So, you think we got a water dog?

This weekend was a busy one for the professor. On Saturday was UC Davis Picnic Day, we brought the professor and he got to see how well trained border collies herd sheep. We also learned that the professor gets really excited and barks at sheep when they get close. After the border collies, we went and ate lunch at the pub, and the professor laid under the table for a while, drinking water, chewing on ice, eating flowers, playing with our buddies. FUN! Then we went to see the frisbee dog championships, and saw some amazing doggie acrobatics. Finally, we walked down to see the battle of the bands, and laid around playing with the prof. It was hot and the professor was very tired by the end of the day.

Sunday we decided to drive out near Berkeley to the largest off-leash dog park in the country: Point Isabel Regional Seashore Park. The park is right on the S.F. Bay, and has a cafe and dog washing shop called Mudpuppies right at the entrance.

The park has a slough that flows into the bay, and it was one of the first things that the professor noticed upon entering. We were trying to walk out to the Point, which is about a half mile walk around the slough from the entrance (the picture is taken from the bridge you have to walk to), when the professor noticed that there were birds in the slough: DUCKS! And...he was off!

He ran down into the muddy slough (the tide was out, leaving about 2 feet of very soft mud for him to "run" - or hop repeatedly - though on either side of the water) and chased the ducks back and forth up and down the slough for hundreds of yards, and about a half an hour. I'm pretty sure the ducks were taunting him, letting him get so tantalizingly close, before flying another 20 yards out of reach. We realized that he's actually quite a good swimmer, this is the first time he's ever really had a chance.

Also, Sarah FREAKED THE FUCK OUT! I think she thought he was going to swim to Alcatraz, make a break for it and never come back. He did come back though, we were shocked, okay, not that shocked.

He got to run around and play for a long time, including lots more duck chasing, and some squeeky ball kleptomania. When Karen, Rob, and Jim showed up after biking and BARTing in from Mountain View, the professor had swum out into the bay after a duck and come back onshore around the point in a great expanse of muck. It is actually quite amazing what a layer of mud caked on your dog will do to his look. Unsurprisingly, we made sure to stop at Mudpuppies to wash him down on the way out of the park.

Anyway, all of this frolicking takes a lot out of a pup, so we thought we'd let him drink some water to keep him hydrated. He liked this idea as well, and drank a few large cupfulls of water back-to-back. Then he wandered into the bushes and puked the most watery dog puke, a mix of mud, bay water, seaweed, chili, and the gallon of water we forcefed him.

When we got back into Davis we headed over to Tomas' going away party. Tomas is the only person that the prof has ever humped, so he's really going to miss that dirty Swede. Dr. Farnsworth needed to check out the house to make everything was in order, and decided that Andy's house was a bit too full of bugs, so he started eating them - and only stopped briefly to completely flip out when we hit the pinata.

All in all, an eventful weekend!