Foraging for Food

Please pardon the algae - these steps are a pain!
Neither the brush nor the vacuum fits them.

A guy could starve to death around here. Seriously. I mean, dog food twice a day, but that hardly counts. Several varieties of treats for rewarding, teaching, encouraging or just plain bribing good behavior. But who can be good all the time? Occasional handouts of people food. Pathetic really - licking Daddy's ice cream bowl, instead of having his very own scoop!

So Duncan went foraging for food recently. The dead leaves that blow into the pool seemed like a good place to start:

He reached in and pulled them toward the step. He grabbed them. And he ate them.

Apparently they were quite tasty. 

Paletta Park

I've been getting complaints about the lack of blog posts lately. The problem is, His Lordship dislikes summer. He's spent much of the last two months simply moving from one air-conditioning vent to another, with a distinct lack of photo ops. So we'll dig back into the stash of photos that haven't been posted yet, and maybe look back at a few older posts. Hopefully we can find enough to keep going until the weather cools off...

So, Paletta. For those of Duncan's fans who haven't been there yet, it's a restored mansion on the lakeshore, with a small beach and a nice short trail through the woods. In other words, maximum interesting smells in a relatively small area. Kerry loved it, and Duncan seems to enjoy it, too. He made his first visit there as a tiny puppy, still in his Christmas tree cast. But visits have become more complicated this summer. Here's the sign that has appeared near the trail:

Apparently coyotes have become a real problem in Burlington this year. In fact, a cute little wheaten named Princess was attacked in her own yard last month. So morning walks at Paletta are out. But afternoon should be safe, and although the beach isn't as nice as Pinery's wonderful beach, it has good sticks:

A Guy's Gotta Chew What a Guy's Gotta Chew

As I've mentioned before, Duncan is very hard on his toys:

Tennis ball

Footie-Dude. The missing foot was confiscated because he insisted on
chewing it like bubble gum, "blowing" it out between his lips every so often!

 He's also hard on a lot of our things:

Pencil stolen from desk

Comb

Fortunately, he mostly just chews for the joy of chewing, and doesn't seem interested in swallowing most of the things he shreds, so we have (so far) avoided the surgical removal of random objects!

He seems to have a very detailed Code of Thieving Honour, which we haven't quite mastered yet. For example, objects on the desk are prime targets (e.g., pencils!), but he has never taken anything from the small bookcase in the family room. Pillows from the bed may be stolen, but pillows placed on top of his crate (right next to the bed, and the same height) are safe.

Scotsdale Farm

Duncan likes to lead us along the path.

On Monday, we celebrated Civic Holiday with a trip to Scotsdale Farm. Duncan loves Scotsdale. There are interesting smells around the old farm buildings, a pond, a small patch of woodland, and a nice long lane to hike. The Bruce trail and one of its side trails go through it. And one of the trails goes through the fields. Duncan really loves those fields, because he gets to run off leash there:

Flying ears!

Every so often, he suddenly dives into a patch of grass and collapses for a rest: