I love this picture:
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Yogi making dust at the Wolff Vineyard
It's
been over 2 years since I've written about Yogi. Since our visitors to the
winery enjoy seeing him more than me, I thought it was time to give his fans an
update.
I was
in Wyoming last week. Yogi had a dog-sitter for 6 days. It's the longest we've
been apart in almost 2 years. To say that Yogi is with me 24/7 is only a slight
exaggeration. No, he doesn't get to sleep in my bed. But he does come to work
with me every day and he has a bed in the corner of my small office at the
vineyard management company. He considers me the "Big Dog" and prefers it that
way. When I'm not around, he seems to get anxious and has a hard time relaxing
with the responsibility of protecting those in his presence. It's not a job he
takes lightly.
So for
those 6 days, he was the Big Dog. In addition to the added responsibility, he
didn't get as much exercise as when he is with me. When I got back, I knew he
needed to run and let off some steam. So I took him to the Wolff Vineyard. The
Wolff Vineyard is at the end of State Lane East of Yountville. The vineyard
blocks are on both sides of a hill that is fairly steep in some spots. And Yogi
seems to prefer running up the steep spots, even when he's been exercising
regularly. He started running as soon as his feet hit the ground. He stopped at
the first gate to wait impatiently for me to open it. But as he was waiting, he
spotted wild turkeys on the hillside. Even though Yogi has Lab blood in him,
he's not that interested in birds. But wild turkeys are a different story. They
spend most of their time on the ground and will only fly when forced to
fly. The chase was on and was over as soon as they lifted off and flew over the
vineyard. Yogi barked as if to say “and stay away!”, but they had gotten his
adrenaline flowing. So he continued to run and found more wild turkeys on the
other side of the hill. It was after he made this second flock fly, that he spun
around and headed down through the vineyard again. It was then that I snapped
the picture above. He was kicking up lots of dust but not chasing anything. He
was running for the pure pleasure of running.
As I
mentioned in a previous post, rabbits are his specialty. When we walk the
vineyards, he is obsessed with finding and chasing rabbits. He has never caught
one, and I don't think he would know what to do if he did. In his younger years,
if a rabbit was within sight, he would be chasing it. But Yogi turned six this
last May. He has learned that if a rabbit has a big head start, he might as well
try to find one that’s a bit closer. At least that’s what I prefer to believe –
not that he’s getting too old, he’s just maturing and getting wiser. So he certainly doesn’t comply with one of my favorite quotes:
Age does not always bring
wisdom. Sometimes age comes alone.
Garrison Keillor
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