Yesterday was another puppy adventure day. Yishai took his dog up to Santa Margarita Lake to do some scouting for our upcoming adventure race. This required some hiking on her part, but mostly it involved riding eight miles on a kayak and also swimming. When he called me after getting back, he was like, "I think Rippa hates me."
Anyway. . .
Rippa, like Fury, appears to begrudge the kayak . .. she'll sit there quietly, maybe she'll shiver a little because she's antsy, and as soon as shore is near, she'll jump into the water and head for it. I had to laugh. Part of what Y was doing yesterday involved a bit of bouldering (ie, semi-technical scrambling) through sandstone canyons filled with water. It turns out (which we kind of knew from her exploits at the ocean and to a pond) that she is not a big fan of water. She would NOT have it. At points, Y had to wade in water up to his chest, and he sat there wondering if he should carry her across. In a move which I approve of - he did not, and it forced her to suck it up and follow him. No coddling. These may be baby dogs, but that means they're old enough to pull this off without whining. The more she does it, the better adventure dog she'll be.
So I spent the day sitting on my couch and reading essays for the SAT. This is one of the small bonuses of holding an MA in English - you are not usually without a job when you need to find one. There's always some kinda grading/tutoring to be had. I cannot tell you how depressing it is, though. What I was grading was Early Assessment program stuff for kids intending to try to go to college. I failed about 60-65% of the essays I read. And, being a totally compassionate teacher, it broke my heart how illiterate these high school Juniors were. I literally spent four hours yesterday wondering how I was going to affect our country's education on a macro level, because, while I am helping maybe sixty students a semester, that's not a big dent. Yishai has some learning disability stuff and says, very sincerely, that he is grateful just to be able to read English. I'm grateful, too, that he finally got the right help - but he was actually in Special Ed to get it fixed. What a stigma to carry around, right? Ugh.
So feeling bad about that, and also feeling a bit sloppy from being sick for weeks and not exercising, I committed myself to hike the hardest hike in SLO. It's pretty much straight up and a major slog.
But I took all three dogs along (Fury, Daca, and roommate's dog Rex). This is always funny to me because my entire life, I've not wanted to be a Dog Lady. Three dogs is a lot of them (when Yishai and I do chores, usually all three of the dogs are in the car with us, too, and it looks like - woah - that's a lotta dogs in the car).
As I'm passing people on the trail, you can see their funny smiles at the crazy dog lady. I hate that. What I usually do when I see people coming is put Daca on a leash (because if her fear aggression turns on, it's hard to catch her - she'll run if people keep walking toward her, but otherwise, if I approach to catch her, it gives her confidence to do her buffy bluffy barking thing), tell Fury to go off-trail and lie down, and leave Rex alone. So there I am with a puppy on a lead (who is very good on a lead and quiet), Rex standing in the middle of the trail, and my yelling at Fury to lie down, "No, half way down is not good enough. Lie DOWN. Down - elbows down. Dammit Fury, down. All the way. This is not okay!" I need to work on that. She used to be crisp but I got lazy.
There was kind of a funny incident at the end of the trail. I was running the last half (it gets flatter and runnable) with all three dogs off lead and as I turned the corner, Rex barked in surprise, Fury kind of feinted a nip on his pants (she likes grabbing people's clothes to control them - one time she took, very gingerly, Sharon Simmons' coat in her mouth when I picked her up from the airport for a judging assignment - she laughed at it), and Daca, totally taken off guard, did nothing as we all literally ran into this 7' guy camouflaged in blues and greens in the Eucalyptus grove. I am pretty sure I screamed, too. Funny that the dogs, with all their heightened sensibilities, were surprised by him.
I got some good bites on Daca. I need to take some photos and Yishai and I have to go up north on Tuesday to do an errand and we'll stop off in Atascadero at the always-wonderful Sandy Ogg's to expose her to sheep for a video for her possible buyers. I have one person in mind that I think will be perfect for her both with the behavior issues and for what I bred her for. A couple other people are waiting. It feels like I am cheating on them all - dating multiple people at once, but that's what you gotta do to find the perfect home. I have been more than honored by the people that have been interested in my puppies and for the reasons. Lots of compliments on my choice of linebreeding - in fact most of the homes are ONLY interested because of who the dogs are that are involved. It's not just a question of wanting "a puppy" or a "working puppy" or "a bitch." But specifically what I did. That's cool.
So, with any luck, Miss Daca will have a confirmed new home next week one way or the other. (Dear readers, I'm still taking requests, even better homes could come along.) I will miss her terribly.
love that photo of the fence path
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