Sunny Sunday Walk

This morning is lovely and sunny after almost a week of grey rainy days. We (Michael, Emma, Tara, me) headed out to Hout Bay with our friend Lea and her little puppy Mabel to enjoy a walk on Hout Bay Beach. It was delightful - one of the nicest things about Cape Town is that the fall and winter are still sprinkled with lovely warmish days! The beach was much flattened by recent winds and tides and there were huge pieces of kelp thrown up on the shore.





Michael went off to buy fish while we walked all 3 dogs (Tara is our house guest while Jeni is traveling in Morocco and Europe.) They romped and played. When he returned to the beach Emma was thrilled. But funniest of all is when Emma makes us play with her, as you can see. She was happy to have a proper run after a couple of days of very shortened walks!

This evening we are hosting a casual farewell dinner for Danielle, a Rotary Ambassadorial scholar our club sponsored since last February. She is heading home to the States on Tuesday. More on that once its happened!

Lessons from a Lively Dog

I've realized recently that the only way to approach this blog is to simply take a few minutes frequently to note our happenings.

Today's observation is about what I learned from two dogs. On this evening's walk with Emma at one of our regular haunts she was doing the usual - standing near the cars waiting to meet other dogs and hoping one might befriend her. While this is usually not a successful endeavor for her she does not give up hope - lesson one.

While she was standing around (like a lost f_ _ t, as Michael might say) a car arrived and out of it came a couple and four assorted dogs. I use the term assorted intentionally as they were all mixed breeds and two of them were missing a limb. I noticed this immediately on the mini-dog who looked like a long haired chihuahua cross because she waddled just slightly. Nevertheless, she was swift and capable. The other dog was a sleek short haired yellow mix of perhaps a boxer and something bigger with a white blaze on her head and neck. She sped across the field so quickly and with such agility that you would never know she was missing a limb - she obviously doesn't see herself as missing anything- and had such joy to be running and chasing animals in the field - that was my second dog lesson for the day. We continued to cross paths with this lovely pack of dogs as we walked and I took heart from their joy, particularly of the speedy yellow dog.

So, that's my observation for today - let us see what tomorrow will bring!