Don't Drink and Drive

***Always a rockstar; April, 2004***

Bernie's better today, cough all gone and she's up and around on her own. I should add that before being sedated Monday, she was very robust, relatively speaking. Walks, up steps, down steps, curious, head out the window in the car (photo, June 04) . . . then Valium changed all that. Maybe the headline for today should be, Say No to Drugs. Regardless, she's improving.

She caught a ground squirrel once, killed it with a sharp shake of her head, then wandered for about twenty minutes with it dangling from her mouth while she tried to find a suitable place to bury it, presumably for a snack sometime. This was in Tahoe, in the mountains about a mile from Heavenly Ski Resort and thus a mile from where Sonny Bono smashed into a tree. Bernie and I lived at the base of this area for three years. She was between three and six those years. I'd mountain bike while she'd run like mad. As hard of a time as I had catching her when she was loose, she always wanted me in her sight, so I never had to worry too much. I'd ride, she'd run. The ground squirrel catch was amazing, Bernie ten or twenty feet behind it, full speed, down a culvert hill in the mountains. Her center of gravity was so low her tummy hair was dragging on the ground. I couldn't believe it when she caught up to that thing. I couldn't believe it when she snapped her head to kill it, like she did it everyday. Instincts are amazing.

She sniffed out a watering hole early in our days in that area. It was small, 10x10 or so, but a few feet deep. Hidden underbrush, she'd go in it after we'd spent an hour or two frolicking among the pines and rocks. She'd just soak, drink, cool off. It was a favorite spot of mine to snap photos of her. Prints, I have them somewhere. I love animal behavior, watching it, seeing them seal off the world in their peace bubble. She's peaceful today, a walk up and down the street in the warm sunshine and crisp air our frolicking thus far. I haven't decided whether I'll take her to Petco with me today. I've never been in there without her.

Happy New Year's Eve!