Buntzen Lake Detours

I got to go to my favouritest lake today, with my favouritest RING!!!


So, lets start from the beginning...

It was gurrrrrrls day out, just me and MY mum! We arrived at the rather deserted parking lot. I waited patiently for my pawsonal elevator to finish being trigger happy... (mum: she isn't allowed to jump in/out of the car, so she has to wait for me to lift her in/out.)


I was running out of patience!


I hadn't gone to Buntzen Lake since my monstrous surgery back in November (mum: Soft Tissue Sarcoma cancer surgery), and the woman wanted me to sit and pose????

FINALLY!!


Mum was being SuperSLOWWWWWW... so I decided to head to the entrance myself,


Told mum to HURRRRRRRRY UPPPPPPPPPP!!


Asked mum (politely) if she brought MY ring???


It's good that she did!!


I don't go to any water related areas without MY RING!!



See the bootiful ME?


See the bootiful mountain behind the bootiful ME?


See ME & MY bootiful ring??


I marked MY tree,


And headed towards the doggie area,


Arriving at the entrance to the doggie beach,


I tried to open the gate,


HOW DARE IT NOT OPEN FOR THE SuperDALE!!!!!!!!!


That worked, the gate magically opened for me, (it just shows, yelling always works!!)


I met a pibble,


He really liked THE Muscle Butt!!


A little too much I think.... I tried to tell him (nicely) that THE Muscle Butt should be admired from afar,

(mum: Sunshade was actually worried about her ring. She thinks everybody wants her ring because it is THAT special!)

They all want MY ring,


But only I got it of course!!!


I was not showing off, just enjoying MY ring ya know?


Said hello to a Golden handsome. His owners said I looked un-real, not sure what that meant.


Then mum asked me if I wanted a rockie,


I said YES PLEASE!


She threw it, and I looked for it,


I *almost* forgot about MY ring, but I DIDN'T! I went and picked it up,


So I could continue one of my favouritest games - The Rockie Splashy game with mum!


I'm READY mum! THROW it!


Here comes the SuperDALE!!!


SPLASH!!


I took a moment to remember Alice, Annie, Butchy, Bogie, Sarge, Andrew, Elli, Whiskers, Dutchess, Aqua - friends I'd recently lost.....


And recharged my SuperAIRE-ZEN for the friends that still need them....


Hope the SuperAIRE-ZEN does something for you!!


After I had finished my good deed of the day, I headed towards the wooden bridge,


The bridge would take us to the trail that goes around the lake. I was WAY ahead of mum!!


But then I remembered something I had temporary forgotten... so I doubled back to mum...


Yes, I'm picking up MY ring please!


Thank you very much!!


Continue on,


Going through the gate,


Ignoring the sign because we saw quite a few people walking in and out of there,


(mum: we've had a lot of rain lately and I believe the water level had risen so much that it was covering part of the trail. However, I asked a couple who had just walked the trail and they said the water seemed to have receded considerably that there was no problem with the trail.)

Walking over another wooden bridge,


See this gate, you would normally be able to walk in to get to the doggie beach. Not today, the water was all the way up to the gate,


Starting the trail,


With MY ring of course!


Came across a couple of BIG cats. Maybe they were being hired to maintain the trail?



And then something unthinkable happened.....

Out of all the places, mum decided that on the bridge was the place to throw MY ring for me to catch,


And, well, SHE MISSED MY MOUTH!!! (Do you see MY poor ring??)


Yew, my poor ring fell down the cliff.....


I watched in horror....


Just as I was ready to go rescue MY ring, the stoooopid woman yelled "NO"!!! She said she would go rescue MY ring as she didn't need me to tumble down as well.


I watched anxiously as the rescue took place. See my worried-face (about MY ring that is)??


Ohhh Thank doG you're (my ring) ok!!


Come to mama!!


And I'll..... never let go!


I walked the trail on the left when we arrived at a fork, this trail led to our secret swim spot!


Wait..... WHERE IS MY RING MUM???


Give it back!! I have no idea how she ended up with it AGAIN!


(mum: Sunshade is not very reliable at carrying her ring away from the water. She'll carry it for however long and then just leaves it. Of course, then it becomes my job to carry it until she decides she wants it again, for a few seconds!)

Got MY ring, all is good in the world. Off I went,


Arriving at our secret spot,


The water level was all the way up to the bench!! Usually I have to climb down to the little beach to get to the water,


All of a sudden, I caught an interesting scent, so I took a steeeeeeeeep detour to check it out,


Mum didn't trust me, because I have a tendency to find yummmmmilicious things when I take detours like this, so she followed me up.


Fortunately, she was too slow, and I was on my way down before she even found out what I was after!


Water time! I dug for some rockies,


Caught my RING,


And then.....


I took my first outdoor plunge of the year!


The water was crisp and refreshing, not freezing anymore,


I swam to a tree. A TREEEEEE in the middle of a lake!



And brought a tree branch back!


