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Trekking Tales: Unlikely doggy buddies

Picture a squat, brown, “middle-aged” Daschund and a lanky, curly, bouncy, black, year-old, standard poodle together

Picture a squat, brown, “middle-aged” Daschund and a lanky, curly, bouncy, black, year-old, standard poodle together. Charlie the Daschund was with us for almost two months and Jake, a local, is a regular visitor so the three of us shared many walks during that time. Jake wanted to play; Charlie greeted the idea with open mouth, lips pulled back, and growls - and this was the way our walks usually began.

Heading off one day, both were determined to go out our front door first. Their exits were simultaneous: Jake’s long legs straddling Charlie as they dashed out ahead of me!

Doing some bushwhacking in our “back 40,” Charlie, who has a wonky back end which surgery several years ago was unable to resolve, got his very short legs tangled in sticks and short brush. With his vulnerable leg twisted, he yelped and sat, still crying a bit. Jake was immediately at his side and the message was obvious: “There, there, old chap, you’ll be alright in a minute or two.”

The crying stopped. Carefully I removed the underbrush that had brought him to a halt. Charlie sat still, looking at his “pal” towering over him, leaning down so they were almost nose-to-nose. All was well, to my great relief, and he gradually moved ahead and steadily picked up steam. By the time we were home about half an hour later, Jake was once again teasing Charlie and was getting growled at in return!

More than once on our walks when there were just the two of us, I lost track of Charlie - only to find that he was trotting along right at my heels. When Jake was with us, he was more adventuresome and both would appear from different directions when I whistled. At the North Thompson River, Jake dashed and splashed into some slow-moving water up to his knees, drank, moved, then drank some more. Charlie stopped his run at water’s edge, got only his toes wet, and had half a sip. But following the big kid that he growled at so much was essential!

We had lovely lots of family here over Easter, including six great-nieces, the youngest five years old. She played with both dogs and fed them constantly until we smartened up and put their food supplies out of reach. She constantly pulled them along on their leashes as best she could, so we confiscated the leashes. She’d then try to haul them along by the collar. Dragging Jake around turned out to be too much of a challenge, but not so with Charlie.

“He’s the only thing round here that is smaller than she is,” explained her mother.

But it was Jake she asked me to take her picture with. After this cute photo was taken, still playing with Jake, he took her arm a little too roughly.

“I’ll tell Auntie Kay to delete our picture if you don’t stop that!” this savvy little lady threatened. Fortunately the dog listened so I did not have to pretend I’d removed it - which I probably could not have pulled off anyway.

Charlie is back with his family in Kaslo again, but Jake gets to meet lots of other dogs when he visits. At Clearwater Lake, I let him off the leash briefly but the visiting part-Pomeranian was still “legal.” Jake dashed round and round her, teasingly just out of reach as she tried to snap at him.  I’ll swear - both dogs were laughing. Charlie had cleverly disguised his smiles but we know he’ll be happy to see his big buddy again - next visit.