And so we did.

Meet Ginger … 25 pounds of irresistable sweetness. Animal Friends Rescue Project brought her to a Employee Giving campaign at City Hall.

Silly me, I went.

I never looked at anything else (not even the kitties). Today she met Noche and Guinness, and with their blessing, joined the family. To be totally honest, she ignores them. Fortunately, she ignores cats and chickens too (the cats are still suspicious.)

So far we know that she loves food and people. And that she wants to be a lap dog. Given the mud factor at our house, this is something to work on. Our other challenge is teaching her not to go wee any time, any place, just to prove she was there. She’s got “sit” and “come”. Doesn’t understand “down” or “stay”. Seems to know “dance” and “roll-over”.

This is what the website said:

She’s an irresistible corgi/pug mix who is out to steal your heart. At eight years of age, Ginger is a mellow snuggler who likes to be wherever her human is. She is quiet, house trained and crate trained, and she gets along great with other dogs and cats. Ginger was rescued from the Martinez shelter, where her time was up. She’s in good health other than limited vision in one eye.

They got the “steal your heart” part of that right.

… says Noche! Be it the truck or the river, he’s not too sure what the point is. “Can’t we just stay home and eat horse poop?” Although there is hope that he might become a river dog. After the long ride, even water had some appeal for him. And he loves hiking and camping. Lots of good smells!

We escaped this weekend. No computers. No phones. (Well at least no phone signal.) Hardly any stressful conversations about work. Just a quickie camping trip to Cache Creek. A new spot for me — and visited so long ago by Steve that he’d forgotten — it’s a pretty whitewater creek that drains a large watershed and which should really be called a river, with compelling geology and the ability to find privacy and isolation within a few hours of the Bay Area. A place worthy of return. In fact, our illustrious governor actually did something positive last week by designating a 31 mile stretch of Cache Creek as “Wild and Scenic”.

“Honey, do we have a spare?” Somehow I don’t think that several miles down a very steep, rugged road in deserted BLM lands is the right time to ask this question. The good news is that we do. The even better news is that we didn’t need to use it. Still, I felt much better after getting out of the truck and verifying it was there with my own eyes.

We found sweeping 360° ridgetop vistas, sleepy smooth water, playful whitewater, wild turkeys, blue birds, quiet and solitude. Of course we also found spent shotgun shells and broken beer bottles. And toilet paper where toilet paper shouldn’t be. I think the mentality of some who visit this lovely place is to get drunk, shoot things and then throw bottles in the road to maximize the chances that the next visitor down this road will actually need to use their spare tire. Although I think the toilet paper came from boaters. Rafters, of course. Never kayakers.

In the summer, this is a busy whitewater put-in, several miles of four-wheel drive road not withstanding. In October, we had it largely to ourselves. Except for the ranger who drove up as soon as I got naked to bathe (of course!) At least he didn’t ask about the rocks we were gathering — perfectly flat river rocks — soon to be the finishing touch on our long-under-construction rock wall. I love rock shopping!