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  )O_O(
 { (_) }
  `-^-'

This lovely ascii dog is by Hayley Jane Wakenshaw
Grabbed from here: https://www.asciiart.eu/animals/dogs

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I live with a dog named Gobi. She's a delightfully energetic and
affectionate miniature schnauzer. As I write this she's lazing
peacefully on the couch, flanked by me and Geetha. The three of us
are watching the French open but really we're just waiting for the
Giro d'Italia to start for the day. The tour is over, Tadej Pogacar
has won (with a beastly 10 minute lead), this 21st stage is the
ceremonial ride into Rome.

Back to Gobi. She's not really interested in the Giro, at least I don't
think she is. That's not to say that she doesn't like or enjoy cycling,
the activity. She's spent plenty of time on a bike. Her two modes of
bike travel are on a buddy rider (a bike mounted seat for dogs) in front
of me or in a dog carrier backpack behind me. Imagine a little bearded
schnauzer, squinting as the wind blows in her face, perched on a little
seat on the top tube of my bike. She occasionally turns back to me to give
me a quick lick, or voice a teeny little *ruff* to assure me that things
are still good. It's one of the great joys of my life.

Geetha bikes ahead of us and Gobi zeroes in on her. She can't lose her
in the traffic. I pedal to catch up and Gobi looks satisfied when we're
riding in a tighter formation. The little lady likes when the pack is
together.

One of the places we like riding to together is the Brickworks. There's
a great open air market on the weekend and the paths in and out of the
quarry make for great walks for humans and dogs alike. Before hitting up
the market, it's a good idea to go for a walk so that the lil' miss can
stretch her legs, get some serious sniffing time in, and do a little
sightseeing. There's turtles (and terrapins), woodpeckers, gulls, herons,
hummingbirds, ducks, hawks, and more and more and more. I actually don't
know the names of a lot of the animals we see on these walks. There are
snakes as well but we've never seen one.

We do a little circuit around the former quarry before heading into the
market. One of our go-to's is the stall that sells these tapioca crepes
with savoury fillings. I get the vegetarian which is grilled vegetables
and cheese and hoooooooly shit, it is SO good. Geetha has often got the
same but the last time we went she got the porchetta which looked and
smelled incredible, I'm sure it was as good as she said it was.

I just showed Geetha the ascii art at the top of this post and she wants
to read it so I'm going to wrap this up for now. More from the life of
Gobi to follow on the Gopherverse!

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