do.

So we went for a quick hike to try and at least get the edge off the dogs before a long drive back to the Olympia area. For some reason it was much busier today and the dogs had to be on leash most of the time. But they had fun nonetheless.

By the time we got back, only two hours later, both places were completely done with the RV. It was a nice surprise to have everyone be so efficient!

The weather was beautiful for our drive and the scenery in eastern Oregon was spectacular. We had a beautiful view of Mt Hood for quite some time.



We wished we would have time to stop and do some walking on the Pacific Crest Trail as it was a gorgeous day. Maybe next time!

Debbie
8/23/07

Home in the Forest

(Bend, OR) Today was to be in the 80's so we decided we'd better get our hiking in early before it got too hot. We wanted to go to a different place today. So we went to the nearby National Forest that has many trails. All the times we've been there we've rarely seen anyone. Today was no exception - we just saw one mountain biker and he was very friendly.

The three older dogs were off leash from the very beginning. Boogie is just too little to be off leash as there are critters that may think he'd be a tasty snack - although I'm pretty sure the girls scare everyone off pretty quickly.

Wazzu is on high alert here as there are always plenty of squirrels and chipmunks. And she always seems to know just where to look.



And on the off chance she doesn't find one, she still has a really happy face as she anticipates the next find.



The next "find" always comes very quickly.



Boogie couldn't keep up with the girls since he was on leash but when Sparkie would return (with a really big tongue) from one of her really long runs he'd walk along beside her until she took off again.



But even when the girls were off on their long runs Boogie would find something to keep himself busy. We're learning that Boogie really likes to dig - good thing we don't have a yard!



And he can really throw the dirt quite a ways. Standing behind him when he is digging is not a good idea!



Slugger wanted to see what was so interesting but after a while realized there was absolutely nothing there.



We're not sure what this is all about but most times after Boogie digs a little trench he then rolls in it.



Of course all this makes you very tired! But from my eyes, it just makes for a really dirty tongue when you lay it in the dirt.



Boogie is learning that if you want to be a member of this family you have to pose for pictures once in a while. He'd much rather run around!



Remember how last week we told you how the waves were eating Slugger. Well, it's not just the waves picking on him. Here he's getting eaten up by a pile of branches.



And if that isn't enough, he then gets eaten up by some bushes! Poor Slugger.



On the way back to the RV we stopped at another nice little downtown park that is right on the river as well. It was a very pretty walk but unfortunately I had forgotten to grab my good camera out of the car.

As we were walking we saw an osprey fly back to the nest to feed the youngsters. Both the mom and the dad were bringing fish back. But darn, they dropped one of the fish on the ground. I guess they only get fish out of the water as they just left that fish on the ground below their nest which was WAY up in the air on top of a very tall pole.



I was disappointed not to have my good camera so I could get a picture of the osprey flying around with the fish. But I was able to get a quick picture of some of the many beautiful flowers we saw on the walk.



When we got back the RV was out and ready for us to occupy. How nice is that! They are coming right along with our repairs. Very nice.

Debbie
8/22/07

Almost Great

(Bend, OR) Once again they came and got our RV first thing this morning - right on time. We're still amazed at the difference in service! As you can guess, we'll never return to the factory service center but will definitely drive the extra few hundred miles to come here!

We went to the same park as yesterday morning since everyone had a good time there. Today was much warmer than yesterday getting to the upper 70's. And just like yesterday the dogs all had a great time again today. I guess one can just never tire of chasing chipmunks!

Once again I didn't have much opportunity to take pictures but I did find this little flower that I thought was pretty.



After a break to do some more errands and have lunch we went to another one of our favorite parks. This particular park is right downtown and also is right along the river. It is kept up so nicely and they have many different upscale events here.

The river barely moves on this portion so there are lots of ducks here. I also think there are ducks here because so many people feed them. Slugger always likes this walk as he loves the ducks. He really wants to swim with them!

This must be the season for immature ducks as we saw quite a few.



And it must have been bath day as it seems like we saw each of them take numerous baths today.



I love blue so I thought these mallards were so pretty with their blue stripes.



And as it seems, where ever you find water fowl you will find Canada Geese - and it was no exception here.



