Sometimes the path is dark, cold, and foreboding...
Sometimes it is a hot and dusty trail...
Sometimes the trail feels like it truly is uphill both ways...
...no matter what the perros and the peoples must do to get in proper off-leash time, be assured, we are the right mammals for the job. The pack has never been perfect - but it has always been enough to get the job done!
It is true, our pack is now broken up for the summer, but we shall return; and in the leaving, we have one more weekend's hikin' and trail humpin' to share.
I have made Chabot Park, and the Macdonald Trail, my particular summer project. I have always known it was there, but never really spent much time there. After a few visits to the trails around Bort Meadow, I was hooked.
The weather is usually 10-15 warmer than Oakland, but there is also usually a nice ocean breeze.
There is also loads of spots in which there is a direct view down to the Bay itself, which is most excellent.
Last weekend was the last weekend both nephews would be around, and their doggie Taylor would be in the pack. We went out and hit the Macdonald Trail together from Bort Meadow up to the exit out into the little subdivision along Skyline Blvd. in Oakland. It was excellent.
The doggies love it, and I think even the nephews dig it. I like playing Street Fighter and hanging out at the casa with them and all, but I consider it a moral victory to get the youngins to come along on a doggie hike. Yes, I must allow much in the way of tree climbing and picking up of detritus (usually large sticks used to smash stuff) to keep them interested, but I think they would grudgingly admit we have a pretty good time.
By "we", I most mean "the doggies". They all love Chabot Park. I am not sure if it is the wide variety of trees, the shade, the breeze, the sniffin', or just the fact that we usually do about double the length of visit we normally do. They really groove on it.
As I type this, the pack has already begun to go on its merry way. The youngest nephew starts school very soon and is SoCal bound (and taking Taylor with him.) Around my casa, I have reached the conclusion that there is no way I can send Chiquita Banana back. She and Mr. Booms haven't had bonded or played like buddies, but they are starting to have a bond that does seem to work. More importantly (and I know I wasn't supposed to go this route), I want her to stay in the ark.
It is true that Booms does like having things to himself. I originally said I would only keep her if it was a love connection with Boomie. I really am conflicted at going back on this, but I believe it is the case that he will not feel the kind of love connection I want for him with another dog. He would rather have things to himself - this is what he is about. I actually love this about him. Yes, he plays with Pocket and has fun with her, but I just can't bring myself to force endless dogs to audition for him. My entire premise is off - she stays because she seems happy, I am happy with her, and Booms has no emotion good or bad to make it not feel workable.
She doesn't seem any more interested in him than he in her. There is no shared activity between them other than to hike the same trails and sleep on the same bed and beg for the same treats, and even in these, the relationship is more of proximity than of anything social or inter-relational. With her too I feel bad in the sense that I fear I am denying her a canine love connection, but whether in our pack, at work, or at the doggie park, she too seems to just be about her own thing and not really all that bonded to any dog or anything but...well...um...me. Ugh - I feel bad to be going back on my original premise; but I sorta wondered if I ever really could keep it, and now I have learned enough to think of myself as being much better suited to create order out of all of this. In spite of what you see here on this weblog, I must say, I think I have the situation pretty well read and actually have the right ideas on this matter.
I still have much to do to make things workable. Booms has his nose out of line because of having so many guests in the house, but that is all but over. I want to give the boy a few weeks of just me and Booms and Chiq-Chikka together to see if my hunches are correct, but I can't imagine any outcome in which it doesn't make sense to keep her.
At minimum, she will become my ward until something better for her comes along. If no such thing comes along, I will simply find more time for Booms so that the cost to him is minimal. I don't expect him to understand, and my obligation is to him.
I have spent much time with my nephews this summer, but it is not the same as having kids. I take much that is life-affirming from my nephews and the generation of my family which is to come after me, but that is different. I don't see them everyday, and when we do see each other, it has the context of being an occasion. I do need these bigger touchpoints, but I also find myself growing increasingly impacted by seeing the doggies approach to the workaday stuff. This is all a bit esoteric I grant, but it is something that seeing Ms. Chiquita accentuates greatly, and it is why I am being selfish about over-riding the original impulse to audition other dogs for Booms' amusement.
I admit I gravitate to the drama of the fact that Girly-Girl has some rough times in her past, but one of the strongest things pulling on me is the fact she has retained such a deeply sweet outlook on the world and wants so little. She takes so much pleasure from small things - and again, I admit this is in line with the more odd aspects of my personae - I hope to be able to learn something from it.
Over the last year or so, I have been a big believer in trying to find "life-affirming" things to fill my brain with. I need to unload crap and load in things with some redeeming value. Boom Boom has been a great source of such things, and I kid ye not, I am quite sure I could write a life-affirming book on what it is like to have to watch Boom Boom navigate the planet. In fact, I could write TWO, one on what I learned walking behind him, and the other from trying to get him to follow. I think the world is already well surprised with "Boy, I sure love my dog" tomes, so I will deprive it of my contribution, but I don't want to leave the impression that ol' Booms is deficient in answering some very cosmic questions, but the things Boomie has wisdom on aren't always things I need lots of clarification on. Chiquita, on the other hand, does leave me with the very distinct impression that she is still often experiencing some pain (not terribly intense, or I wouldn't be just watching it wistfully, I would be seeking to treat it.) She deals with the rough stuff in a way (and I realize I will overuse this phrase) which is so distinctly life-affirming, that the more I see of it, the more I am convinced there is a great wisdom to her successful coping with problems. In fact, I think she likely has enough wisdom in her to be able to coax out quite a few narratives on how to find happiness anywhere, how to know what is worth spending time on, and how to waste nothing.
What is remarkable is that these are just my 2. Even Taylor has her own way of interacting with the world that seems to be quite well thought out and useful. I realize that at this point I didn't need to mention I don't have kids - it is obvious! How else does one have the time to take in the life-strategies of the dogs in their life? I am aware that kids are the holy grail (for humans, anyway) for life-affirmation. I am not sure how I ended up where I am, and in a life without kids of my own, but that is what I have. If I am to get there, I have no doubt it will be - at least in part - because I finally started to see the bigger stuff and got on with the idea that my time on earth is finite and I really should only spend that time on what matters, and all that matters is that which is life-affirming. The kids are going their way, Taylor is in her new back yard, and I am now really starting life with the two doggies and I for real. I hope it ends up being as interesting for me as it seems it could. I hope Boomie can forgive me for deciding that our brood isn't exactly as he what he would have, but that it is more than enough to get him where he is trying to go, and on that basis, he will need to make things work with our new girly girl having her spot in life on our ark. Time will tell. Much of that time will, for the weeks to come, do its telling out on the Macdonald Trail in the East Bay hills. We are also gonna be visiting SoCal quite a bit to spend time with my California fam. Now that I know where they live, and how close we are to some prime doggie hotspots, there should be some big time canine awesomeness to share too. The Girly Girl and Manly Man and I are going to also have the entire awesomeness that is fall in NorCal, so even if the prose gets ponderous, I expect the pictures to expand greatly in quality and quantity. That should prove - if not life-affirming in itself - at least redemptive for all y'all who wade thru ye olde weblogge.