ENJOYING SHADE IN THE SUN

Cherokee Lake, as I've said in the past, isn't known for it's abundance of wildlife so I thought I'd take Shade along to keep me company.  My sweetest friend was delighted to go along with me and was, as usual, at the truck door before I got there.

Actually Shade adores and is totally dedicated to me.  It doesn't matter where she is on the boat - when I look at her she is staring back at my face.  It seems she won't take her eyes off me even for a moment.  That is total devotion and she humbles me by her eagerness to show me how she feels.

I've never lifted a hand to her or even raised my voice in anger.  All verbal communication to her has been in a normal to soft, if not a bit of a raised pitch, voice.  I have never turned away from her when she would approach me for whatever reason.  

When she wants me to rub her shoulders or simply trace a line around her face with my finger tips - she lightly touches my hand with her nose.  The contact is so gentle that I can hardly feel it.  When I look down at her I see that beautiful face staring back at me.

Yep, she's perfect in every way except for that left, stunted ear that she was born with.  That doesn't matter at all.

We had a lot of water to cover this morning and there wouldn't be time to stop except to grab a quick Granola Bar and a dog biscuit.  We made the break stop after 4 hours of constant running and it was great to not hear the big two stroke engine for awhile.  

She always rolls in the grass, or mud, after going in for a swim.  If she rolls in the mud - she's gonna go back in for another swim.

We took 15 minutes break and went back at it.  I glanced down to see where she was.

She was peeking around the console and staring at my face, as usual.  This absolute dedication warms my heart and wins her lots of hugs and squeezes.

Cherokee was living up to it's reputation of not having much in the way of animals. That's sad, really.  All this shoreline and not even a groundhog or even a bird other than cormorants, great blue herons and great egrets.  I did see two kingfishers.  Come to think of it I didn't even see a vulture.  I can understand why.  There's nothing here to die so the vultures have nothing to eat.  I say that with tongue in cheek.

We came around a corner and startled an osprey.  I could tell he was going to fly.  I grabbed the camera without thought.

He was really far away but the light was pretty good.  I gave him a try with the long lens.

He was away in a flash.

And, there's those eyes again.

She is asking for nothing but is giving me more joy than I deserve.

"Shade - you're a heart breaker."

Those are boulders in the shot above and they're only inches under the surface.  I never saw them.  These rocks aren't along the shoreline either.  They're about 75 feet of the lake bank.  I was only idling along but it wouldn't matter if I hit these solid rocks. I doubt the propeller could have stood even a strike at idle speed.

"Ok girl - lets get on back to the truck.

My dark angel...