An ode to my best buddy...

My dog is an interesting one…I think all dogs have quirks, labs more than most…and pate possibly more than most labs.

Over the past month on the road:

Pate buries his food under his bed at chad’s place when we leave him for half a day…in doing so he rubs all the skin off his nose…still bright pink three weeks later.

Since we have hit the road Pate now feels it is necessary to growl at everything that moves and some things that don’t. He is still the friendliest dog in the world but any stranger must get past the growling and barking, hair up on his back, 105 lb dog to see his fun loving side.

The last few nights pate has been going to bed in the tent on my sleeping bag at very early hours. When I tried shutting the tent so he would stay out with me he decided he would try to find a way into the tent by pushing against the door and all other sides effectively testing the perimeter like the veloci raptors in Jurassic Park.

This morning when we woke up to a steady rain, I let him out to go to the bathroom and I got out and started brushing my teeth and getting ready for the day. Pate sees its raining and decides to return to the tent. He then refuses to come back out. I lure him out and then he runs back in. Eventually I win.

He swims into the river chasing every fish he sees jump even if its a hundred yards away.

On the raft the other day near the end we finally saw some sun and he dried himself on the rocks while we fished.
Upon returning to the raft Pate decides that now that he is dry he shouldn’t have to get in the bottom of the raft where there is a little standing water. He proceeds to sit on the outer tube of the raft his ass hanging over the water, on the brink of falling in at any moment through mild whitewater and lots of bumps. Upon arriving safely at the boat ramp…he jumps out of the raft into the water anyway…

So he may be a little crazy…but I am pretty sure I know where he gets it.