Strange Things Are Afoot Today!

OK, not really, but it's Thursday, I'm bored, and I haven't had a good walk since Sunday, and probably won't until Saturday. jc was right, this time change thing is stupid. I am going to petition to go bite whomever is in charge of this nonsense.

This is a picture of my footprints from the second time we went walking in Van Pugh Park. You can tell jc took it with his Gigglephone because one of the prints is chopped off :)

Having nothing better to do than lay around the house and occasionally provoking Makeeta or Moon into playing with me, I will let you get back to whatever it was you were doing before.

*woof*

Hiking In Elachee And Hiking My Leg

Sunday, as promised, jc took me to Elachee Nature Science Center, along with Cindy and Moon, where we went hiking.

It was a beautiful day for walking, with the sun out, and the temperature around 60 degrees. The trails were dry, and there was a nice breeze.

Cindy and Moon walked part of the Mathis Trail, shown in blue on the right side of the map. Moon's not as spry as I am (she's at least 8), so they stuck to the shorter, easier trail for her benefit.

jc and I took the long route. We took the Elachee Trail to the Mathis Trail, then picked up the East Lake Trail, around to the Aquatic Studies Center, then took the West Lake Trail back up to the Lake Trailhead, took that short cut-over back to Mathis, and then left back on to Elachee.

jc added up the distance we walked, and it looks like it was about 5.25 miles. My feet claim it's longer! It seemed a lot further to me than the 6 times around the park, which is 5 miles. I wasn't sore, 'cause I'm in pretty good shape with all the walking we do, but it was a haul.

There were lots of cool smells, and I think I tried to pee on just about everything. jc was getting tired of waiting for me, so sometimes I'd suddenly be dragged by my neck 10 feet up the trail before I caught up. You humans just don't appreciate that we dogs need to tell everyone else we've been here!

We're all supposed to wear leashes while we're in the park, but some people aren't as responsible as mine. I got sorta charged at by an old, mostly black German Shepherd, but luckily he pulled up short before I had to pull out a can of whoopass and let him have it. I think jc was pretty proud of me, because you know how I can be around other dogs, and I just kinda stood there. Didn't even bark! His people were real apologetic that he wasn't on his leash, and we all talked for a couple minutes.

We went on our way and ran into a Springer Spaniel (those are dumb looking dogs. I'm embarrassed they're of the same species), but he/she/it didn't get close enough for me to have to protect jc.

A little further on there was a golden lab that I had to bark at. At first I thought it might be Beckett, because he looked similar. If I knew what Beckett smelled like, I'd have known right away, but I've only seen pictures. jc told me to hush, and then I realized that the odds of Beckett being 600 miles away from home on the weekend we happened to go to Elachee were pretty slim. I saw some other dogs here and there, but we all pretty much ignored each other.

This picture is of the Aquatic Studies Center. I don't know what all exactly goes on there, but it's an artificial wetlands of some sort. I heard someone saying they have educational programs there for kids.

We didn't go down to the water, but circled around the lake. The picture is taken from an earthen dam that forms one edge of the lake. There's lots of tall grass there, and some really good smelling things.

You probably know we dogs don't see in color very well, but jc said the trees were really bright and colorful. He was happy, so I was happy.

OK, this thing on the right is a suspension bridge, and quite frankly, it scared the pee out of me. Well, not literally, because after marking 45,682 trees and bushes, I was dry.

It's narrow, 150 feet long, and when you walk on it, it starts bouncing. jc says it's sturdy and safe, and I crossed it, but the first time we crossed it, I stopped in the middle, and was thinking about not going any further.

But I'm a Brave German Shepherd(tm), so after jc petted me and told me I'd be fine, I went all the way across, and then back again. I don't really like it, but I need to get over any fears of the unknown if I'm going to set a good example for other GSDs.

While none of the trails were hard (I've got 4-paw drive!), the West Lake Trail seems to not be maintained as well. There were a lot more trees down across the trail, and some I had to go under, and some I jumped over.

There were some ditches that had logs cut in half and laid across them to walk on, but I went through the ditches. jc said if I ever want to do agility work, I'm going to have to learn to walk on them. I think next time he's going to try to get me to walk across the boards. If he has some treats with him, I'd be more inclined to give it a shot, I think. *grin*

We had a really nice day, and when we got home, I was ready for a nap. Oh, I forgot to mention, since Moon went with us, Makeeta had to stay home. And, boy, was she mad! She was making all sorts of racket when we left, and when we got back she gave me a 200% inspection, to see where I'd been and what I'd been doing. Maybe next time we'll leave Moon at home, and Makeeta will get to go with me.