I think someone is a little out of place. How nice that the other ducks let him swim with them.



Out in the middle of the river was a beautiful lone swan.



We thought Boogie might find all the ducks very interesting. And he did for a little while but after realizing that he couldn't get in to swim with them (well he could except that he was too scared to as it was a drop off and not a gradual slope into the water) he found many other things to occupy his brain.



However, when the ducks went upside down in the water he thought that looked pretty fun and he'd bark at them. They're very used to dogs so they didn't pay a bit of attention to him.



Wazzu didn't care one bit about the ducks. But when she saw some kids were feeding the ducks BREAD then suddenly she was very interested. She stopped and looked through the bridge hoping that the kids just might throw some bread up to her.



We took a very leisurely walk here as we were just trying to pass time. After spending quite a bit of time here we decided to move on. It had been a great outing. We were parked right on a busy road so we decided the dogs should get in on the passenger side (which they never do) which would be the curb side. Mike thought that since this was something different we should do two dogs at a time. So he took Slugger and Sparkie while I stood about 20 feet away with Wazzu and Boogie.

This was fine with Wazzu as she was sure there was something living under this tree. As you can see, she decided to investigate thoroughly.



As hard as she tried she couldn't find anything under the tree - it must be up in the tree.



Or maybe it's around the other side of the tree.



When I looked up to see if there was anything there, I noticed that this really was a beautiful old tree.



Mike came over to get us but said we'd need to get in on the street side of the car. Turns out we parked under a tree with a huge wasps nest. The wasps weren't too happy when the first two dogs went to get in the car next to the tree. One of the wasps stung poor Sparkie on the back. It must have really hurt as her skin kept twitching and her tail was between her legs. She kept moving to different spots in the car hoping maybe she could get away from the pain. Her back swelled up pretty good.

We definitely don't need anyone else stung so we took Wazzu and Boogie around to the street side. But not wanting to take any chances with Boogie I carried him and set him in the car. Wazzu walked around but when she got to the car she didn't want to get in - highly unusual. We finally told her she had to get in. As soon as she did she started picking at her back foot. Oh no - she had stepped in a huge wad of gooey peppermint gum. Mike tried his best to pull as much of it out from between her toes as he could but it was all stuck to her hair.

Well, it had been a great time at the park until the very end! Now we had two very unhappy dogs. Well the best way to cheer up two dogs on a very hot day is to go back to our favorite drive-in and get milk shakes to share. While Mike was ordering the shakes I called our vet to get suggestions on the best way to help each of the dogs. As we expected, they said to give Sparkie some Benedryl. But we think they were pulling our leg on Wazzu - they said to put peanut butter on her foot. As you might guess we passed on that suggestion!

The milkshakes seemed to do the trick. While neither situation had actually changed at least the dogs were distracted. When we got back to the shop our RV wasn't out yet. So we kind of took over the waiting room with the two of us and all four dogs. We only had to wait about 45 minutes before our RV was out and ready for us for the evening.

We got to end the day with another beautiful sunset.



Debbie
8/21/07

Ouch! Important Lesson

(Bend, OR) First thing his morning, exactly on time, the technicians came and got our RV. Just that alone is a huge difference for our experience at the factory service center. Interestingly enough, this place used to be the factory service center until the manufacturing plant was moved from here. All the repair techs stayed here so these guys really know what they are doing. AND they have great customer service. Every service business could take a lesson from these guys.

Since we needed to be out of the RV until 4:30, which is when all RV's are put back out in the camping area, we had to figure out what to do to fill the day. Bend is a beautiful city. They have excellent city planners here as they really have a lot of beautiful park areas all throughout town. We started out by going to one of our favorite parks. There are trails in the forest right along the river.



The weather was cool today for Bend in August at only 70 and overcast. Very unusual - but nice for the dogs! There weren't very many people this morning which made it nice since we had all four dogs with us. Boogie really liked the beach because he could be off leash. He's not so sure he likes the forest as he has to be on leash the whole time. And to top it all off, there is an old slow person (yup, that would be me) tethered to the other end. Poor Boogie - he would try to run ahead to keep up with the girls and suddenly the poor guy was yanked backward so hard as he reached the end of the long line. I guess he has more to learn!

