Doggie Endless Pool? Sunday Snap

If you've ever owned a Lab, you know one thing about them: they love water beyond all reason and sensibility. We've made a semi-regular Sunday tradition of hiking with some friends and their kids (and our dogs), which gets us all out of the house and into the forest, even on rainy winter days. Their dog is this wonderful big chocolate Lab/Cheapeake Bay Retriever named Sawyer. And of course he LOVES water. Beyond all reason and sensibility.

So today, when we started hiking along Shotgun Creek, he made a beeline straight for the overflowing-with-snowmelt creek. One of the kids threw a stick in and he was beside himself with stick-chasing and swimming joy. The problem was this: the stick got stuck on the bottom, sticking straight up out of the water in the swiftest part of the current. And that dog was going to get that stick, no question about it in his mind.

The other thing you might know about Labs is that they're very single-minded. Once they're fixed on a target (ball, stick, duck), you better not be standing in their way. You will be flattened, logs will be jumped, and raging rivers will be forged in order for them to get to their target. So once Sawyer started swimming for this stick, he was stuck in the current in a kind of doggie version of an Endless Pool. And he was not going to give up. A couple of times the family managed to call him away, even divert him by throwing in another stick. But just as it looked like they might entice him out of the river, back he went for that one lone stick.

Even after we finally got him out and were hiking along the trail, he ran ahead and then cleverly looped back around behind us and went straight back to the creek and that stick. So today's Sunday Snap is the adventures of Sawyer, the dog who puts the "dog" in "dogged determination".

Sunday Hikes and Dog Duties

In case you couldn't guess from that last post, we went hiking yesterday. Yes, even though it was raining we still got out there. We've made it a routine now to go for hikes as a family every Sunday, and another family from our neighborhood has been joining us. Even when the weather's not so great, it feels good to get out there in the woods and it's fun to share that with our friends. We're so lucky where we live because we have trails just a couple of miles from our house. This trailhead is only 3.5 miles away but taps into a ridgeline trail system along the hills behind our city and also has a spur that climbs a local butte.

Yesterday we did 4 miles including the climb up the butte. You can see that my tiny little puppy from a few months ago is now almost a full-fledged dog. Isn't she lovely? That's Sophie, aka Adventure Dog. She loves to go hiking and exploring and I think she'll be the best running dog ever. She's already the smartest dog I've ever known. As a sheepherd/cattle dog mix, she definitely needs to have jobs to do. One of her jobs is to go down to the chicken coop every morning and evening while we let the chickens out, and to guard the door to make sure no chickens come out the side door to the coop while we're in there. She takes this very seriously.

Yesterday morning, when Wayne asked Mackenzie to go down and let the chickens out, Mackenzie replied with the 13-year-old refrain "In a minute". But as soon as Sophie heard Wayne's request, she went into Mackenzie's room where he was working on the computer, and pawed at him until he got off and went to do their job. How smart is that? I'm so in love with this pup!

Grace

You often hear a forest described as "like a cathedral", but I think they've gotten it all wrong. Long ago, the people who designed those medieval cathedrals must've known how sacred a forest can feel, and created the cathedrals to invoke the same sense of height and space, with light pouring down in beams from above.





When you hike in a forest, it's not hard to feel you're in the presence of God.

My New Lake Buddy

Last weekend was my mom's birthday, so we met up with her halfway between her house and ours (about an hour and a half drive for each of us) at the lovely Umpqua river. The great thing about my mom is you'd never know she's 67 years old, certainly not by her energy level! We met up, went for a beautiful hike to a waterfall, then we found this cute little reservoir and she pulled her kayak off of her car and took the kids kayaking around the lake. Mackenzie decided he wanted to try it out on his own and she let him borrow her kayak. He proceeded to pretty much monopolize it for the rest of the afternoon. By the end of the day, he was moving a kayak to the top of his next birthday list.

The fun bit was when I went for a swim and he kayaked alongside of me. He was quick to point out that one advantage of getting him his own kayak would be that whenever I want to do open water training, he could paddle along next to me. I have to admit, it was really fun to swim and watch him smoothly maneuvering through the water next to me. My mom is all for the idea. Being a mom (and I do understand now!) she always worried about me going out into these lakes by myself and swimming. You know, the Loch Ness Monster might eat me or something. And my hubby who is much more of a mother hen than I'll ever be pretty much feels the same way about it. So I've taken to scanning CraigsList for a Swifty kayak like my mom's, and maybe I'll have a little buddy to head out on the lake with me this summer!

So, here's to my mom: 67 years young, a hiking, kayaking, fun-filled dynamo of a lady. She's inspired me in so many ways, and she's a great friend.

Happy Birthday Mom!