The Dog Days Of Summer

Wikipedia describes the Dog Days Of Summer as the hottest, mostly sultry days of summer. It goes on to say that in the Northern Hemisphere, this occurs between July and early September. We're in mid to end September now, and while we aren't having the hottest, or most sultry days, these bright and warm almost-Fall days are what I think of as the Dog Days. The sun is still here, but we know it won't be for long - too soon, the rains will come and we won't see nice weather again until Spring next year. So we make a point of hiking and beaching and getting out as much as we can before we no longer have the chance.

The weather channel keeps predicting a dire change to cold and rain in the next 48 hours. Maybe the dogs know it's coming, because today at the beach they gave us a little taste of everything, sort of a montage of summer '08.

We had, of course, Big Air ... or sideways air anyway.

(Big Air was so big he almost bounced out of the frame)

GET BACK IN THE SHOT, WOO!

We had some Frisbee Fail:

and even Frisbee Hat Fail:

Mr. Woo and Piper even re-enacted the Classic Mad Teeth (tm) series.

They haven't done this for a while!

Fifa Mouth made an appearance:

So did Keener Face.

And the weird shaking faces dog came out to play

And Sport was Sport.

Speaking of Sport; you all know he is Tweed's little protege ... he is now totally on-board with the Kill The Food Lady program.

First, I lost him at the beach. Sort of. There are three paths through the shrubbery to get to the beach from the grass (frisbee) area. Our usual routine is to play on the grass for a bit, then the dogs go tearing down one of the paths to the beach and wait for the slowpoke Food Lady to show, then we play swimming games, then back to the grass before heading to the parking lot. Sport goes where everyone else goes, and this time they took path #2. I strolled at my usual dim witted two legged human pace down path #1.

As I made my way down path #1, the dogs came racing back up path #2, made a sharp right and roared past me down path #1. Except Sport. He's slower - especially uphill - and he got left alone at the top of path #2. Couldn't see any of us, since we were now halfway down path #1, and I guess he figured we had gone back to the car. So that's where he went.

*Public Service Announcement* - It's hard to run in rubber gumboots.

So there's me, screaming "SPORT SPORT" because I can see him making his way to the van, but he's kinda deaf and he doesn't hear me. And he is *not* street smart, so I know I need to get him before he gets to the busy parking lot, but it's a really long way and for mystery reasons, I'm dressed like a frickin' whaler.

Anyway, I finally caught him just as he was stepping off the curb into the parking lot, and nearly had a heart attack in the process. I need to train one of the other dogs to Go Get Sport!!

Funny Tweed Photo Interlude

After our beach session, we went home, and Sport tried to kill me a second time.

As I waited for Mr. Bones to make his painfully slow way up the back stairs of my building, first he stumbled, then his foot disappeared, and then ALL of Sport disappeared!

Where Sport vanished:

He slipped through the railing just as I lunged for him (and missed) and plummeted the 10 foot drop to the cement floor below. I.Thought.I.Was.Going.To.DIE. I went flying down the stairs where he was in a heap on the floor, and gathered him up in my arms. He looked a little surprised, but no worse for wear.

I cannot say the same for me. I'm pretty sure my heart actually stopped beating for a minute there. I mean, it's not like he has any body fat to prevent all his old bone from shattering into a million pieces! But he didn't seem to be hurt at all, and indeed, this morning was chasing Tweed at the park like nothing had happened. At least I think that's what happened this morning. I was awake pretty constantly from the NIGHTMARES his fall gave me, and was pretty tired for morning walkies.

GAH!

On the weekend, the organization I work for threw a party for our volunteers at Trout Lake Dog Park. Miss Piper was her super star self, playing soccer with the kids for hours, and lots of other dogs from our organization came by. My favourite photo from the event has to be Sarah the Catahoula, who either really wanted a piece of cake, or was feeling a little anxious:
ha ha!

Sarah's mum takes Sarah to work with her several days a week and cycles from West Vancouver to downtown Vancouver (trust me, it's far ... and it's full of hills) with Sarah in a trailer. Sarah's mum Melissa is about 2 feet tall and 12 lbs, the cutest pixie lady ever, and has like 40 kids. I have no idea how she does it. Suddenly running in gumboots doesn't seem like such a big achievement anymore!

Speaking of cycling - blog readers who cycle, tell me about your wet weather / snow gear. What do you wear? I am totally unprepared as most of last winter I (*hangs head*) drove to work.

Also, I have made the painful decision to sell my Bianchi Cyclocross bike as it's just that much too big for me. I should never have bought it - it would appreciate a rider in the 5'7"-5'9" range and is great for commuting. It's going to waste here at casa de Food Lady. Anyone interested?