first camping trip of the season

On Thursday night we went camping. We decided to go to Oswald West park, which is just about 15 miles north of Rockaway. It's a great place to camp because each camp site is unique, it is "pack-in only", so there are no cars or RVs, and it is just a short walk to Short Sands Beach, which is a beautiful, quiet cove, perfect for surfing, or just enjoying the beach.This was our first big outing with Owen. He did really well. There were alot of other dogs around, and he was very well behaved. He tried to chase a squirrel while he was tied up at the camp site, and his rope caught me around the ankle and gave a little rope burn, but that was the only little incident.

Jeff and Owen on the beach

Standing in front of the old growth sitka spruce that fell in the park 3 days earlier. They estimated that it was about 400 years old. There were no storms or anything that caused it to fall. It fell right between two campsites, and narrowly missed a few people. It's a miracle no one was hurt.

Jeff and I are both very in tune now with Owen's moods and body language. We were very pleased to see that he generally has a good attitude when approaching new dogs and people, but he did meet some other dogs that were not so friendly upon first greeting. I think we really lucked out with this guy...although just a few minutes ago he did chase one of the cats around the room and scared her and I half to death. I think the getting used to cats thing is going to take a while. I wish we could train the cats not to run when they see him, becuase that's when he thinks it's a game. We are very glad to have him in our lives though! I think the cats will catch on eventually :)