Lots of photos!

I was too exhausted last night to post photos because the internet was a little slow. I'm in Coolum Beach tonight. Yesterday, I woke up and was starving. My stomach gets really confused on these trips. I went for a run on the reach but I admit I walked a lot of it because there was so much to see. There was coral, big snappers washed up on the beach, and the volcanic rock that dots the shoreline. Dorothy and I went to the Hervey Bay pier and the photos don't do it justice. It was an incredible site and so calm. Lots of kids fishing which was cool. From there we went to the marina and then the fish co-op where I got some red emperor for dinner. Red Emperor is a relative of red snapper. The photo with the pool is taken from Dorothy's balcony and you can see the bay.

Web

I tried the last posting last night but fell asleep because it was taking so long. I just got it through although it's now about 6:20 am on Saturday, the 16th. More later today!

Arrival Down Under

I arrived into Sydney at 6 this morning and caught a plane to the Sunshine Coast. From there, a woman named Diana picked me up and took me to the beach for some lunch. She works for the Stand By Response team where they help people who have lost loved ones to suicide. She is in the photo with the water conditions. And that's me at Maroochydore Beach. The third photo is where the bus stopped for a meal in Cooloola. The bus was interesting as it was Greyhound Australia and filled with 20-somethings and their Lonely Planet books and backpacks. That apparently is what they do– backpack up and down the coast. I felt out of place with my laptop and Blackberry. I arrived into Hervey Bay around 6 tonight and Dorothy picked me up there. She had a reporter from the local newspaper waiting to interview me (Dorothy couldn't convince her to come on Saturday) so I took a shower and did the interview. I am ready to be horizontal for awhile!

Heading to Australia

I am off to Australia in a few hours (I'm in Los Angeles now) for their 2nd National Postvention Conference. I hated to say goodbye to the dogs. I don't think I could ever have kids, saying goodbye to the pooches is rough enough! Joe was expecting to have a depressed crew on his hands tonight. They were slow on our run-walks this morning, I think, because they know they won't be out for about 10 days so they wanted to milk all they could out of it. More from Down Under!

The other Daisy disappears for the night

I called Mom late on Mother's Day, after I had blogged here already, and she told me that her Daisy had disappeared the night before. Mom thought Daisy was snoozing in the living room but somehow when Mom let Ginger out around 8 pm, Daisy decided to take a stroll. It was 5 am before Mom discovered Daisy missing and it didn't help when she saw a coyote walk down the street. But at 7:20 am the phone rang and a man said, "I have Daisy!" The man, also a lab owner, returned a tired Daisy shortly after that. Mom said that "Ginger looked concerned" but I can't picture Ginger having that look on her face. We joked, wondering Ginger gave Daisy a lecture, "I told you not to do it." The best guess is that she just didn't know which way was home and her eyesight isn't so great. But with a collar and tags (her chip wasn't needed), she made it home safely for Mother's Day.

Daisy's saves a baby bird on mother's day

This morning on our run/walk, Daisy and I encountered one of our local road runners. Daisy went for the road runner and scared it so that it dropped the baby bird that was in its mouth. Once again, Daisy proved she would have been a great mom! Happy Mother's Day all, especially all the dog moms out there!

An inevitable question

I did the interview yesterday for ABQ The Magazine for which we did the photo shoot last week. I got the inevitable question that I knew one day would come. Which dog am I closest to? I had thought a lot about this at Fetchapalooza as I was standing at my table of books attempting to sell the books. The answer is Chaco because he was the first dog and it's because of him that everything else has happened. And Nestle, Daisy, and Hattie, and Ginger all would not have homes without him. However, after I told Joe about this when the interview was over, he said, "You told her Hattie?" I know Joe said that because Hattie follows me around like she's my shadow and when I leave town, she's depressed. He said one time she sat by the window on her "perch" for about a day waiting for me to come home (even though I wasn't due home for another week!). Chaco is very different than the others though. He bonded to me quickly and maybe it was because of the stable environment I provided because we walked/ran each morning plus I fed him and played with him (for the four fetches he would do) in the afternoons. Plus, I took him in the car everywhere. In return, Chaco is my security. He sleeps at the bottom of the stairs at night and will not join the other dogs in the bedroom unless I am out of town. And when I'm upset, he is the dog peering around the corner to see if I'm okay. I felt bad the rest of the day after I said that about Chaco though. Hattie seemed to be glaring at me, as if she knew what I had said. We'll see what appears in the Q&A in the magazine. Hattie was sitting on my lap for the photo though. What more could she ask for?!