When we checked out of the campground last Friday, it was not to head home, but to meander our way up to Medicine Hat. Stuart's family has a reunion there every 2 years and it was time once again.
It's a bit of a weird visit for me, since it's mostly people who I only see at these reunion parties. However, a few people are starting to stick in my memory and the food is usually edible, so it's not a hardship. When we were at the last one, Ursa was only 4 months old, so it was fun to see people's reactions to her this time. (Well, all except Stuart's mom - that woman is just not a dog person.) The standout conversation this year was with one of Stuart's cousins (I think) who he also went to high school with. Chris is a helicopter pilot and has done a lot of interesting sounding work. He and his wife have two small boys and a cano corso - and apparently they know of someone breeding BRTs in Priddis. We're gonna have to follow that up!
We stayed with Stuart's cousin Kayla, the co-owner of Roxy, the boxer she had such fun with on our last trip. It was definitely a different sort of relationship this time - they spent the first day or so settling dominance issues. I can think of two circumstances that might have made the change: neither of them are fully grown up, so it could have just been a mentality change in one or both of them OR it could be because last time they met on neutral ground and this time we were on Roxy's home turf. Ursa has usually been pretty indifferent to dogs trying to dominate her, mostly because she's just so much bigger that a lot of the time, I was convinced that she just didn't notice their efforts! However, Roxy is pretty big and was very determined. Ursa ignored it a bit, but Roxy finally managed to annoy her and she started giving as good as she got. I'm still not sure that Ursa is very interested in leading, but she sure wasn't about to be the follower! They worked it out though and by Saturday evening, Roxy was following Ursa around the yard and taking her lead about what to bark at, etc. Giant black dog with smaller orange shadow. LOL
Friday evening we took Ursa for a walk and managed to meander into Kin Coulee, where the Canada Day festivities were taking place. Most of the day stuff was shutting down and people were making their way to the main stage, where Prism was performing for the evening. It was opening acts as we wound through and Ursa was totally calm amongst the crowds and loud music. She knows she's gorgeous and is perfectly happy to let folks admire her. :) Later we drove over to the giant teepee to watch the fireworks (which started almost half an hour late.) The first bang really got her attention and I don't think she appreciated the volume, but she was never scared or nervous or tried to get away. I let the breeder know that although it wasn't quite the "mentality test" that they do in Europe, I think she reacted quite well!
We had waffles at Auntie Brenda's on Sunday morning and then hit the road for home. All in all, not a bad little holiday.
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