Summertime is dry season here, so unless it's regularly irrigated, most areas turn golden yellow. The same color as a certain little dog. The dry grass leads to brush fires, so keeping open areas mowed is essential.
Though I've lived in this town for 10 years, in the past year with Cabana, so many new horizons have opened up to me. Now, I go to places that I've driven by a thousand times without ever knowing what was there. One new horizon is just a few blocks away from my daughters' high school. Cabana and I drop the girls off in the morning, then drive to a (seemingly) little-known walking path that meanders by cow pastures, a vineyard, a little creek, an airfield and ends up at a park. 
The creek comes up early on in our walk, but I make Cabana wait until the return trip to get in the water. That way, we can wash away some of the muck from the muddy fields. I suspect it's the mud that is keeping the path fairly untraveled right now. In a few weeks, who knows, everyone and their dog might be on it. But for now, I've got my boots, and we'll enjoy the solitude while we can.
Cabana loves bounding through tall grass. She reminds me of a lion cub on a play prowl when she does this.
California poppies are just beginning to spring up everywhere. Whenever I see one, I think of our good friend Poppy who is in formal training at Guide Dogs for the Blind. If Cabana were still a puppy-in-training, we'd probably have been turning her in this weekend. It makes me a bit sad still that she didn't make it to formal training--I just see so much potential in her!! But yes, I also see her drawbacks, and of course, we LOVE our lives together--so I know Cabana and my family all benefited from the decision to career change her.
After a while, the path opens up to soccer and baseball fields. In the morning hours, dogs are allowed to run off-leash. Here, Cabana and a black lab watch as a 4-month old rottweiler pup shows her submissive side. It's a chuckle to see the way Cabana and the other lab are looking at the puppy. They seem to almost be rolling their eyes and saying, "We were NEVER as silly as you."
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