We travelled to Cali for the unveiling of Jeff Goldsmith's gravestone, but it was also a chance for Dave to meet Emily, Noah's new girlfriend, and see Maddy (and her cats). We had dinner at Castaways in Burbank, a restaurant in the foothills with breathtaking views of the valley and Lost Angeles.
 |
 |
 |
|
On our return home, there was the now infamous coyote incident while walking the dogs in the Great Hill Conservation Area.
As was typical, Dave had the two hounds connected to a split leash on a belaying belt so he could use his body weight to keep them under control. Alison had Zuzu's leash, but Zuzu is very good about returning when called, so once we are off the roads and on the trails, she's allowed to wander off leash.
Dave was in the lead, climbing the trail that leads to the top of Great Hill, when the hounds started to go wild. Then Alison cried out, and on turning around, Dave saw Alison not too far behind him on the trail, and perhaps forty or fifty feet beyond Alison was Zuzu, and perhaps a hundred feet past Zuzu was a stunningly beautiful coyote, lean and clean, fifty poulds of sleek brown fur and muscle. At this point the coyote was running full tilt for Zuzu, Dave and Alison were screaming for Zuzu to come, and Zuzu, showing a truly impressive lack of self preservation, CHARGED THE COYOTE.
So a couple of things happened right about then. One, coyotes are smart and they know how to lure a dog by running just fast enought to keep it following until it gets worn out. Then they turn on it when it's tired and alone. So the coyote angled off into the woods, Zuzu following it, barking furiously. At the same time, the hounds, who had been jerking back and forth wildly on the leash, finally spotted the coyote and moved with determination and in unison to go after it. Dave leaned back to use his wieght and the belaying belt to stop them. It might as well have been hooked to a car, as his feet started sliding in the loose dirt of the trail like something out of a made-for-television comedy.
Then Dave's foot hit a rock and, rather than bracing him, made him loose his footing, whereapon he went sprawling on his face. The hounds were in total berserk mode by that point and started dragging Dave across rocks and through bushes in their not-so-feeble attempts to chase the coyote (Dave's knee is still twitchy four months later from slamming it into a rock). Dave finally managed to grab onto a tree trunk with his face, which slowed the hounds enough for him to unhook one of them, because there's no way he would be able to stand up with both dogs leashed to him. By a roll of the dice, the unleashed hound was Luna, and Dave got to his feet in time to see Zuzu running full tilt back to Alison with the coyote in hot pursuit, while Luna seemed to be flying just above the ground like a cruise missile aimed squarely at the coyote.
The coyote, seeing Luna zeroing in, turned and ran, and Zuzu, bless her courageous little heart and complete lack of common sense, turned around and started CHASING THE COYOTE AGAIN.
Much barking fading into the distance, and then, suddenly, silence.
Dave hobled along with Poppy still on leash, letting Poppy's nose lead him, and eventually he ran into Alison, who had Luna on leash, Luna having returned for some reason known only to Luna. There's no sound or site of Zuzu, and we were fearing the worst... when Zuzu appeared a couple of hundred feet away running full tilt toward the two of us. The joy of knowing she's alive was dampened somewhat by the fact that she's covered with blood, but when she reached us, it turned out that the only damage was losing about a quarter inch off the end of her tail.
We carried her home, which was probably unnecessary but seemed like the right thing to do. The thing about dog tail injuries, however, is that they are like scalp wounds for humans. They bleed. Alot. Neither of us wanted to think about what was going through the neighbor's heads as we walked from the woods down the street to our house, clothes covered in blood.
At the house, we tried a number of different solutions to bandaging Zuzu's tail, which was exhibiting something called "happy tail," meaning she was wagging it. Normally, that's fine, but in this case it was spraying blood everywhere. We are still finding spots of blood on the walls and appliances that we missed in the original cleanup attempts.
But eventually, we found something that worked (a neopreme straw wrapper for a water bottle wrapped around gauze held in place with some medical tape) and the cat, sensing that we were all emotionally distrought, went out and killed a chipmunk and brought it in and layed it at Alison's feet.
It was one of those things you can laugh about post-facto.
We did a short trip to Ireland to visit Brie and Aidan, covered in a separate newsletter, but since we are on the topic of pets, here a few pet shots.
 |
 |
 |
 |
And you might have noticed, Carley in one of those shots, because she and WIll came up for a visit, and we had a chance to pet sit for Cooper and Buddy while they went to a wedding in Boston. There was much dog in the house.
 |
 |
 |
 |
And suddenly, Fall was on us. The leaves turned and it was a lot cooler.
 |
 |
Meaning it was time to start getting serious about Thanksgiving.
Noah and Emily came out to the east coast first...
Then Maddy and Libby...
Then Meredith, Charolette, Will, Carley, Bill, Sang Ok, Andy, Brad, Huidi, and Paul.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
And it was awesome. There's something very Normal Rockwell about having a large grroup of family get together for Thanksgiving, but in the heart warming sense. Some of the out of towners stayed for the weekend, so we did the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, walked the Boston Waterfront, ate in China Town, did things around the house, and ate out.
 |
 |
 |
 |
Then we had a bit of time to set up for Christmas before we did the trip with the kids to Kauai, covered in a separate newsletter.
The above pine tree, named with typicall flare by Alison (the name: "Piney"), was a douglas fir, which was a bit more expensive but TOTALLY WORTH IT since it didn't shed needles for an entire month.
We returned from the trip to Kauai in time to have Christmas Eve dinner with Paul and Carol, and then Christmas Day dinner with them at Brad and Huidi's.
 |
 |
And, the final wrap up for the year was our traditional fondue-by-the-fireplace with Rick and Elizabeth to ring in the new year!
