The Little Lake Near Casa Amistad

I met a nice little Lab mix, Pluma, and her keeper, Constance, while walking near the empty lot. Constance is originally from Whales and a resident of San Miguel for 9 years. She is a mirror artist and makes decorative frames. I enjoyed our sreet-side chat because Constance knows a good deal about the social structure of the neighborhood and I was curious about who influences life in this part of town. While we were talking, Pluma and Bilbo clearly enjoyed their play, so Constance invited us to walk at a nearby lake where she owns land. In fact, her land was in awful litigation for 5 years, and a final settlement was reached just a month ago so she had planned a visit.

So on Sunday, Bilbo and I were picked up in the morning and had a wonderful dog walk. There was lots of fetching, swimming, and rolling in stuff. The lake, actually more of a pond, is high because of the rains described in earlier journal entries. We were joined by a local dog in whom Bilbo developed an immediate and intense interest. Evidently she is in heat and Bilbo, in spite of being neutered, would not be deterred. My concern was that she would head off and Bilbo would follow, so I had to leash him for the rest of the walk. But we had a nice time anyway and I learned of a sparsely populated area only 3 Km from Casa Amistad where Bilbo can be a country dog.