Bark at you later!

I Cause Grevious Injury; There Are Reprecussions

Today, I injured jc, although to listen to him, you'd think he should be in the trauma center at the hospital. Here's what I did:

How did I do this? Well, jc took me out this morning for my usual tour of the back yard to take care of business (you know, make sure all the trees are still there, eat some grass, whiz on 6 or 7 trees, maybe finally get around to #2). Now, you've probably not seen any pictures of our yard, but we live on a sloped lot of 2.2 acres. Here's a picture to get the idea of the slope of the wooded area:

If you read my previous posts, you know I kinda have a slightly high prey drive [jc: On a scale of 1 to 10, it would be 12]. So I was standing there, getting ready to finally take care of business, when who should I see at the bottom of the hill (even further down than you can see in the picture), but my arch enemy, Mr. Squirrel:

I started to chase his fuzzy butt, nearly yanking jc off his feet. jc grabbed a tree to keep me from dragging him down the hill (I kinda forgot he was still holding the leash), and scraped his hand on the tree. He held on tight, and after a couple seconds I realized I should have thought this through a little better. Result? The hoosegow!

OK, not really. That's just a picture jc had of me in my crate. I got fussed at, and threatened with going back to the prong collar when I go out. At least I didn't eat the stupid squirrel. And I tried to tell jc pain is just sickness leaving the body, but I don't think he was buying that. Especially about the time soap got into the scrape.

Anyways, on a more positive note, jc said today we're going to go to a place called Elachee Nature Science Center where they have a bunch of trails. I think we're going to walk the 4 mile trail today. Maybe I'll see some squirrels!

*woof*

Walking The Shores Of Lake Lanier

Sunday I took jc for a walk around some of the islands of Lake Lanier. This handsome dog sitting on the rocks is me (in case you didn't know!).

Usually we go to a little park up the street, where we walk around the edge of the park 3 times, which is about 2.5 miles. I decided we should go somewhere different, so I loaded jc up in the car and had him drive me to Van Pugh Park.

When the lake is full, the islands are not connected. However, with the lake down over 18 feet, you almost can't tell they're separate islands. I included a little map of our walk at the bottom, but the imagery is obviously from when the lake is up.

There were lots of interesting things to smell. I found all sorts of little pockets in the rocks that were neat, too many beer cans (you dumb humans just have to leave your trash everywhere, don't you?), lots of burnt wood from campfires, and other stuff I couldn't really identify.

This is a tree I saw on a rock, so I got jc to take a picture of it for me. He got one those new T-Mobile G1 Giggle Phones he's always messing with [jc: It's a 'GooglePhone', Sherman. I keep telling you that]. It turned out OK, and at least my feet weren't lopped in this picture (mostly, I suppose, because I am not in it) [jc: YOU try holding a leash, and taking a picture with the sun reflecting off the LCD, and see if YOU can do any better, Sherman].

Maybe next time I'll get him to bring the big camera that takes much better pictures of me. Because I am *always* photography-worthy and picture-ready.

On a different note, I had a flash-back this weekend. Some people came over to get some firewood that my friend William had cut up in the back yard. I slipped out the door to talk to the two guys, when I saw their pick-up truck. I ran around to the back of it and jumped in. It seemed so natural, and jc kinda had to drag me out of it. I'm pretty sure I used to ride in the back of a truck all the time. While the pick-up is cool, I think I'll stick to the station wagon. No wind in my ears, but it's safer.

Here's that picture of the path we walked. We started at the southern most point of the connected dots.

If we keep doing this, my footpads are going to be tough as nails. That sand and those shells are rough on the paws of a dog who leads an easy life.

Speaking of doing this again, apparently there's some idiotic twice-yearly ordeal about changing the time. As I understand it, it's now going to be too dark most days when jc gets home to take me to the park for a proper walk. He seems pretty pissed off about this, muttering about how having to work for a living really sucks, and that stupid little kids can go to school in the dark perfectly well, because when he was a kid, they had to walk to school up hill both ways, in 7 feet of snow (what's snow?) while it was pitch-black dark, and THEY had to worry about being attacked by wild mooses, something these soft, weak, pampered brats of today have no concept of, and how without a cellphone to keep their ears warm, they'd probably freeze to death.

I dunno much about this, but I do know I enjoy my walks, and I'm going to miss them if that's the case. Plus, my humans need the exercise to keep them from getting fat (me, I'm a mean, lean, chipmunk chasing machine!).

*woof*