Val-der-i

A lovely little hike in a hidden park in the East Bay. I hadn't heard of the Wildcat Canyon in Alvarado Park before (Richmond, CA), but it's an amazing place with 360 degree views of the bay area -- we could see the SF skyline perfectly on this clear day (only a little hazy).
I was babysitting this little corgi, who took a nap to get ready for what turned into an 8-mile hike.

Melis trying to convince her giganto pup to jump into the cows' watering trough. Made me glad I'm not a cow, but I was glad that it gave all the dogs a chance to get a little drink. I have a lot to learn about packing for a hike while babysitting a dog.
There he goes.
Ripley looked tiny all day, but especially here -- the big dogs walked up to the side of the trough to get water, but I had to lift Ripley up to the side so she could drink.
Melis and linus heading up hill. This hike had lots and lots of hills and I just kept thinking how glad I was that I did not have to ride up them.
A randomly placed palm tree. I always suspect non-native Californians of being the property owners when I see palm trees in weird places. Everyone thinks that California is a land of oceans, warm weather, and palm trees. When they get here and realized that's not the case, they go about changing that.
And here is a little seven month old corgi -- all ears and paws. Ripley didn't care much for it, even though I sort of willed her to go play with the puppy. The women walking the puppy asked me how old Ripley was when she got to be full grown. I did what I always do when someone asks me a question about someone else's dog: I made something up.
The dogs found this water/mud hole to cool off in. You can see that linus (the black dog on the left) is laying down on the floor of mud hole and trying to cool his black body (quite a hot day).
As I was not driving my own car home, I told Ripley she could go too. You can see her here -- as the other dogs were laying down, Ripley was swimming. She couldn't reach the bottom with her little tiny legs.
She pretty much spent the whole drive home either like this or with her face pressed up against the a/c vent.
And when we got home . . . she was not allowed to come in side until she had a bath. Apparently dogs don't like to be hosed down on the deck and rubbed with kitty shampoo. She smelled like such a pretty kitty when she was all done though.
Kitty.