While most forests we go to have a lot of squirrels this forest has a lot of chipmunks. Wazzu is really good at finding them. She uses all her senses to find them - and she's always right. Can you find it?



While the dogs were all busy doing their various activities I had a very rare moment to take a picture! I'm finding it very hard to take pictures while attached to a puppy! But I did manage to snap a shot of this interesting fungus/mushroom.



After a nice hike we did a few errands and then went to our favorite restaurant in Bend. It's a drive-in which of course the dogs really like! But I don't think we'll go there again. The food is great but the portions are just insane. My meal could easily feed five people! I mean who can eat a 16 oz hot dog! And the bun was so enormous too. As you might guess, I couldn't begin to eat it all. It was even too much to feed to the dogs.

After lunch, Mike took Slugger and me to the waiting room. He set up Slugger's crate and got me situated next to Slugger and left us there while the rest of them headed out for a much longer hike. Mike was worried that Boogie may not be able make it on a long hike after doing a hike already this morning.

But when they got back after a three hour hike, Boogie was ready for the next fun adventure. Mike said Boogie was running back on forth (on leash) the entire trip. I just don't think it's possible to wear out this puppy!!

When we were able to get back into our RV, the guy that has done all our custom work on the inside of the RV came over (we're having him do some more work for us). He is a huge dog lover and always brings our dogs marrow bones. And today was no exception. He wanted to see the dogs get their bones so we gave each dog a bone. Every time I order marrow bones for our dogs I ask that they are cut about four inches long. These particular bones were only one inch thick. I didn't think too much about this - but if you have a dog and read no more of this blog - read this!!

The dogs were all on the floor chewing their bones when suddenly Sparkie started screaming - and I mean screaming. We looked over and she had gotten all the marrow out and the bone was over her bottom jaw behind the canines. The bone was truly stuck! She was scared, screaming and starting to go into shock. This scared Slugger and he started running around the RV screaming and jumping at Sparkie. I was trying to keep Slugger away from Sparkie and Mike was trying to get the bone dislodged.

I finally managed to lock Slugger in the bedroom. Then I got on the internet to try and find an emergency vet. It was hard as I was so worried but I knew I had to keep calm for everyone involved. I think from now on I'll try to get that information the second we get anyplace new so I'll have it if needed.

In all the hubbub, Mike had taken Sparkie outside so he could try to calm her down. He knew he couldn't help her if he couldn't get her to calm down and be still. Fortunately, Mike stayed calm and was able to get Sparkie to settle down a bit. Before I could find the emergency vet, Mike got the bone off Sparkie's jaw. She was a bit bloody but fortunately none of her teeth were broken.

The biggest lesson we learned from this was: Don't give your dogs bones so short that they can get their teeth out the other side. Please learn from our very close call.

They got a lot done on our RV today. A total night and day difference in our repair experience! Speaking of night and day. When day meets night here there are most often some beautiful sunsets. And tonight was no exception.



Debbie
8/20/07

Bye, Bye Beach

(Gold Beach, OR) This was our last weekend to do agility at Gold Beach. This weekend, due to an upcoming rummage sale, we had to park our RV in a different spot. They put us on a lower level down by the rear of the arena. The electric power there was extremely weak but it didn’t matter as we were so far away from everyone that we could use our generator when we really had to.

The good part about parking there was that the lower level was pretty much fenced so we could just open the door and let the dogs out. Turns out they only had one thing in mind every time anyway....

Next to the arena there is another building – the same length but much narrower. The dogs seemed to think there was some critter hiding somewhere around that building. They would do laps around the building as fast as they could! It was good exercise for sure. Mike and I didn’t have the heart to tell them that the critter was actually on top of the building. I think Wazzu had figured that out as she kept looking at the top of the building – but nevertheless she enjoyed doing the laps.

The arena itself is very large. There is a very large space for crating which you can see on the right portion of this picture.



Then there is more than ample space for a generous size ring - there is more of the ring area than you can see in this picture.



