Happy Birthday, Freddie!

In doggy years, Freddie is now a fourteen-year-old boy. Yep ... that seems about right! In celebration of his two human years, he got to invite two friends to play down at the Spanish Banks dog beach, where the tide was super-low. He invited Kali and Plouf, and they all had a blast in the sunshine and great expanses of puddles and sand (as did Heather, Paul, and Leah!).

Freddie is fast, but he's no match for Kali the Komet!

Reflections 1

Doesn't Plouf look like a Pharaoh's dog here?

(That's K and F in the background, being ball-obsessed.)

Reflections 2

After my harrowing water experience last week, I was happy to spend time in the shallows! (Harrowing more in the aftermath than in the moment .... I have a better understanding now of the wacky things one's body can do in response to trauma and have no trouble believing that recovery from train wrecks — literal or otherwise — can take years ... or even forever.)

The rest of these pics were taken during Freddie's birth-week. (Paul and I have always stretched birthday celebrations into a full week, though, arguably, every day is Freddie Day around here!)

Another Community Book Share! This lovely one is at West 2nd and Trafalgar. I borrowed a copy of Michael Crummey's novel Galore, which I've been keen to read ever since it came out five years ago (that's roughly eight months in book publishing time!). 

Here is the story of the Book Exchange:

And here is Siri's Heiberg's obituary.

Her husband, John Kidder, is the Green Party candidate for Fraser-Nicola.

The world needs more Readers and more Greens!

Reflections 3

A while back, I wrote about buying a new pair of runners. The reason (for the runners)? Freddie and I are attempting a new activity: CANI-CROSS! Here is a short video of what cani-cross looks like in action. Freddie and I aren't quite coordinated yet. Freddie likes to pull, yes, but we've been doing a lot of work on getting him not to pull when we're out for regular walks .... so he's understandably a bit confused that there are now times when I want him to pull.

I think he'll figure out that the special harness he wears for running means that it's OK to pull.

When he does get going, it's exhilarating!

Here's my crappy attempt #1 to photograph the belt that I wear:

Here's attempt #2. At least you can see the bungee leash ...

For a future post, I'll get Paul to photograph us properly. For now, you can check out the Canadog website, if you're interested in this kind of equipment. I'm really pleased with Canadog's gear. It's sturdy, fits well (both Freddie's part and mine), and they're currently having a 15% off sale on all their stuff. (This is an unsolicited and unpaid endorsement, but they're welcome to send me trial products anytime. ;-))

Spot the owl!

Bard on the Beach is gearing up for a new season (below). The Main Stage will feature safe crowd pleasers that we've enjoyed a few times (The Tempest and A Midsummer Night's Dream), so we'll probably give those a miss. I'm kind of in the mood for Richard III or Othello ... but those don't seem to be box office smashes with the summer theatre-going crowd. Not sure what the preference says about me!  

Tennyson School Sign 1

 Tennyson School Sign 2

"We are going to raise the funds to buy the essentials for the children around the world."

(The definitive articles are charmingly ambitious!)

I like to imagine a pre-White-People setting just below/beyond this image ...

Breaking Down Barriers

Does this school courtyard look a little like a prison compound, or is that just me? Fortunately, the rest of the joint is quite a bit more appealing!

Symmetry ... almost

Little Puppy deferring to Big Freddie (raised paw, tail low)

(Soon after, they were happily romping. :-))

I've been doing some interesting reading about the extensive repertoire of "calming signals" that dogs use with each other and with their humans in stressful or potentially aggressive situations (the puppy's body language above would be an example, I think). This led to an equally interesting conversation with Paul about the calming signals that humans employ — for instance, in the craziness of Whole Foods at 5:00 on a Saturday afternoon. Material for a future post, perhaps ...

In the meantime, Freddie and I sign off with play bows to all. :)