And that's why the Nubie is a champ

Our poor guy Nubie has always kind of been the second string sort of dog. He joined us when the late, great Odin was still in his prime, and that was a dog that lived up to his name. Anubis, despite the big and portentous name, never stood a chance to be the rock star in the house. Rather, he was Nubie, because much of the world seemed brand new and possibly slightly threatening (while Odin was scared of not one single thing on the planet).

HOWEVER. We realized recently that while Mo gets most of the time & photos on this here blog type thing, Nubie is in fact a rock star after all.

He quietly reminded us of this during a recent week (a whole week! 9 straight days!) at the farm. There was cousin play (two more westies for a few days), where he got to be off leash all the time because he's the only one who won't run blindly off in pursuit of deer, mice, or bug shadows. There was creek swimming and rock hopping and long walks and all that stuff. But somewhere in there the FQ got a hankering for new scenery, so we went off on a little field trip to this purty spot, Clear Lake.

Attribution: Gary Halvorson, Oregon State Archives(see, FQ follows rules)

I did my homework, checking out the details of the hike: 4.6 miles, seemed doable. We packed snacks and water and leashes and beasts and off we went. Well, this day was HOT. And I had clearly not packed enough water. And the direction we started off in took us away from the lake for way too long. At some point we started to doubt the wisdom of this particular walk and the accuracy of that 4.6 miles (which, at the time, I remembered as 4.3 but who is counting?).

After a while, Phrodaux and I started to worry about Nubie: 11 year old dog on a long, hot hike. There was a lot of panting, but nothing more than regular interest in drinking. After a while we realized that the panting was mostly about being FIRST on the trail. Get out of the way, Mo, Nubie coming through!

This is not a swimming lake, too deep and cold. But there are many little paths down to the water's edge for toe dunking, boats, etc. Once we were all really hot and sweaty and crabby, Nubie turned into Lake Access Inspector. This place? Yeah, works. There he'd be, belly down in the cold water, lapping it up at the same time. This place? No, muddy or serpent-filled or otherwise no good - keep moving. And he'd herd us all back up to the trail.

Finally we made it all the way around the lake and expected both boys to crash out in the back seat on the way home. Here is Mo, wiped out:

But here is Nubie, saying, as far as we can tell, 4.3, 4.6 whatever. Bring it on. With treats, please.

His response to this high-exertion day got us thinking about all the other ways that Anubis is a super hero with amazing powers. Such as:

• Dowsing: This guy can find belly-dunking water whenever it's needed.

•  Object Distinction: The whole toy vs. pillow thing is too much for Mr. Mo to grasp. But Nubie totally gets it.

• Bedding Compiler: If the question is, how many pillows and blankets does it take to make Nubie comfortable, the answer is always At least one more.
  
  

•  Camera Eluder: Anubis has an uncanny ability to move the instant the camera clicks. This post would have been done a long time ago if he'd hold still more often.

Check out this one: Bedding & Blur, all in one!

It's been a summer of major farm time, lots of walks, swims, guests, adventures. As far as we can tell, Nubie is OK with all that. I think the caption that goes with this picture is: What next?