A Saturday afternoon walk turned out into the first legitimate hike for both my daughter and our Lagotto Romagnolo puppy Bruno. We just started climbing past our usual turnaround point on the trail and soon found that it was easier to continue scrambling up against the little water currents running towards us on the rocks than to turn back and follow their flow. Soon the sweeping views of Victoria started opening up and my daughter, who minutes ago was vocally regretting her decision to go on this hike, was delighted at having made it to the top. While we were crab-walking along a slippery rock on our way down, Bruno was zooming up and down the muddy slope as some kind of mountain goat. “He is in heaven!” said my daughter, and he certainly looked like he was beside himself with excitement. It took three water changes when we gave Bruno a bath at home to wash off all the mud. And this is saying something, because he usually goes to a great length to avoid stepping into puddles or even on wet grass. (Some water dog he is!)
