Man's Best Friend

While housesitting, I've been able to take care of the former resident's dog. It's some sort of sheep dog/Australian shepherd (I'm not sure exactly what breed). She's the same kind of dog that was in the movie "Babe". Her name is "Bob-a-loo" - kind of an I Love Lucy thing I think. She's very well behaved - enough to be off leash on walks. We've been exploring the trail that follows the irrigation ditch across the street almost every evening after work. I've been told to watch out for rattlesnakes but so far haven't seen any. Three nights ago after work we went for a 5 mile hike up to the lookout tower on top of Funk mountain. It was a gorgeous evening with cool temps in the upper 50's, damp air from a recent rain accentuating the scent of pine, and multitudes of blue lupine, black eyed susan's, and dainty white little flowers carpeting the open meadow at the top of the trail. From the top there is a great 270 degree view from the northwest to the east encompassing several rows of mountains some still with snow on top. Conconully lake is visible down the valley occasionally obscured by small patches of fog that hang nearly motionless between the forested slopes below. Anyway, I'm sitting eating my subway toasted sandwich while watching the sunset over the mountains to the northwest (no worries, it will still be dusk for another 90 minutes allowing me to hike back down before it gets dark) when I realize I haven't heard or seen Bob-a-loo for about five minutes. I get up thinking she might be running around the meadow, but Bob-a-loo is nowhere to be seen. I start calling for her, but still no Bob-a-loo. I'm beginning to be a bit nervous. This was the same meadow where I saw a black bear last year, and I've been told there are mountain lions in this area as well. I'm thinking, "Great....now I've got to tell the people I'm housesitting for that I've lost their dog who probably became mountain lion chow!" After several more minutes of yelling, Bob-a-loo came sauntering out of the forest as if it was no big deal and what was all the fuss about anyway. The hike back to the SUV was fortunately uneventful. Overall, I've really enjoyed "having a dog" for the past week. Someday if I ever get settled enough, I'll get one of my own.