I'm a SuperFISH!

I had had enough swimming, and I decided it was time to go. I made it very obvious that I wanted to GOOOOO,


You coming mum????


She finally got the hint and off I went,


I made sure mum wasn't lagging too far behind as she had a tendency to do so,


We made our way back up to the main trail,



I was in a hurry,



We walked over a wooden bridge,


Up a steep hill, see, this steep!!!


I protected MY ring well,


We went over this bridge where I let go of my ring, and took a steep detour up the side of the trail.......


I took the steep detour because I caught a scent of something SuperYUMMY smelling!!! I had like twenty big mouthfuls of it before mum realized what I was up to!!!


(mum: don't ask, she smelled gross! The only thing it couldn't have been was dog/coyote poop. Anything else is possible...)

Evil mum was SuperCRANKY after she made me leave my yummilicious snackie, and she left MY ring behind!!!!


I had to go rescue MY ring on my own. Geez, is this what you would make your 80 year old grandma do if she ate a piece of cheesecake???? (mum: you were NOT eating cheesecake!!! Farthest thing from it!)


We followed the detour sign this time as we hadn't come across anybuddy,


Mum was still being pouty, and lagging behind,


I headed towards the end of the trail,


And waited patiently for mum to make it up the hill,


I grazed some while I waited,


Then I asked mum if she remembered MY ring?


She said YES. But she held it like this.......... because she said I ate something gross, and I was holding MY ring, so MY ring = gross. Do you see my confused face???


The detour took us up to a service road. We had never gone this way before, and it didn't look very fun.....


Yes, it was indeed a long boring road....


Then mum found a little creek, and she told me I should go play in it,


She even got me a special rockie, see,


And then I saw through her master plan. She wanted me to do this,


So I could CLEAN MY MOUTH!!! (mum: and beard!)


Oh well, at least I got a reward,


A special rockie!!


We walked some more and finally got to another detour point where we could get connected back to the trail,


The trail eventually led us back to where we started our expedition,


To the detour signs,


To the gate to the dog beach,


Open up!!!


Thank you!


Almost forgot...... MY RING PLEASE!


Thank you again!


I met a big boy,


And his big boy buddy. Yes, I can still mingle with the big boyz!


And then they left The Muscle Butt just like that (how dare they!), and then I wanted MY ring, and listened to mum talk,

Before leaving, mum needed to go potty, so I went with her since there was nobuddy there today,


Finally, she was ready to goooo!!

We made our way back to the DaleMOBILE,




Mum asked me if I wanted the ENTIRE bag of treats!!


I said yes of course......


MYYYYY treat bag!!!


I worked on the bag of treats inside the DaleMOBILE,


I got it open.... and soon realized there was only a cookie and some crumbs left....


This is my just-got-ripped-off face!


I WANT MORE!!!!


We had a great time at Buntzen lake, just mum and meeee! Now, it's time for some ZZZZ....

BTW, in case you were wondering about my surgery site being shaved. Well, my surgery was 6 months ago, and it has long healed. Mum keeps it shaved because she puts some monster killing cream on the site every night before I go to bed. She shaves it every week (cause I grow a lot of hair), that's why it's always short looking.

(mum: monster killing cream = cancer killing cream. If you recall, we did not get clean margin when Sunshade had the cancerous tumour removed. I had found this cream that's supposedly very effective for surface/accessible tumours. So I have been putting it all around her incision site. I am in contact with a few people who were able to get rid of their dogs oral melanomas, and other types of tumours completely with the cream and also an oral formula.)

Petnerships

This weekend was the annual Petnerships weekend. Petnership Project is a two day holistic trade show and lecture series in Vancouver, BC, with speakers, exhibitors, activities and fun for pet owners and their pets.


Overlooking the exhibits,



According to Petnerships website,

"Well-behaved pets are welcome on-leash...under the control of their guardians."

Naturally, that meant only ONE of us could go, and that was ME, The Perfect ME!!

(Well, according to mum, she was scouting out the grounds with me before she decided if STINKY would be able to turn the place upside down by trying to play with every dog in sight.)

Mum actually went on her own first thing in the morning because there was a lecture she wanted to attend. She didn't want me to get bored, so she asked D-Guy to come with me after the lecture was done.

The celebrity arriving in her flashy ride,


In case you were wondering......

This matte white Porsche.....


Is NOT the same as this silver Porsche (from last year's I'm COOL like dat! blog post)

D-Guy is following his trend of changing cars every 2 years. This is his new baby! I get to ride in it because I'M STILL COOL LIKE DAT!!


He also promised mum that he would teach her how to drive a standard in his new baby, just like what he promised mum when he had his old Porsche (mum: and it never happened!!!). Anyways, enough of the drama....

We went to a nearby park to have lunch.


D-Guy was my best friend!


After lunch, I finally got to go into the Petnership Trade show!!


