Having grown up in the Pacific Northwest, I am more accustomed to a cooler range of temperatures. Where other people may be hothouse flowers, I am a forest fern.

Lots of people seem to prefer the weather here under the impact of climate change. It is undeniably the case there are fewer gray and rainy days on average than there used to be. Personally I miss them. Not only for their favorable impact on the flora, but the – forgive the pun – dampening effect on migration. But, before this devolves into a diatribe about how much I do not love what Portland has become, I will merely say that lately, it has been hot and miserable unto the likes of Hades.

The only upside, to my mind, is that this affords an opportunity to scamper down to the local waterway and plash about.

Riverside park on the Clackamas is an easy option for that very thing. Enzo and Hodie came along.

A rare sighting of the Tree-Dwelling Hodie

We found a nice shady spot close to the water, which would have been perfect, apart from the yellowjackets. They seem to be everywhere this summer…

Enzo isn’t too fond of water, but whenever Hodie went in, his concern for her overrode his fear and he waded in to “save” her.

I stand on dis rock and SABE you!

We had a nice time by the river, and on our way back to the car, we ran into our first ever other Shiba! They played a little bit – each with the signature Shiba vigor. It was nice to meet another Shiba owner who would understand they like to play really rough.

Sheebs Meets!

This was a nice relaxing week. The heat sucks the adventurelark right out of me. I think we’ll be doing something a little further afield for next Wednesday.