I decided to have a little different routine this weekend to hopefully motivate Wazzu to run. It worked all but one run! It was so good to see her happy! Saturday morning started with a tad bit of disappointment as Wazzu did the entire Chances course beautifully doing the hard part so easily but she missed the discrimination. Guess that’s a clue, as she’s missed that same discrimination four times in the past three weeks! But she was running fast and very happy so I didn’t care that we missed the Q.

Sparkie was really running nicely! She and Mike had some very nice flowing and speedy runs. Saturday they did great Q’ing in every run except for just missing one contact in her second Regular run. I know I say this a lot but it really is fun watching Sparkie run when she and Mike are on. And they were certainly on today!

The trial finished by 12:30 so we had a few hours free to take one last romp on the beach for the summer. So since we’d been going north to explore the last couple weeks, we decided to go south today to see if we could find a fun place to play.

There were a number of places to pull over and look at the beautiful views, even though it was a bit overcast. Here is one example of the pretty views we saw.



As we drove along we came to the following viewpoint and spotted the perfect place to play on the beach. If you look at the next picture you can see the freeway going along the coastline then cutting into the trees at the far end. If you start on the bottom left and follow the road you’ll see it do a bend to the left. At that point if you look to the right you’ll see a large sand patch leading to the beach. This is where most everyone stops and goes down to the beach. We were worried about playing here as the road was too close – and we don’t want to take any chances with the dogs near a road.



So we continued on down a ways. If you continue on down the road you’ll see place where there are two rocks on the beach - just about where you see a patch of water between the road and the beach. This looked really safe as the dogs certainly couldn’t get to the road from there without a log of work.

If you look at the two rocks I mentioned. One looks very large and the other looks really little. Just to give you some perspective, here is a picture of the “little” rock. Not so little. That shows you how big those other “big” rocks really are. Truly massive.



We were the only ones on the beach here. Just what we like!! All four dogs could be off-leash here as it was very safe. They must have known it was their last chance to play on the beach as they went all out.

Since there was a lot of driftwood on this beach it was easy to find sticks to play with. We found one that Slugger really liked – ha ha – at the beach he likes ANY stick. Slugger’s big thing is that after he gets the stick out of the water he likes to take it to shore and demolish it. He was just starting that task when Boogie came by to see if maybe he could help.

Slugger gave him a look – and that’s all it took for Boogie to know he should wait a bit.



Boogie was so patient……but he didn’t realize how long a task this was.



He had to wait so long that he had to rest his head! What a patient boy.



After a while, that got boring! So he decided to go play with Sparkie. He rarely plays with Sparkie as Sparkie likes to grab his collar and swing him around. Boogie doesn’t really like this game. When Slugger was little he loved that game! I was always afraid Slugger would get dizzy but if he did, he didn't care. For a while Sparkie and Boogie had a great time before the collar game started. First of course is the play bow……



Then comes the counter attack.



And finally the hug….or is Sparkie trying squish him?



At that point Sparkie tried to do the collar swinging game so I had to jump in and try to save poor Boogie from that!

It was easy to distract Sparkie from that game by just picking up a stick to throw. I found this beach very interesting as it was so different from any other beach I’ve ever been on. The waves weren’t all that big but they were really strong! Anything that got in the water was “thrown” way up on to shore. So if the dogs didn’t get the stick immediately, the first wave would have it back up at our feet.

This also meant that if the dogs got in the waves, they too were picked up and thrown to shore. I’m hoping you can see from my pictures how the waves aren’t really rolling, they are more like staccato waves throwing water (and dogs) straight up in the air. Hmmm, hard to explain. Maybe this will help. Here is poor Sparkie. I don’t know if you can see but her paws aren’t where they would normally be in relation to her head. She is on her back and the wave is really twisting her hard.



Little Slugger didn’t seem to mind as you can see….well maybe you can’t – but he is inside the staccato water wave.



The water is popping up so much it looks as though it is boiling on the stove.



Oh no, here we go again.



Finally he comes up out of the back of the wave this time....of course with his stick.



How he’d come out of the wave with the stick I’ll never know!

Even though there were many sticks, Slugger and Wazzu wanted the same stick. And today, neither of them were backing down. This game of tug went on for a good 20 minutes. I think if we hadn’t stopped the game they’d still be out there tugging!



