Tuesdays with Ebon (and the cats)

Here's a little Ebon for you from a couple of days ago, being handsome on another little adventure to a new place in the city. Near the condo there's a fairly small lake in the middle of the city that is in fact just down the road from the local Humane Society and Animal Control (they're on the same property). The lake includes a central island that houses a nice park with facilities for family fun. I thought, "Hey, we should go there! There's a nice trail around the lake. I know dogs aren't allowed on the island in the middle of the lake, but they must be allowed on the trail." I threw the dog, his backpack, and the significant other into the car and we went down there. Ebon got very excited as soon as I pulled out his pack. It amuses me how much he loves it.

Well, I was wrong. It seems like bad planning to me, but no dogs are allowed on the trail (except seeing eye dogs). There's just a small strip of land where they're allowed to be. I was disappointed, and I don't think we'll be going back. Ebon was a bit too. He prefers pavement to grass for some reason, and kept trying to go to it. The "dog exercise area" is less than half the length of the trail if you include going out and back from the parking lot.

Ebon was really curious about the geese and boats. He had never seen a sailing boat before! This is about halfway along the length of the exercise area. The lake is quite beautiful, surrounded by trees and other foliage. The island is well-groomed and has such things as a big playground, picnicking facilities, and enough land for kids to play sports. There are great parks here for kids, but not very many places to take your dog. Especially if you want them to be off-leash. See how few of the trees have changed? That's the south in autumn. We even had a year where they didn't change until February. Though this day it was around fifty degrees, it's been nearly eighty ever since.

Here's the end of the strip of land. He's giving me his "we're gonna keep going, right?" look. I still need to find a way to weight his pack more. It's still only about four and a half pounds, which is basically nothing to a dog his size. I'm using two water bottles, and I'm thinking filling them with sand may be a good option.

I'm planning to check out several other spots during the Christmas holiday, including the biggest park in the city, the dog park, and the downtown area. It's actually quite dog friendly downtown, with a large number of businesses allowing dogs inside and offering water to thirsty pups. Many of the restaurants also have some tables outside so that you can bring your dog. I don't know how many dogs I've seen at our favorite pizza place. I do wonder how he would do if I took him downtown, mainly due to the fact that Ebon's never been there before.

In addition, here's some footage of the cats being odd. I have a lot of pillows and they decided one of them was the best thing in the whole wide world. Jen is to the left, Ash to the right.



I'm also having an interesting debate with myself about how to deal with the Thanksgiving holiday. I'm leaving early tomorrow for my grandparents' house and I don't quite know how I'm going to handle the blog while I'm away. We'll see. I do have some posts prepared.