Afternoon dog bath and delivery, evening float

Pictured here is the new long haired shepherd I sprung from the Nelson County Animal Control on Friday.  Apparently he was rather neurotic in the shelter and he ended up with a good amount of fecal matter caked into his very thick and long coat.  Once he got to my place he added some mud to the coat pacing in the kennel the first day. On day two I let him into the larger kennel space with Schatze and the two labs and he settled down.  He is filthy, but you can see that he's really a pretty fine looking dog.  I'm not particularly partial the long hairs, but some people really love them.  They do look impressive when they are in full coat and are well groomed.  This guy is a mess.

 

He was moving to another foster home today so I gave him a bath to get some of the mess off of him.  He's going to need more work, but at least I was able to drive with the windows closed and the air conditioning on today.  He was the most cooperative dog I have ever bathed, bar none.  He didn't react to the cold water, didn't try to get away, and he even let me wash out his ears.

When I got him wet his backbone and ribs were very prominent and it was apparent that this guy is actually quite underweight.  His new foster got him to a vet already today and sure enough, he had hookworms, but thankfully not heartworms.  I guess I need to get another bottle of panacure and re-worm Schatze and the labs since he was sharing their space the last couple days. 

I drove up to Culpeper with him to meet his new foster.  When I got back home, I loaded up the canoe and headed off to the river.  It was probably 5:00 p.m. before I started and the water level was low so I knew it would be a slow float.  And it was, but it was a nice one.  I saw several deer, including three walking slowly across the river together. You can see two in the pic below if you look very closely, center right. 

There was a group of what appeared to be juvenile ducks, not really small, but they must have been this year's hatchlings.

I usually chase a few Great Blue Herons up the river.  I saw none today but played the same game with a bald eagle instead.  He would wait until I was very close and then swoop down out of a tree above me and fly ahead around the next bend.  I had a lot of good views of him but was never fast enough with the camera.  I finally spotted him in a tree and just drifted towards him with my camera at the ready.  He was way up in a tree and didn't fly off until I was past him.  I did manage to get this one shot of him sitting in the tree.  When I get my new computer and photoshop program installed I will rework the picture so he shows up better, but look closely, there is no mistaking that bald head.

The most unusual creatures I encountered on the river today were Karin Straley and three of her river rats.  My cell phone rang as I was floating down the river, which always surprises me.  It was Karin returning a call from me earlier in the day.  She was heading down to the Sandy Beach with her dogs.  That is an area along the river at the beginning of the Fluvanna Heritage Trail.  It is also near the end of my float trip and sure enough, when I passed by she was there.  I stopped to chat a bit and then called Clay who picked me up at the bridge just a couple hundred yards on downstream. It was a good way to end the weekend. 

I got in just before dark.  This last pic was an attempt to photograph a mass of waterbugs shimmering on the surface of the water.  The Rivanna River is not the wildest or most scenic river in the country, or even in the state, but it never disappoints.  It makes me realize that you don't always have to go someplace spectacular to have a great outdoor experience, you just need to get out there.