This isn't a particularly good picture but I like how it shows what determination (and muscles) Slugger has when chasing sticks.



And of course, while all this playing was going on I had to take time to enjoy the view. It was a little overcast today as clouds were rolling in as the day went along and the weather was deteriorating fairly rapidly. But even so I was able to capture a little bit of the beauty of the beach.



Here is some evidence to show you how strong the water is here. Look at all the driftwood on the beach. Now you can see why we had no shortage of sticks!



There was even a portion of the beach that had some small but pretty sand dunes.



Some of the sand dunes even had driftwood in them.



Of course you can’t leave the beach without eating one more shell.....



Or one last really good run.



Between the driftwood and the car we had to climb a small hill of grass. Boogie thought this would be a good place to take a rest.



But we needed to move on as we wanted to see a little more of the coastline. We hadn’t gone much further when we came to Arch Rock. I wish it had been clearer today but at least we did get to see it.



Looking down we could see a really nice half moon bay that looked so nice and secluded – a perfect place for the dogs to play. We figured Mike and dogs could probably have made it easily but we knew there was no way I could do it so even though I encouraged them to go without me, we just took pictures.



It was a nice way to spend out last afternoon before some hectic times ahead. When we got back to Gold Beach it was time for the weekly Saturday evening barbecue. One gal offered to go pick up fresh salmon from the pier for those of us that wanted some. Let me tell you it was well worth the money! Bruce did his usual fantastic job of barbecuing the salmon just perfectly. I’m thinking Bruce should come with us on our trip! Or maybe we should just learn to barbecue!! Anyway, the company was great and the food was delicious. I’m going to miss our Saturday evening get-togethers.

Remember I mentioned the weather was turning. Well it turned! It poured all night and there were wind gusts that I thought were going to turn us over. We're used to some rocking and rolling in strong wind but there were some gusts that made the rig creak even. We were afraid the wind was going to break the satellite dish so we put it down even before getting up for the day.

With the rain falling most of the day and a dirt arena we were all really muddy - and so was all our stuff. As usual though, the dogs didn't seem to mind a bit. And also like usual, this seemed to make Wazzu especially happy. How is it that Wazzu and I get along so well - we certainly don't agree on the weather!

But it does make for fun agility! Wazzu was really fast today and super happy. And when you're this happy and this fast there is no stopping us! Wazzu went 4/4 today even getting a Chances Q! Fun!

Sparkie was super good today too going 4/5 - just missing her Chances Q. But all her other runs were really pretty. She was running with a lot of confidence this weekend. I can say with a lot of certainty that Mike and Sparkie both had a good time this weekend too.

We got so many good comments on Boogie's behavior. We had him in an x-pen and he'd just play with his toys. When we'd leave him to walk the course or take the other dogs outside after their runs he'd just sit quietly in his cage. People were so impressed with how quiet he was when left alone.

During some of our breaks I would take Boogie outside and let him play off leash. When he'd get a little ways away from me I'd call him, practicing our recall. He was so good. One time he went over a large mound of sawdust. I thought this would be a perfect recall situation. He wasn't far from me at all but he couldn't see me. I called him - but he didn't come! What - he always comes. So I called him again - this time he came running up over the mound with something in his mouth. I thought it was a really big soggy stocking cap - until he got closer to me. It was a headless pigeon! Eew YUCK. I had such a huge dilemna racing through my brain....reward him big time - after all he had come when he had found a real jackpot. But eew he had a dead bird in his mouth! Fortunately when I offered him a good boy and a treat he dropped the bird. He even came with me when I told him to leave it. What a good boy! By the way, I had Mike go and throw away the dead bird so I wouldn't have to deal with it next time we went outside!

The trial finished by 11:30am and by the time we got all packed up at 12:30 we were able to get a good early start on making our way to Bend, OR. This was an eight hour trip and Boogie was the perfect little boy the entire way. We're so lucky that he travels so well. Sure hope this continues.

Here are a couple very fitting pictures to leave you with of our time here this weekend.

Slugger (now renamed "Surfer Dude" by our best friend) is somewhere in this wave.



And a pretty view on the beach.




Debbie
8/18-19/07