A shaggy dog story
Jun. 1st, 2008 08:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_fantastic_ms_foxOn Friday, Samonte*, Milo** and I*** went to the park at the northern end of Burnaby near Boundary. It's past where the hill crests and descentes again, before the railway tracks and the water. The whole park is on a slant, and that combines with the copious amounts of green to make it fine hiking. There's a steep drop-off right before the tracks, and Milo thought this was the most interesting thing ever - and went right over the edge.
Samonte and I rushed over to see that it was not just a steep drop-off but uncomfortably high - and no dog at the bottom. Shit. Then Samonte called for Milo, who was not injured or dead, but dashing around having a great time this side of the railway wall. At the word "come," Milo did his best, but realized that he couldn't get back up.
We agreed that Samonte would stay and see if Milo could come back up while calling Milo to keep him from running into train-y areas, and I hunted around for another way down, only to find that CP rail did a very good job of not just flattening the bottom, but making a steep enough cliff that getting down there was at best difficult and, at worst, lethal, and getting back up was harder. At this point, Milo started to realize that he was isolated and stuck and began to whine. I finally found a drainage pipe, then a little stream, then a small passage through brambles, then a gulley, then more brambles, then skidded down a muddy slope on my ass, to roll under the fence and back again before finding Milo. I tried to help Samonte down using a log, but realized, as he put his weight on it, that it wasn't connected to anything other than myself, which was connected to my boots, which were "connected" in a literally loose sense to crumbling soil. Samonte then started to slide over the drop-off and under the log without hitting his head - which turns out to be a perfectly safe way to get down, so we colud have just done that in the first place.
With Milo bounding aroundin dog joy, we rolled under the fence and walked along the tracks, then found a rope that someone had tied under the railway bridge. It led to a hole in a fence that had been patched over and welded shut. So we trompsed around in the bushes until we fonud a long-abandoned gate, used that and sat down, picking mud and thorns off.
This felt great. There is something rewarding about work that is emotionally, physically, socially and mentally engaging. Gonna keep on the lookout for more of that.
* Homo Sapiens Sapiens
** Canis lupus familiaris
*** Homo Sapiens Mutantis (Unregistered)
We agreed that Samonte would stay and see if Milo could come back up while calling Milo to keep him from running into train-y areas, and I hunted around for another way down, only to find that CP rail did a very good job of not just flattening the bottom, but making a steep enough cliff that getting down there was at best difficult and, at worst, lethal, and getting back up was harder. At this point, Milo started to realize that he was isolated and stuck and began to whine. I finally found a drainage pipe, then a little stream, then a small passage through brambles, then a gulley, then more brambles, then skidded down a muddy slope on my ass, to roll under the fence and back again before finding Milo. I tried to help Samonte down using a log, but realized, as he put his weight on it, that it wasn't connected to anything other than myself, which was connected to my boots, which were "connected" in a literally loose sense to crumbling soil. Samonte then started to slide over the drop-off and under the log without hitting his head - which turns out to be a perfectly safe way to get down, so we colud have just done that in the first place.
With Milo bounding aroundin dog joy, we rolled under the fence and walked along the tracks, then found a rope that someone had tied under the railway bridge. It led to a hole in a fence that had been patched over and welded shut. So we trompsed around in the bushes until we fonud a long-abandoned gate, used that and sat down, picking mud and thorns off.
This felt great. There is something rewarding about work that is emotionally, physically, socially and mentally engaging. Gonna keep on the lookout for more of that.
* Homo Sapiens Sapiens
** Canis lupus familiaris
*** Homo Sapiens Mutantis (Unregistered)