Barking at the waves
Dexter and I have been on our own for the past little while. Capt. Mike is out in Alberta, training. He seems to be enjoying himself and keeping busy. So Dexter and I are forced to make our own fun.
Yesterday turned out to be a banner day for Dexter. I have been feeling guilty lately that I have been neglecting him. I haven't, I just feel like I have because for the first time in his short little life he is hearing the word "No" occasionally when he runs up to me with his rainbow sqeuaky ball in his mouth. Usually he knows to leave me alone when I am "at work", and that he has my full, undivided attention when I am not "at work". However, since I started my two correspondence courses, my free time has been eaten up with reading and doing assignments. And Dexter has had to amuse himself for longer periods than he's used to.
So yesterday was Dexter's day. It started with a short constitutional around the block after waking up at 7 am, just to get "things moving". I think his puppy kibble must be high in fibre, because I have never met a more regular creature.
Anyway, we then hopped in the car and drove down to Riverside Park to play some frisbee and sniff things. And go to the beach. Dexter LOVES the beach. Loves it to the point that he goes absolutely nutty in its presence. It started when he was just a puppy, and we took him for a hike in Gatineau Park. We hiked around Lac Meech, and found a little tiny beach just off the path we were on. It was a pretty windy day, so the water was quite rough. Dexter had never seen that much water before, and wasn't quite sure about the white caps. I think he thought the waves were alive, because the next thing we knew, he was running manically back and forth along the little beach, at full tilt, barking at the waves and snapping at them, like he was trying to herd them. He worked himself into a frenzy, and ran himself to the brink of exhaustion. Since then, he's shown the same enthusiasm every time he's been near the water, and yesterday was no exception. He ran and leaped and pounced and barked so much I could barely tear him away. Back and forth, back and forth for about half an hour.
After our beach adventure, we got back into the car and I went to get my hair cut, and then to run some errands while he napped in the back seat. Once my to do list had diminished a bit, it was time for a coffee run. Dexter loves going through the Tim Horton's drive thru. He likes to stick his head out of my window to say Hello to the girls working inside. And his behaviour is positivedly reinforced by the chorus of "Oh my gosh, he's so cute" from the women inside. I usually dont' use drive thrus, but it was Dexter's day, so I humoured him. We got an iced cap for me, and three plain Tim Bits for him, which we then took down to Pansy Patch park to enjoy our snack al fresco. We had the park to ourselves, as we often do, so we watched the rapids and the red and black squirrels chasing each other. Then one of us decided to roll in something unidentifiable, so it was time to go home and have a nice warm bath with the shampoo that smells like chamomile tea.
All in all, not a bad day for a puppy. I will be hard pressed to top it for his 1st birthday next month. I think that might warrant a special trip into Ottawa to the dog park and PetSmart though.