Meet Zeke

High: 75º F
Low: 58º F
Conditions: Partly cloudy and continued breezy.

Everybody needs a friend. That’s especially true if you are an extremely social canine naturalist. We received rumor that a new candidate had just arrived in the seaside town of Boothbay Harbor, where Greg’s sister and brother-in-law live. This news was all the excuse we needed to hop in the car and find out more.

We started off by admiring some of the lovely coastal gardens in the area. Ari seemed particularly taken by the hydrangea, but not enough to want to linger—after all, you can only look at a bush for so long, even if it is a blue one.

Keeping with our color theme, Ari next tried very hard to befriend Blue, our persnickety cat-in-law. Here’s how that project went:

Apparently, Blue isn’t quite as keen on caninaturalists as Mouse and Leila Tov are.

While Ari tried unsuccessfully to woo this enormous cat, we humans had a great time getting to know the region’s famous bivalves.

The Damariscotta River estuary is a particularly rich spot for plankton and algae. This, coupled with its pristine waters, result in some of the best oysters in the world.

Shellfish is slightly more appealing than bushes and mean cats for Ari, but they still aren’t entirely satisfying. After much impatient sighing, she finally got to meet the main attraction: Zeke, rescue dog extraordinaire.

Zeke was on death row at a Tennessee shelter when a golden retriever rescue center learned of him. They swooped in and saved him just hours before his execution, even though he is neither golden nor much of a retriever. Then he and 150 other inmates were transported up to New England in a giant horse trailer (what a racket that must have been inside!), where they were met by their very excited new families.

Zeke is 8 months old and a total goofball. We've nicknamed him Pinky, from Pinky and Brain (which suits Ari just fine, so long as she gets to be the Brain.). Still, we’re delighted to count him as part of our extended family. And Ari’s more than happy to claim him as her new best friend. She’s even enrolled him in an advanced caninaturalist seminar. They should be out tracking foxes together any day now--if they're not plotting to take over the world first.