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Saturday was a great day for bikers and for animals.

The Maritime Motorcycle Touring Association’s annual Pet Food Run to benefit SHAID animal shelter was once again a huge success thanks the kindhearted bikers and animal lovers here in Lunenburg County and beyond.

I don’t yet have a final tally from SHAID, but I heard that we raised about $1,200 in cash donations. I know we delivered a pickup load of pet food and supplies, along with a bike trailer load, plus I watched as lots of people went inside SHAID’s gates to deliver dog and cat food and other goodies. There’s nothing quite like seeing a man in bike leathers heft a big bag of pet food onto his shoulder and wait in a line to drop it off to help animals who need it. So many people have no idea what bikers are all about.

We counted more than 125 motorcycles participating in the ride on Saturday, winding the route from Mahone Bay, through Lunenburg and Bridgewater and on to Whynotts Settlement. Many of those bikes were riding two-up, rider and passenger, so we probably had about 200 people involved. And they came from all over. There were at least five or six bike clubs represented and lots of other big-hearted riders. It really is a wonderful event for a great cause.

Our RoadDog had a fantastic day. Jake gets very excited about bike runs. He gets to hang out with his buddies from the bike club and make lots of new friends and he really seems to enjoy the buzz (or should I say the roar) of having so many bikes around.

The Pet Food Run really does seem to be his favourite though. It’s almost like he knows it’s all about helping animals who need loving homes. And it probably didn’t hurt that the shelter volunteers had lots of Timbits among the goodies to thank the riders.

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It’s that time of year again — time for our RoadDog to appreciate how lucky he is, well time at least for Steve and I to appreciate how lucky Jake is, and us, too, for that matter.

Our Maritime Motorcycle Touring Association’s annual Pet Food Run for SHAID animal shelter is this Saturday, May 29. So at 1 p.m., Jake will join his fellow riders in the parking lot across from Mahone Bay’s three churches to participate in this year’s run to do his part to help benefit those dogs and cats less fortunate than he is.

Jake may not understand it, but we know he’s one of the lucky ones, lucky enough to have found a loving home where he’s treated well (sometimes a little too well maybe, but part of the joy of having a pet is the fun of spoiling it). So many dogs and cats don’t fare as well, at least until they make their way to a place like SHAID where they have a good chance of moving on to a good home. Shelters are always strapped for cash though and without support they can be forced to close and then the animals have no hope at all. With community support, places like SHAID can flourish and help even more animals.

All animals should have loving homes and everyone should experience and appreciate the unconditional love of a pet, either the total adoration of a dog or the cooler independence of a cat. Jake isn’t terribly fond of cats, but for this one day each year he puts aside his slight dislike of felines and opts to help all his four-legged friends (he just stays further away from the cats and visits with the dogs).

So on Saturday, rain or shine (but we really, really hope shine), our little family will join the other members of our bike club and bikers from all over to help SHAID. The ride travels through Mahone Bay to Lunenburg, then on through Bridgewater before ending up at the animal shelter in Whynotts Settlement.

If you want to cheer on riders, including Jake, who are out there to support the animals, feel free to wave and shout as we ride by. Better yet, if you’d like to help the cause, MMTA members (you’ll recognize us by our bright yellow club jackets and t-shirts) will be happy to accept donations at the three churches before the run or you can take them directly to SHAID on Saturday. Better still, if you ride, please come and join us. All riders are welcome.

Most riders give money since it’s easier to carry on the bikes, but the shelter is always in need of pet food and other supplies. Whatever the donation, it will be greatly appreciated by SHAID, the MMTA, RoadDog and his four-legged friends.
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Jake has never seen a path he didn’t want to take.

Whether it’s simple curiosity or a desire to extend his walk time or a little bit of both, our RoadDog just loves paths — wide, open paths along the water, narrow dirt paths off more frequented trails and overgrown, leafy paths through the woods — Jake just loves them all.

Walking with Jake is always a bit of an adventure. We may have been a bit negligent in not training him to trot along at our sides as the perfect pooch. He prefers to barrel along in front of us leading the way, frequently stopping to sniff at whatever attracts his attention or happily greeting anyone who will stop to say hello. That’s just part of his personality. I can’t imagine him as one of those extremely well-behaved dogs that stop and sit when their owners stop. He just wouldn’t be our same Jake.

His love of paths makes walking even more of an adventure because we can never be sure where he might lead us if we let him. Jake tends to be rather stubborn so when he decides he wants to take a path less travelled, sometimes, if we’re not in a hurry, it’s just easier to follow along behind.

