Yesterday, we took the 3 fast dogs hiking through the meadows and the redwood forest for a couple hours. There’s a creek that Gustavo swims in and Ruby tries not to fall in. Good and tired dogs after they run for 2 hours straight on the steep trail through the woods. Santa Cruz has miles and miles of the most beautiful land I’ve ever seen. It was in the ’80’s this weekend and it was a nice place to go on a hot day, and in the middle of the day so we didn’t have to worry about taking 3 single servings of bobcat snack out during coyote witching hour at dusk.

We went to a spot where it’s ok to ride horses and mountain bikes. Because those are super low impact to the environment. But not ok to take dogs. Which are super high impact to the environment. My dogs could easily scare a bunny. Probably even cause global warming, Al Gore. Well, we take ’em anyways. Never see anyone in there but a handful of bikers with lots of tattoos and special bike crash padding because they are gnarly. We have to leave our car on the university campus to get there, because it’s illegal to park on any roads around there. And it’s also illegal to have dogs on the campus. So have to walk ’em down the hill to where the trail starts, right by a large sign at the entrance to the campus clearly spelling out N-O D-O-G-S. I made very, very sure to drive the speed limit and wear my seatbelt to get there though.

I swear I’m not trying to be a criminal. But I live in one of the most beautiful places in the world, and I just like to walk around on the land that is 5 minutes from my house and run my dogs. That’s it. Are dogs a gateway drug? Is the next step embezzeling the elderly and cooking up meth in my garage? Then I start trafficking in sex slaves and stealing copper pipes off construction sites? Do you see the trouble I get in just from staying home from one single dog show?

Hey, not to change the subject, but to change the subject I made a quiz. Called the Which Member of Team Small Dog are You? Quiz. You have to go to here to take it. Come back and tell me if you ended up the Team Member you thought you would be.