Going to the dogs
by Richard PerkinsThis week I made no progress on my job search, sadly. Many of the leads I’m following are on an unofficial hiring hiatus , with summer vacations and the continuing uncertainty in the renewable energy market. A bit depressing all around, really.
On the writing front I started drafting the first scene of Chapter 13. I’m cautiously optimistic about this chapter of the story. I’m starting to dive into the motivations of my antagonist for the first time here; setting up what I hope will be a compelling history to lend credence to the choices he’ll be making in the rest of the story. This chapter won’t be ready for posting for several weeks yet. The drafting will take a while to get right I think.
But in the mean time, I will publish a couple of scenes from the draft of Chapter 6 tonight for those of you who are following the story. This is a chapter about meetings and relationships. Outside the desert settlement of Edgeways, a group of mages from the Doormakers’ aptitude test team come face to face with some of the elusive desert nomads they seek. Likewise, Devon we get to watch Devon interact with his fellow Guardian Villagers in his continuing search for the missing mercenary Fronek. Don’t miss this or any of the previous episodes, posted in the Writer’s Lair.
I’d like to dedicate the rest of this post to mankind’s intrepid four-legged friends of the canine persuasion. I’ve always been a fan of dogs, provided they are not of the small yappy-type variety. (I’m also a fan of cats, but that’s a subject for another post.)
But now that Margot and I are living with our dog, I can’t help but feel some adjustments adjustments have been imposed on our free-wheeling lifestyle. We’ve had our cats Earl and Bubba for over ten years, and they are great. They have their health issues that require intermittent attention, but when we want to take a little getaway for a weekend or longer, they’re pretty self sufficient in our absence. I have an automated cat food dispenser and gravity feed water dispenser that together could keep the two of them covered for two to three weeks (although we never have left them unattended for more than four to five days without having a pet sitter or friend drop in to check on them).
Our dog Bella is another story. She’s just under two years old, and seventy pounds of sheer exuberance. When we’re home, we walk her twice daily to keep her exercised and tired out. And we’re not talking five minutes around the block kind of walks here. Her usual morning walk is a shade under three miles round trip. Her evening walk is sometimes a bit shorter and includes a dip in the creek. Or sometimes we take her for a longer walk in the evenings to a nearby dog park where she gets to romp with other dogs her size for twenty to thirty minutes. So you could call her a five to seven mile a day dog.
When we go away on trips, we can’t expect pet sitters or friends to spend that much time with Bella unfortunately. But so far she has done OK visiting friends or getting visited by a pet-sitter when we’re away on trips of up to a week in duration.But it takes more planning and more preparation for us to do those kind of trips than it used to. It’s an adjustment.
Now I’m finding another adjustment. Backpacking. I’m an avid hiker and backpacker. I’m not interested in the kind of public campsites that you can drive your RV into. You know the ones that come plumbed with hot and cold running water, wired with electric hookups, and overflowing with the hygienically challenged.I prefer pitching a tent someplace where the only neighbors you overhear in the night are of the furred and feathered kind.
I was very excited when we first got Bella at the idea of taking her camping with us. But there are challenges to overcome. A lot of the places I would have liked to go camping don’t allow pets into the woods with you. Sure, drive up to your local public open space and enjoy the scenery with Fido, but he’s probably not going to be allowed out of the parking lot. Many of the places that do allow dogs only allow them in for day use. I’m finding this to be especially true for backpacking in the South Bay area.
I just went out and bought a few books on trails and camping in the area for inspiration, including one called Best Hikes With Dogs: Bay Area & Beyond. Unfortunately this book lists hikes in three parts of northern California, and none of the hikes in the actual Bay area allow overnight camping. All of the actual backpacking options fall in the “Beyond” group of recommended hikes, in Shasta-Cascade, Sacramento, and the Gold Country. I still hope to get in some of the recommended local day hikes with Bella. But they will have to be training for hiking trips that take us a bit further afield. Again, it’s an adjustment.
But despite the adjustments, I wouldn’t trade my mutt for the world. There’s nothing like the unconditional love in your dog’s eyes to pick you up when life gets you down. Besides, she makes a great camping pillow.
