Incoming Chopper

June 11, 2007. It has been an interesting couple of days. On Saturday, the weather was absolutely horrible. A week ago, it was so hot that Tom was taking me out for my run early in the morning; today it was so cold and miserable that we stayed in all day. Late in the evening we got to go for a quick walk around the neighbourhood. None of us felt like venturing out in this. Needless to say, I was pretty antsy by the end of the day.

Tom made Renee a couple of Sheepdog Patrol T-shirts and he made himself a couple of more as well. Now when we go for our walks people see them both wearing the T-shirts and get a laugh out of it. The new T-shirts even feature my photo on the front.

Sunday the weather improved enough that we got to go for our walk at Burnaby Lake. After walking outbound for an hour we started back and I was allowed to go off-leash. I did a great job staying close to both Tom and Renee and even walked on the heel for a long way without even being ordered to.

We met a couple of dogs along the way and I got to visit with a couple of people as well. I kept walking and putting my face in the bushes and came out with my face almost green from seeds sticking to me. When we got to one of my favourite streams I walked right in. It was deeper than usual because of all the rain. It didn’t bother me though; I just waded right in until the water was up to the level of my tail. I was just at the point of floating and swimming when I turned back.

In the evening we went to the park for a run and after the run we went on a walk around the neighbourhood. I got to meet an Airedale puppy, who was also rescued from a shelter in Washington State. He was a very friendly guy and very bouncy like I was when I first arrived.

Today after coffee and dropping Renee off at work, Tom and I went to the park for our usual run. It would turn out to be anything but usual today. We stayed out for an hour and I had numerous distractions, but passed the tests with flying colours. Some of the Chicken Wing Dancers were doing unusual things, like coming to the fence, making strange sounds and even tapping the fence. It didn’t do them any good I stayed right on task.

Then the most unusual thing happened. I love to chase birds, but I have not done it lately. In fact ever since those crows attacked me, I have been a little wary of them. Today though, as I was retrieving the ball, the biggest bird I have ever seen, flew low over the park. It was making a very loud roaring sound and there was a lot of wind coming from it. I looked up at it and started to chase, when I heard Tom say the word come. I broke off my chase and went right to him.

It turns out that the big bird was actually a helicopter flying very low indeed. So low we could feel the rotor wash and it didn’t look like it was going to clear the telephone wires across the street. It finally flew on and landed somewhere near the movie studio down the way. What an unusual day.

We went for our usual lunchtime walk to meet Renee for lunch and then late in the day we went to guitar lessons. Not too many of those left before we head up to the lake.