And, if you stop to think about it, what a great thing it is. How often have you seen a little footpath and wondered where it leads? Even walking along a routine trail you sometimes see a path off to the side and think ‘some day I’m going to see where that goes.’ With Jake we usually find out.

I don’t think there’s a path in our usual park that we haven’t travelled at one time or another. We’ve seen all kinds of views and vistas on our travels near and far that we never would have seen if Jake hadn’t led us down a path. We’ve trotted along the trails near every hotel and motel where we’ve ever stayed. We often get more exercise than we intend to thanks to our RoadDog’s curiosity. (And who can’t use more fresh air and exercise.)

Maybe a little curiosity is a good thing and there’s no time like the present for a minor adventure. So the next time you see a path and wonder where it goes, why don’t you find out. You might even bump into RoadDog happily exploring the same path.

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Our dog is such a go-getter.

A couple of weeks ago, my aunt dropped by our house one evening bearing a gift. She knows we like Tigger, the Winnie the Pooh character. She also volunteers at The Daisy in Bridgewater, so every now and again when someone donates a good Tigger to the cause she gets it and brings it to us.

This gift was bigger than usual. It’s about two feet long and absolutely wonderful. (Thank you again Carolyn.)

But poor Jake. First of all, he’d just come back from getting a couple of routine shots at the vet and obviously felt a little out of sorts. He seemed a bit groggy and just not quite himself. Secondly, Jake firmly believes that all stuffed toys in our house are rightfully his. We usually sneak my aunt’s occasional Tigger gifts by him, but this one was too big to sneak anywhere. And since Carolyn sometimes brings Jake toys, … need I say anymore.

Steve, being the slightly mischievous type that he is, decided we should put the Tigger smack dab in the middle of the living room floor or what we sometimes refer to as the playing field since that’s where we often play with Jake. He just wanted to see how our boy would react.

So there was our slightly groggy RoadDog face to face with the biggest stuffed “toy” he’d ever seen. At one point, he looked at me and I swear it looked like he was thinking, “Does anybody else see this thing or was there something strange in that needle?” He stared at it. He sniffed it. He finally got up the nerve (or maybe the energy) to lick its ear. Then he went back to staring at it while we went back to chatting with my aunt.

Later that evening, I moved the Tigger up onto one of the couches in the living room. I was trying to ease it away from Jake without seeming like I was taking his toy. Then I forgot about it. Oops.

The next day I came home for lunch and noticed that the Tigger was no longer on the couch. Hmmm! I knew where to look. Jake takes all his new treasures (and sometimes the old ones) under the dining room table. Sure enough, there was the Tigger. Jake hadn’t chewed it or anything, just laid claim to it by dragging it away. Never mind that it was nearly twice as big as he is.

The Tigger is now on higher ground. And Jake is looking for a new toy.

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We had another one of those strange and wonderful experiences yesterday, so Jake and I just have to share it.

I’ve written before about how we meet total strangers who recognize our little motorcycle menagerie and want to meet RoadDog. This time it came complete with a photo op.

We went for a ride Sunday afternoon. It was so nice out — a perfect spring day (well, without that little shower which we just won’t talk about). As we so often do, we ended up in Mahone Bay for a Tim’s stop. Jake decided he wanted to go for a stroll after eating his piece of donut (they were out of Timbits — can you imagine? a Tims without Timbits? but Jake really didn’t mind the donut so much and we only gave him a small piece.)

We’d gone for a quick walk along the waterfront and were back at our bikes in the parking lot when we were greeted by a couple from Italy Cross. I won’t tell you their names because I didn’t ask if I could, but they were a lovely couple. Both ride their own bikes and both read RoadDog. In fact, according to what the mister told Steve, the missus reads our little blog religiously on Monday evenings.

Apparently she’d recognized the carrier on Steve’s bike when they rode by, so they turned around in search of RoadDog. Jake was, of course, only too happy to oblige by saying hello and doing his doggie happy dance for them. The woman took a couple of photos of Jake, then asked if he’d let other people pick him up. I wasn’t sure where the conversation was going, but assured her he’d be okay with that. It turned out that she wanted to take a photo of her husband holding our squirming bundle of Cairn terrier. I then offered to take a photo of her holding Jake and everyone went away happy.

It never ceases to amaze me that people read our ramblings and care enough to stop and say hello, just so they can meet Jake. That this lady recognized Steve’s bike (I guess I should say Jake’s carrier), turned and came back is humbling and kind of heartwarming. Obviously, we’re crazy about our RoadDog, but it’s really nice that other people care about him too, even just a little.

So thank you to the couple for stopping to say hello and thank you to everyone who takes the time to read our RoadDog adventures. Just don’t tell Jake he’s a little, tiny bit famous. The last thing we need is a doggie diva on our hands.