April: Lovely Lupine

Still getting caught up! Cedar still hadn't had her final set of shots, so she was limited to where we could take her. Lucky for her we were heading out to Blazingstar today to for the 'great potato trade' with  Liz Saunders.

We'd gotten together with Liz and ordered enough potatoes between us to stop any future famines - that is another story in itself. Needless to say, Blazingstar won't be without potatoes this year!

We borrowed the lovely Lupine for a walk to the river while Liz finished up some work in the house.

Lovely Loopy coming to take us to the river

It was a nice and warm day with no wind, spring was finally here! The 'girls' talked over plans for swimming lessons for the afternoon and Cedar seemed pretty stoked.

Apparently we couldn't walk fast enough, there wuz swimmin' to be had!

Humans, are ya comin?

Loopy took 'the Kid' down to the river and discussed basic water safety issues before taking her out a little deeper and giving her lessons.

"Remember Cedar, don't drink the water...cows poop in it"

What an event!  Water flying everywhere, feet flailing, almost drowning...all in 3 inches of water. Lupine kept a keen eye on the Cedar and eventually got her swimming.

"Cedar, your feet are on the river bed..."

Finally, doing the dog paddle!

Enough with the swimming lessons, too much work and concentration for a tiny brain - lets play with sticks instead - at least they float! 

mmmm, a stick!

This is a stick!

Well, that certainly seemed like a challenge to Cedar! Throwing all that 'respect your elders' stuff out the window, Junior decided she'd completely dis Loopy and steal the poor girl's stick! Poor Lupine...

Mine!

"My precious"

"I haz teh stick"

After a little talking to about sharing and playing well with others, Cedar brought the stick back and the girls practiced their synchronized stick routine together.

Downstream we go

and back up against the current

oops, Loopy found a deep spot...

 Swimming lessons were over and it was time to get out of the water, it's amazing what a cookie will do :)

Synchronized cookie waiting

Shaking the brain matter around a bit

 We headed back up to the house to meet Liz, swap taters, and get some retriever training tips with Cedar. She did OK for the first 2, the third throw started getting a little 'creative' in retrieving style.

 Uh-oh, movement in the grass...danger?

 No, it's Salander the Cat! What's a trip to Blazingstar without a visit from Cedar's favourite cat. Retrieving was done for the day and socializing with Salander was all that mattered, starting with a big kiss! 

Slurp!

Cedar was so excited that she broke out in a little submissive shuffle to try and entice Salander to play.

That wraps up our visit with Liz & Lupine. A wonderful warm day, great company, and lots of potatoes!

Thanks to Liz for sharing the Lovely Loopy with us today, she is such a warm and wonderful dog.  :)