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ADVENTURES WITH ARI: LIFE AS A CANINE NATURALIST






THURSDAY, JULY 16, 2009


ALL DOGS CONSIDERED







Adventures with Ari is hitting the airwaves again. This Saturday morning at
11:30 EST, we'll be appearing on "Dog Talk," NPR's favorite canine call-in show.
You can listen live by clicking here or download a podcast once the show had
aired. And don't forget: we always love hearing from you on these shows.

-K&A


Posted by Kathryn and Ari at 4:38 PM 21 comments:





FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2009


FRAGARIA ANANASSA



> High: 72° F
> Low: 54° F
> Conditions: Sunny.


I'm not going to lie: it's been a hard-fought summer here in Maine. So hard
fought, in fact, that it hasn't seemed much like summer at all. At least, not
until late this week. On Thursday, the clouds broke--as if by magic--and the
rain abated. Mainers--including those who pride themselves on their staid Yankee
reserve--were positively ebullient. Total strangers stopped one another in
parking lots and famers markets, just for the sake of celebrating the return of
the sun and all those things normally associated with a New England July.

Here at caninaturalist central, those things included a return to our annual
agricultural inquiry as well. The subject of our study this week? Fragaria
ananassa, or the domestic strawberry. Picking them is big business in our house,
where we freeze enough to serve as our main fruit source for the year. We were
frankly worried about the effects of the omnipresent rain and cold over the last
six weeks. And, in truth, it did delay the season and limit overall yields.
Nevertheless, this morning we returned with two full flats of our favorite
variety, known in the strawberry world as "sparkle."


Something as simple as a smallish berry is enough to make us giddy this year. So
much so that our resident pest, Mouse, couldn't even wait for the berries to be
hulled before diving in. Taking the idea of "pick your own" a little too
literally, she tried to eat the entire box of berries as soon as they arrived
(and by "box" we really do mean BOX):



At the ripe age of three, Ari has learned a certain restraint where culinary
matters are concerned. And she's developed a seriously discerning palate at
that. As we cleaned and bagged and froze and jammed and canned, she remained
aloof, watching the process with the removed interest of a well-worn foodie. It
wasn't, in fact, until our last batch of jam was complete and fully set that she
was willing to imbibe.


The verdict? Summer has arrived in all its ooey, gooey, syrupy splendor. And
thank goodness for that.

Posted by Kathryn and Ari at 4:46 PM 26 comments:





THURSDAY, JULY 2, 2009


IT'S A WET, WET WORLD.



> High: 66° F
> Low: 58° F
> Conditions: Continual showers.


The statistic on today’s morning radio said it all: it’s rained 28 out of the
last 30 days here in Maine.
.


Everyone—human and animal alike—is feeling the effects in his or her own way.

Meteorologists and historians are interested as can be. They talk about the
unique stalled trough off the coast of New Brunswick that keeps pushing sea air
onto the mainland, saturating Maine with omnipresent drizzle and humidity. They
note that last month was the third rainiest June on record. It was also one of
the coldest, with high temperatures rarely exceeding our normal lows.

The whitewater kayakers in our lives are thrilled, too, since they are able to
run hidden creeks and streams normally reserved for winter snowmelt. Probably
there are other tiny niches of people—ones with fins and webbed toes, I
suspect—who are also happy to be occupying soup that puts even Seattle to shame.

But that doesn’t mean much if you’re a canine naturalist.



Ari is a dog driven by sun: it wakes her in the morning and pushes her outdoors
in the evening. Without it, she snoozes in a kind of timeless vacuum. Meal
schedules become irrelevant. So too do otherwise precisely timed walks. And why
not? The moral imperative for any good caninaturalist is to get outside and
observe the world. But, really, that’s only interesting when there’s a world to
observe.

Sure, there’s plenty to see outside right now: incredibly lush trees, the first
blackeyed susans of the year, armies of slugs and earthworms, those intrepid
whitewater paddlers. These sorts of things, though, have never really had the
draw other species have had for Ari. This damp and dark has sent everyone
retreating for dens and caves--a little bit of cozy dry in an otherwise soggy
world.

It's almost as if Ari's favorite creatures—the martins and deer, the squirrels
and neighborhood cats—seem to have come to the same conclusion she has: So far,
this summer has gone anywhere but to the dogs.

Posted by Kathryn and Ari at 10:39 AM 23 comments:



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ABOUT ME

Kathryn and Ari Kathryn teaches Environmental Writing at Unity College. Bung Ari
Jan Gab is an adolescent husky/jindo mix passionately committed to splashing in
mud puddles, shredding paper, and proving that everything is digestible. She
lives in a log cabin in the foothills of Maine with her human friends, Kathryn
and Greg, and two rescue cats. Her current research interests include the
ecology of vernal pools, the digestive processes of foxes, and the comings and
goings of other dogs. View my complete profile



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BLOG ARCHIVE

 * ▼  2009 (42)
   * ▼  July (3)
     * All Dogs Considered
     * Fragaria ananassa
     * It's a wet, wet world.
   * ►  June (5)
   * ►  May (8)
   * ►  April (8)
   * ►  March (8)
   * ►  February (6)
   * ►  January (4)

 * ►  2008 (101)
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   * ►  March (1)
   * ►  February (1)




OPERATION BRING BEAU HOME


Trooper Ari ready for duty!