Family Day in the Mountains

Yesterday was a great family day. We packed a picnic lunch and headed to the mountains. I designated myself "Mommy's Little Helper" (obviously we'd be in a world of mess if I left it up to brother or Bratka), so it was my job to help set the picnic table up for our lunch, scout the perimeter of our area and sound the alarms if an intruder - human or animal - came within ear-shot of us. After having a very enjoyable afternoon (and Mommy giving us lots of treats as part of our training as another dog and humans did invade our area), we headed in to town to do some sight-seeing. Mom spotted a horse near the road; alone, yet majestic. She pulled over and took a picture of him for all of us to see. After a bit, we headed off the mountain and back to our abode.

A few minutes after getting home, we all smelled the smoke of a wild fire. Within minutes, it saturated our valley. We couldn't figure out where it was coming from, so we all loaded back into the car and headed out on an expedition to find the fire. Just as the sun was fading into the ocean, we saw dark billows of smoke rising from the mountains to our west. Today, all is clear, so Smokey the Bear must have thrown just enough buckets of water on it to save the forest for another day.