Reading Marley & Me. It’s funny and I love Grogan’s writing style – but his treatment of his dog is shocking at times.

Keeda and I are on our evening stroll.

I just spent 2-3 hours installing Adobe CS4 – all for nothing. I am not starting over now. At least not today.

On a happier note, Keeda got to meet HHRay’s puppy today. She was surprisingly patient and unenthusiastic with him. They say that some dogs are very bad with puppies because of their obnoxiousness and others are very good with them. Keeda surprisingly was on her best behaviour and allowed the puppy to climb all over her. She didn’t snap out of annoyance once and the most she did was mouth the air when the pup was getting too excited and annoying. In the end she simply sprawled out on the grass by my side as the puppy clambered all over her.

Puppies :):):) Dogs like cuddling with me. The first and most gorgeous one is mine – Keeda.

On an unrelated note, here’s a video of me helping HHRay’s mom to dig up her front yard. That’s HHRay laughing at me in the background.
Believe it or not, I am experienced in the art of physical labor – I just haven’t worked on a farm in so long that my completely awesome muscles weren’t as awesome as they used to be that day.

The photoshoot was great. I am now at the big park, walking keeda.

It’s official. If Keeda and I were an investigative police dog team, we would be the best in the world.
There was a fire today. I didn’t know until my mom told me.

So that’s what the helicopters overhead were for. I thought. Two helicopters kept flying back and forth with water for about 20-30 minutes before, they flew right over our house.

She pointed in the general direction of the big oval we normally have our walks at, but I figured it’d be farther down than that.

Keeda and I go to cycle on the oval and after maybe 20 minutes I notice smoke rolling in. I smelled it before I saw it. Then I looked up and saw gray smoke coming in from the woods on one side of the park. It was getting more and more dense, but not unbreathable or anything and while you could definitely smell it, it didn’t sting the lungs like it would if you were very close to the fire.

So Keeda and I cycle as far as we can off of one of the unfinished roads that leads toward the woods. I tell her to wait near the Springer and run up a sand dune to see what’s happening. There is a small road going across over the dune, pretty close to me but with a few clumps of trees separating us. It was growing darker now and I had to squirm to make out the firemen in yellow uniforms standing by the flashing firetruck that was parked there. There were other cars parked as well, with their flashing lights on.

I run back to Keeda, who is waiting patiently, and clip her long lead onto her collar, unclipping her Springer lead from the harness at the same time. We walk up the dune again to get a closer look. I didn’t see the fire, although more cars came and I heard people talking. I decided that with all of the flashing lights and commotion it would be a great idea to test Keeda’s attention and focus. We were far enough from the firefighters, so I knew we wouldn’t be bothering them or interrupting their work.

I gave Keeda some commands and had her run up and down the sand dune a few times. She did great :).

I then saw more flashing lights over to my left, pretty far away. In the process of going back to the bike I slipped in the sand and the long lead got tangled over my leg. I have rope burn on the back of my leg, behind my knee, but it’s nothing major.

So we cycled over to one of the other unfinished roads on the other side of the park. We met a little Kelpie cycling with her owner as well and Keeda did very well – she was curious about the dog, but after they sniffed each other she just sat there patiently as the owner and I talked about our dogs and the fire.

At the edge of another unfinished road I saw a massive yellow truck with red and blue lights lighting up the surroundings (it was now fairly dark and difficult to see). The truck was huge and had a large barrel on the back, maybe to hold water.

Keeda and I investigated, though we didn’t get too close as we didn’t want to disrupt the people who were probably saving our neighborhood (or the area next to the neighborhood, anyway).

The last thing I heard as we were cycling back home was a man yelling something from the direction of the firetrucks, though I couldn’t hear what. 

I think that I’m going to write the local fire department a “Thank you” letter.

These have been a really crazy couple of days. I won’t go into great detail as it’s personal and is not mine to tell, but basically everything’s been up in the air. There’s controvercy over HHRay’s dog and I think the puppy should just go to a different home as he is likely to end up being abused if he stays (not by HHRay, if that’s what you’re thinking). HHRay’s had a lot on his plate these past days as to what to do with the puppy (he’s been keeping him safe in another location). I told him last night that whatever he decides to do, I’ll stand behind him. But I will never forgive myself if something happens to that dog.

Here are some photos of Keeda from our walk today. You’ll notice that there are no photos of her looking directly at the camera – she seems to be camera shy!

I’ve had a little visitor in my room today. Let’s start from the beginning.

I left for the gym at about 11:30am and was back at about 1:45pm. The new Curtin gym rocks, by the way. Anyway. When I get back my mom opens the door and says that HHRay came around before with Arnie, his puppy, and that there seemed to be trouble.

Due to some unforseen personal circumstances my mom and I drove to HHRay’s house and picked up Arnie to take care of him for the afternoon. It’s been pretty good, no bad incidents or anything :) Keeda and he met on-leash and did well. He has to stay in my room only, though, as I don’t trust Keeda and him off lead together just yet – meaning we couldn’t put him into Keeda’s room with her. That and my dad doesn’t like dogs in the house, so my room was the best option.

I took Keeda for our Springer walk earlier and he got to run around the backyard while she was gone (my mom locked the doggie door so he couldn’t actually get into Keeda’s room. We didn’t want to risk  him chewing a PC wire or something). 

After I came back with Keeda she was put back into her room (and the doggie door unlocked so she could have access to the backyard as well), both pooches were fed, and Arnie was taken back to my room.

Then my dad came home. When he tried to approach Arnie he growled and barked at him and stuck close to me. He doesn’t seem to do well with strangers in general, but he did fine with my mom. I have my suspicions about him maybe not liking males, but not sure yet.

He’s adorable :) Every time I leave the room he whines and cries. He’s tied on a long lead so he can go anywhere he wants in the room but has no access into the rest of the house. I don’t indulge in his whining, of course, he has to learn to be patient and calm. 

I just took him for a 15-20 minute walk around the small park and he seemed to really enjoy the change of scenery.

I dragged my green and blue sleeping bag into Keeda’s room last night, deciding to sleep there. As soon as everything was adjusted and situated, Keeda climbed inside and started to make herself comfortable next to me. Boy, that dog is just like I was when I was little. She kept tossing and turning to find a comfortable spot, but nothing seemed to be good enough. She finally settled down and let us both get to sleep.

I woke up with her nuzzling my shoulder and one hind leg sprawled over my back. Scandalous.