Remember I told you about the resident orcas a couple of weeks ago? The day after I posted that blog The Center for Whale Research reported that a new baby orca in the J pod was sighted! Here’s the news:

New calf J57!!!

“J35’s new calf appeared healthy and precocious, swimming vigorously alongside its mother in its second day of free-swimming life. We know that it was not born today because its dorsal fin was upright, and we know that it takes a day or two to straighten after being bent over in the womb, so we assign its birthday as September 4, 2020.”

Aren’t baby orcas adorable? Their white parts are pink when they’re born, and the pink parts turn white after a little while. As adults, their dorsal fins stand up straight and pointy, but there wouldn’t be room for that in mama’s womb, so it’s tucked in nicely until after the calf is born. In a couple of days it straightens out and up, and after a while it takes on either a straight or curved shape (straight up on males, curved on females).

I know s/he looks tiny, but I think that baby may weigh more than me (and that’s a lot!) BTW, I don’t have a photo of the new babe; so I’m showing you last year’s new calf, Tofino (J56), sighted and photographed by The Whale Centre in Tofino, on Vancouver Island. John Forde took the photo. He’s one lucky guy….The SRKW’s don’t often go out as far as the west side of Vancouver Island (a different kind of orca, and gray whales, live out there in the Pacific Ocean), but that was a lucky day for him! I wish I could go see whales…

….actually, I wish I could JUST GO FOR A WALK!!!!! The past week has been an act of patience on my part. Caryn won’t take me for a walk, Richard won’t take me for a walk. It used to be all hiking, every day, off to the woods we go, toodleydoo! But recently there were just short walks around the block, and then even that stopped. The air smells strange, my eyes itch when we go out, and Caryn scurries me back in.  They keep on saying, “maybe tomorrow”….but I’m a dog, I only know today, right now, this moment. I’m a Buddhadog, I live for the moment.

Dahlia wasn’t much help. In fact she just tucked herself away again, all week, in her cat cave. She did have “a look” on her face though. And this afternoon she brought home a friend, a pine siskin, just to spice things up a little. Sorry, I didn’t get a picture of the bird, I was laughing too hard watching Richard and Caryn scrambling to catch the bird and get it back outside. Dahlia didn’t get to watch, because she was banished to the bathroom.

I’ve got to hand it to Caryn though. She’s making an effort. She stuffs Kongs for me, full of all kinds of tasty treats for me to nosh on. What? You don’t know what a Kong is?? For heavens sake, you must not be a dog!!! Frozen, they can keep me occupied for at least 30 minutes. Then we just have to figure out what to do for the other 23 and a half hours.

So Caryn is teaching me new things. Something called nose work. Which is fine, because that means treats are involved.

First, we played “which one?”

i got pretty good at that. Then things got more interesting (a little dab of peanut butter always makes things more interesting).

“SIT! STAY! WAIT!”

and off she went with that treat in her hand, all over the house…..

“FIND YOUR TREAT!”

and off I went, all over the house, looking for the treat with my nose.

ALL over the house….

Looking in every room….

Getting closer….

and closer….

taadaaaa!!

Ready for another round!

I was good for a nap after that. I’ll be refining my technique over the next few days.

Tomorrow I’m going to learn to name my toys

I’ll let you know how that goes. Meanwhile, let me know how your week was – you can submit a story in the upper right hand menu, I’d love to hear from you! xox, Tashi