This Morning's Exciting Walk

First of all, I need to apologize for not posting more. Duncan's friends Owen and Cerys came for a playdate last week, and it was pointed out that I have been negligent. So here we are, back with an exciting report of Duncan's walk this morning.

It was so nice and mild this morning that we ventured off the ploughed bike path through the park, which has been our default walk since the snow came. We crossed over the creek, then stomped our way through the still-pretty-deep-and-quite-crusty snow, down the path between the creek and the ball diamond to the second bridge:

Often when we go this way, we continue along that path behind the other ball diamond and the tennis courts. It leads to Pauline Johnson school (Megan's alma mater), where there are many interesting smells and sometimes doggy friends to play with. Today, though, after we crossed the bridge, we stopped to sniff that big willow just off the path. And we noticed Something Wrong:

I took this photo later. There wasn't time on our walk. Keep reading to find out why!

A Christmas tree. In the middle of the parking lot. In March. Duncan was Not Pleased. We had to investigate. So we cut up toward the parking lot instead of continuing along the path. This was lucky, as you'll see... (The tree is the blue dot on the map up there. Keep that in the back of your mind until the exciting conclusion to this thrilling tale...)

It turned out that the tree was harmless, and in fact smelled quite interesting. While Duncan sniffed, I looked around. I noticed another dog sniffing the garbage can over by the path (the red dot).

It took a moment to realize that it wasn't one of Duncan's usual dog buddies. In fact in wasn't a dog at all. It was a coyote.

Wikipedia's version of a coyote. Ours was darker and much more handsome.

Luckily, I'm not sure that Duncan even noticed it. But I think we may need to time our walks in the park a bit later; this is the route the high school kids tend to take when they walk to school, and any sensible coyote would be sure to be safely tucked up in its den before dozens of teenagers appear, about half an hour or so after we were there.

** catwalk = walkway between the houses that leads from street to park. We had to learn a whole new vocabulary when we moved here.

Duncan Develops a Taste for Knitting

Literally. He finds knitting very tasty indeed:

These are the remains of would be my nice warm dog-walking mitten, and Megan's Christmas knitting project: fingerless glove-to-be #1.

For the culprit's sake, we didn't break the news to her until after she'd finished sticking him with his allergy shot this afternoon. I hope he appreciated it!

Catching up after Christmas

It was a busy few weeks for Duncan, as all his human siblings and his feline buddy Jax all came home for Christmas!

Jax is beginning to feel a bit more at home, finding comfortable places to settle down for a nap:

He's even beginning to learn to play, something he didn't seem to know how to do until now. He prefers yarn or scrap cardboard to actual toys:

Christmas morning, of course, meant presents! Jax checked out the tree looking for his...

...while Duncan preferred to wait on the couch until someone delivered his to him:

Duncan got a new Lambchop II toy, among other things:

And Jax got a nice new cat toy. He wasn't at all impressed, and totally ignored both the toy and the catnip we sprinkled on it.

Duncan, though, was quite entertained. His cousin Taz may possibly have been laughing at him in the background:

By the end of Christmas Day, Duncan, Jax, and little Taz were all exhausted!

The afternoon of New Year's Eve, Cerys came over for a playdate. It was a cold day, so they ran in and out of the house every few minutes, but they had great fun playing constantly for almost two hours. We love having Cerys come to play; Duncan sleeps so soundly afterwards!

Getting into the Christmas Spirit

The staff at Askey worked a Christmas miracle to get Duncan to sit quietly(-ish) for a photo by their tree while wearing a Christmas collar!

(Why, yes, that does look like a treat-containing hand in the top corner. Coincidence, I'm sure.)

Duncan Cuts a Christmas Tree

Today was Duncan's first experience with cutting a Christmas tree. It's hard to believe that he hasn't gone before, since it's been a (nearly) annual tradition with us since for close to 30 years! But two years ago, he was a broken-legged puppy who was having an off-day. And last year, thanks to a series of bad-weather weekends and the big ice storm, we actually had to stoop to buying a pre-cut tree.

It was a drizzly, muddy day,  which meant that the tree farm had endless fascinating smells. Duncan ran from one tree to another, and sniffed every patch of mud within reach:

It took a while, but eventually we found a tree that everyone liked. Duncan thought Megan was acting rather oddly, though:

He forgave her for her strange behaviour once Dad and Evan lugged the tree away, and he could get back to exploring and sniffing around.

Luckily, we brought several large towels along, because he got very muddy! But he seems to have had a great time. 

Next weekend, after Erin gets home, we'll put the tree up and decorate it. What will Duncan think of that?

Update: After such a busy morning, Duncan is spending the afternoon sleeping off the excitement:

The Start of the Season

It's official: the first step toward Christmas happened this morning, when Megan arrived home from school. Duncan was delighted to see both her and Jax. 

Jax was less delighted to see Duncan, and is hiding behind the big chair. What he doesn't realize is that Duncan hangs out back there too, so it may not be as good a hiding spot as he thinks!

A Walk in the Snow

With all due respect to Pierre Trudeau, sometimes a walk in the snow is not for pondering affairs of great importance. Sometimes it's all about dancing, spinning, running, and towing Mom to the park as quickly as possible, ignoring all the rules of Walking Nicely on Leash.

Like this morning, for example. Duncan was full to overflowing with energy and excitement at the snow we were getting.

He wore his spiffy new red plaid coat for the first time. He wasn't very happy about it, but after a sizeable bribe of meatloaf, we got it on and headed out. He tried to shake it off...

... but only managed to loosen the velcro a bit.

When we got to the park, we went into one of the baseball diamonds to run off-leash for a while, trying to burn off a bit of that energy.  First he chased some imaginary snowballs. He doesn't fall for that game as much as he used to, but when he does it frees up a hand for the camera! 

After he'd had a good long run, we did a bit of obedience homework to bring him back down to earth. Today we practiced waiting for the command "Come". 

I tried to trick him, but he's so smart it's very hard to do. Look at the way he caught himself after "Canteloupe"! (Apologies for the poor video quality; between the dull light and juggling mitts, treats, leash, and camera I completely missed the excellent "come" at the end.)