Otis' Coming Out Party!

About four weeks ago a totally adorable little miniature poodle puppy dropped in my lap.  The circumstances around his discovery are pretty wild.  He was born in Arizona on January 10th, two days after Walter died and eventually ended up in Spokane.  It has been a f@#$ing rough 7 months and losing Walter and my little dog Flip was the icing on the cake.  But, you know, you slog through it.  I was unprepared for the jolt from the elixir of life now known as Otis

I have been working with Otis a lot and he is so amazingly smart.  Canoe training started last night on dry land and he had it down in no time at all.  The plastic tub fit perfectly in the bow and held in place with the foot brace.  He was not too thrilled with the life jacket at first but I left it on him for about an hour and he forgot it was on in just a few minutes.

Today we went to Benewah Lake near Saint Maries, ID.  It is not a very popular place and rarely has big boats on it because it is so shallow.  I figured I would take him out for a full day outing.  He did fantastic.  I put some peanut butter in a Kong and that kept him busy for the first bit of our canoe ride.  He really did not seem to care one way or the other that he was in the canoe.

There are no good places to really get out on the lake and no beaches but we managed to squeeze in between a few dead trees and get out for lunch.  Otis stayed in the canoe until I told him to get out.  I think most of it was due to the fact he was afraid to move with his life jacket on.  Even though I did not have a map with me I think we were on the other side of the heron rookery I discovered a couple of years ago.  Benewah Lake and the St. Joe River are separated by narrow strips of land.  This part actually has a ridge running between the two bodies of water.  I posted a video on YouTube from when Walter and I stumbled upon it.  If you watch it turn your speakers up.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAa1UOm8W6A  They were really loud again today and we saw a bunch flying around the lake.

Otis actually fell asleep a couple of times.

Enlarge the photo.  It is an Osprey.

I think he was snoring when I took this.

We took a little detour because I like to drive in circles and went to Saint Maries.  This is a statue of John Mullan at the park.  We got out and walked around a bit.  Otis is now peeing on a leash with ease.

We drove to Medimont to check out the put-in and then went to Harrison.  I have a fantasy of doing a paddle/bike ride on the CdA River and Trail of the CdAs.  Harrison was CRAZY!!!!  Lots of people on bikes, a line around the corner at the ice cream shop, live music at One Shot Charlie's, and scads of very expensive pleasure boats at the docks.  Otis was a bit afraid but I want him to get used to lots of different situations so I made him walk around with me.  Ok, I had to pick him up at first but then he was fine.  He made some nice friends walking on the dock and was very intrigued by the flap of rubber that kept moving between two sections of dock.  Without Walter I was planning on spending my summer trips alone, but little Otis fell out of the sky and is proving to be a most excellent buddy.