08 December 2008

Sunday is for walking in the forest and defining some verbs.


Sundays with no agility are for walking in the forest. If by walking, you mean the humans walking and the dogs flat out running their asses off. This fella, was just standing there where we parked the car. He's a brave little bambi. Because his fan club, locked securely in cages until I unleashed the hurricanes within, really wanted to get a piece of him. Like office ladies on a shirtless Brad Pitt. And Angelina nowhere in site.


Once we made it out of bambi's parking lot, across the busy road and down the path through the giant meadow, to the chagrin of my two deerchasers (not naming names unless your names are Gustavo with the help of Otterpop), no more deer the whole walk. Bambi clearly sent out the memo licketdy split and the deer all hid in secret deer hiding caves. Makes my life as a dog trainer that can't train 2 dogs not to chase deer way easier.


The giant meadow, looks like it stretches all the way to the sea. This is maybe my favorite spot in the whole world. Would love to bring in a giant bulldozer and build my house with a porch and nice big arena and barn and then do a bunch of grading for the dog agility section and I'd build my very own road out there. And fences to keep the deer out and the horses and dogs in. And I would never ever leave. And only nice people could come visit. You guys could come. Oh wait. I'm talking about a nice nature walk here. Sorry, nature. Sorry for talking about backhoes and grading and adding baserock. I really mean just want to sit and gaze here and smell wildflowers. Yeah, right.


For sure his favorite spot. Gustavo is sort of a freak. Little creature never stops. Not like the other dogs are lazy or slow, but he's just so...in motion...at all times. Other dogs might bring you a stick, pause to roll in shit, come say hi. Not him. Checks in at top speed then off again like a flash. Vertical wall of cliff nearby? Perfect for running up and down, up and down, while the humans are just, uh, walking. Otterpop keeps up, but wants to do other things such as gather up all the sticks. In the whole forest. Ruby, works on baffling projects or trots next to me. The Goo, never stops running.


We went down to the dark and creepy part of the forest so they could swim around. If by swimming, you mean trying to get whatever that foul stink that was all over Otterpop 5 minutes into the forest walk by throwing branches in the creek for her. Otterpop wants bigger and bigger branches the more you throw 'em in and eventually short circuits herself trying to drag half trees out of the water. She'd do that all day. Ottepop needs therapy. Eventually we stop throwing them, and she just starts crazy whining and dragging branches down the creek bed herself. Where they sink. And she has to dive under to pull them out. While Gustavo runs. And Ruby does her little projects.Ruby's a good dog. Unless she's building bombs or something. Not really sure what she's working on, but she always stays busy and always stays close.


We just walk and throw logs and whistle for them until it seems like they should be tired. Gustavo never slows down, so it's hard to tell. I think actually in this picture, he had redwood tree stuff stuck in all his fur and was just sitting at the top of the hill waiting for me to come and pull it out. For a forest creature, he has neurotic grooming issues that even the Fab Five would have had a hard time solving. Might not be totally self sufficient out in the wild. Sorry, little buddy. He waits for me and I pull out the stickers. And then he starts running again til we're done. Lots to do on one walk in the forest.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

You're going to get some more people wishing they were you over this one, L. I have Good Morning America on so I can hear Paul Abdul speak out for the first time after the incident in her driveway. Just saying.

Beautiful pen drawing. Should be way out of our price range.

team small dog said...

Poor Paula Abdul. If I had my own ranch with fences in a meadow she could come live there with us if she wanted. In Paula's Guesthouse! She could totally help out with teaching the dogs the Thriller dance. We'd get some big, scarey dogs. That don't eat small dogs.

vici whisner said...

Hey Laura, where is this place? Just a lovely walk (even with the sticky goo).

Can you email directions: viciw at Linkline dot com

Thanks

team small dog said...

I emailed you secret directions. As you all might have guessed, all our good forest dog walking forests are, you guessed it, NO DOGS ALLOWED, and may or may not involve some covert activities to go there.

Simba said...

FUN!

Elf said...

Lovely drawing today, and now I'm fantasizing about having a forest where Tika can run and run and run and Boost can bring me things to throw every 2 feet. Ah, the joys of living in urban type areas.