Bears Changing Command

September 25, 2007. The adventures continue to come, fast and furiously. After our little escapade in seeing the cougar at Burnaby Lake, the next day we went to Riverview Hospital. Now, I know what you are thinking, but, I don’t have any psychiatric problems, nor do Tom and Renee. Actually we attended there for the annual tree festival. Riverview in addition to being the former Provincial Psychiatric facility is also one of the largest arboretums in this area. There are hundreds of species of trees planted on the grounds.

Teri and Perry from the lake are very active in the planning and presentation of the tree festival each year. When we arrived, I got to get out of the truck and go with Renee and Tom this time. It is the first time that I have been able to wander around something where there were so many people gathered around. There were also a lot of dogs too.

I was really good wandering around and I really enjoyed it. I got to smell lots of trees, wander in some beautiful settings, meet other dogs and more importantly, got to say hello to a lot of people. I got more pats, ear rubs and compliments than I could wag a tail at. That is if I had a tail to wag.

As if the cougar sighting the day before wasn’t enough, when we wandered up to the garden area where blackberry tea was being served, we were warned about a black bear that was just chased out of the garden before we arrived. A cougar one day bears the next. We were also told that a pair of cougars were seen prowling the Colony Farms area, just below Riverview.

You heard the one about the cougar sighting in Vancouver I guess? Yes, there were numerous reports of a cougar sighted in the bush area downtown, but they lured her out with a thirty year old tennis instructor. Bada bing! Sorry, just had to do that, but these were real live cougars and bears that I am reporting on.

On Monday I went with Tom and Renee to their guitar lesson and guarded the truck while they were inside. They learned the beginning of another new song today and they are getting pretty good. This week’s song is the old song by Boston – More Than A Feeling. Over and above that though, this marked the first time that I went all the way there and all the way back with Renee in the truck, without barking once

Tuesday morning after we dropped Renee at work, Tom took me to the park for my usual run. While we were there, I saw a lady who from the distance looked a lot to me like Glenda, so I just had to go say hello. Tom forgot the squeaker and when I went over and he called me back, I came. Then the lady came over to say hello to me and I saw she wasn’t Glenda. I was a little disappointed, but she was friendly too.

Once we got home and Tom had his shower, he started dressing up in something I had only seen in pictures before. Tom was putting on his Police Department dress uniform. This is the first time he has worn it in three years and first time since he retired. It still fit him perfectly and I’m going to take credit for that.

We were going to the Vancouver Police change of command ceremony. I got to see a lot of police dogs walking past the truck, including “Nash” from the lake. He wasn’t trying to eat me today though. There was also a bunch of police horses and motorcycles. After awhile, I got bored watching them all go past and fell asleep in the truck.

When Tom came back he took me for a long walk around the parking lot, where I got to see even more stuff. It was a lot of fun, but soon enough it was over and we headed for home, or so I thought. Instead we stopped at Renee’s work and took her for lunch. We usually walk over, but today we drove.

So all in all, a very exciting few days and I am sure there is more to come during the rest of the week.