What a special morning! Usually if Mom’s going to be running past 6am we can’t go on My Trail because there are too many bikes. But this morning she had to be done by 6, so we got up extra early and I got to go for the full 10+ miles! There is a special secret section of trail that Mom has only been on once because it starts almost 4 miles away from the house, so it would have to be a pretty long run for her to even get to the gate, which is frequently locked. This morning, that gate was locked again, but on the way Mom saw a sign by a bridge she never crosses that made her want to explore more. It turns out that every time Mom was running to the locked gate, she was actually taking the wrong bridge that led to a desalination plant rather than the secret trail! What a dummy!
Anyway, we ran back, ran over the bridge, and found the secret trail unlocked. We ran right past the “no dogs” sign (because no one was gonna be out that far at 5:00 in the morning!), and onto a long, long causeway through the bay. It was a warm, clear night with a nearly full moon and almost no clouds, and we could see the lights of both the East Bay and Peninsula twinkling in the water. And to make it even more special, with water just feet away on either side of us, when the bunnies came out they had nowhere to hide! Instead of just darting off into the bushes, they would run straight down the trail for hundreds and hundreds of miles before they finally hid in the breakwater at the side of the causeway. We chased after each one at full speed for hundreds and hundreds of miles. A few times, I literally pirouetted on my back legs as my leash pulled my head up off the ground, but my back legs kept running. Mom almost died, but I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced cheese. As upset as Mom was about the bunny rabbits, she was glad that that was all we chased. She told me that the last time she was here, she saw two skunks. I’ve never seen a skunk, so she explained that they’re like slow-moving cats with a surprise, and the surprise would mean that she would have to work from home for a few days and I would have to bathe in pasta sauce. I love cats, and I love when Mom is around, so I hope next time we meet a skunk.
–Oscar the Pooch