Registering, I saw a Golden handsome,


I started surveying (with my SuperNOSE) for stands deserving of my attention,


I soon found a worthy shop called Big Dog Little Dog Bakery. Mum and Christine, owner of BDLD, have known each other for a long time. So here I was, with my nose in Christine's purse. I knew she wouldn't mind!


Evil-mum said I was B-A-D, and she made me go out of the booth, and told me to lie down as punishment..... Chill woman!!!


After mum chilled out, we continued walking. I met a Welsh Terrier. I went up to see him, to see if it was Atticus - the Welsh that drove STINKY nuts!! This little guy was polite, he didn't jump on me.


Then another Welsh stinky (mum: stinky = puppy), a nice pibble, and a Goldie,



And then LOOK!!!

A bun bun!!

I think you need to get me another pet bunny k mum?

After my visit with the cute bun bun, I saw a puzzle game from a stall that emphasized on the mental stimulation of us doGs. The nice lady put treats in the toes and got me to try it.


It took me 10-15 seconds to get treats out of all 4 toes. She said I broke the world record,


Of course I did, I'm THE SuperDALE!! Lot's of brain ya know?

The nice lady wanted to challenge me more, so she stopped putting treats in the toes, and only in the round spinny thingy.


Here I was trying to figure it out,

This lady was so funny, she didn't ask how old I was until mum said I should take a break. When mum told her I was 11.5 years old, her jaws dropped. She said I didn't act it or look it, and the funniest thing she said was - she's (as in I was) definitely the most persistent senior dog I have ever met!!

What's a senior anyway?

After I've had my breakfast, lunch, and early dinner, I decided that I was going to stay at this booth and wait to get working on my late dinner,


The nice lady said I was welcome to stay and be her demo dog!


Mum told me there were other places I could get my dinner from, so I left the puzzle game stall.

Sure enough, Mrs. Brown's Brownies were just on the next aisle!!


These Brownies are probably my favouritest treats!!


It is hard for me to put into words how much I really love these brownies and liver slivers... I will just have to show you in the story below.

The store that mum goes to buy my raw food is the ONLY store in Vancouver that carries Mrs. Brown's Brownies. The store owner's name is Caroline, she is also mum's friend.

And here is the Brownie story.....

One day, a starving, boootiful little girl with the best muscle butt (but shrinking due to starvation) walked into Caroline's store. She went up to the front desk and asked Caroline politely for a box of Brownies,



The little girl told Caroline that those Brownies made her very happy,



and that she couldn't imagine life without them....



She poured her heart out to Caroline, with such emotion.......

Unfortunately, her thoughts went unheard. The cold hearted Caroline told the little starving gurrrrrl to .......

GO ASK YOUR MUM!!

The little gurrrrrrl couldn't believe what she was hearing. The cruelty and unfairness,



So she decided to take matters into her own jaws,




And she lived happily ever after!

The End

(mum: the pictures from the story above were taken in July 2009, on two different occasions inside Simply Natural raw food store. I have been friends with Caroline even before she had the store. What really happened that day was that Caroline had just received a shipment of the Brownies and they were sitting on a trolly. Sunshade's ritual inside Simply Natural is to go right up to Caroline and demand to have those Brownie treats handed to her, continuously.

On this particular day, Sunshade saw the boxes sitting there on the trolly, so instead of going up to Caroline, she just casually walked up to the trolly, grabbed a box and casually walked away. Of course, the moment I saw what she had done marked the start of the great keep-away game. Caroline thought it was too cute especially the way Sunshade had grabbed the box, it showed the label perfectly. So instead of wanting the box back, Caroline told me to make sure Sunshade continued to hold it while she went to get her camera. The lighting inside the store wasn't great, so she told us to go out on the side walk for her to take pictures. Sunshade got that box for free - it was a STEAL!!)

Continuing with Petnership....

Do you see what I see ahead?


Murphy the Airedale!


AireCanada Rescue had a booth there, represented by Maureen Scott and Margaret Glass (breeder of Rollingstone Airedales). This is Maureen's Murphy, he's 5 years old. Maureen is AireCanada's rescue coordinator for western Canada.


We made a donation on behalf of Squaire Dog Grooming to help future Airedales in need,


Murphy's nick name is Uncle Maniac. I don't really know why, but according to Maureen, he gets quite Maniac like. Well if Murphy is Uncle Maniac, then I must live with THE Maniac God or something....


Before leaving, I stopped to get my dinner dessert. Korna is another store that mum goes to buy my food from. It is located right next to Auntie Janice's clinic, so whenever we go to the clinic, we always go next door to get some foodies and treats!

They recognized the SuperDALE of course!!


They were raising money for animal rescue. By donating $1, you get to fill up the little paper bag with any treat you want. I think D-Guy misunderstood and thought those were treats for him. He was almost happier than me,


D-Guy, you mind sharing some treats??


After my belly was satisfied, we all went home where D-Guy and I relaxed, and mum took STINKY back to the trade show. I guess she wanted some exercise.