My good friend Judith

When I moved to the Bay Area over 4 years ago, one of the first people I met up here was Judith. From our very first meeting we got on very well and our friendship has only grown – she’s truly one of my favorite humans.

Judith & me in Golden Gate Park

You see, I’m a social animal – I love to be out and about, meeting new people and other dogs, getting fresh air and smells, and just seeing what’s around the next corner. Whenever I see Judith, I can count on a serious expedition even though I’m on one end of a leash.

Judith is well known to my guardians because she was also a favorite of my predecessor, Raleigh, for most of his 15 years. When I followed Raleigh, my guardians were quick to include Judith in my social circle – after our first meeting and for over 3 years, I saw Judith monthly or more frequently, and we sometimes spent days together.

As Judith reports, “Wally and I get on very well – despite me being of British descent, he seems to understand my accent very well…it is the humans who have a problem 🙂 …Wally and I love to walk in the Presidio and on to Crissy field. He loves to check out the little mounds of earth that the gophers make and I have to say ‘move on Wally or we will never finish this walk.’”

Last March, when I accompanied Judith to SFO (San Francisco International Airport) and dropped her off at the curb signed Virgin Atlantic, little did I know my times with her would be curtailed. She’s of British heritage, and after many years in the U.S., decided to move back to England and resettle in Bath.

I missed her but didn’t really realize it. Then, last September, when my guardians vacationed overseas, Judith returned from England and moved in with me…what a great time we had! Lots of great walks in the neighborhood – each one an hour or more, not the 10-15 minute jobs I often get from my guardians (although something is always better than nothing!).

The past two weeks have been another heavenly period because Judith has been back in town. She was asked by another client in our neighborhood to housesit a favorite cat – as you might guess, that’s not a totally demanding job, so Judith has had free time to join me for some touring.

Judith is an excellent lawn bowler and has for many years been an active member of the San Francisco Lawn Bowling Club, established in 1901 and America’s oldest municipal lawn bowling club. I’ve accompanied her to bowls a number of times and made many new friends there. So I was so pleased a few days ago to again be hosted by Judith for a few hours of hanging out and watching Judith, Bill and their clubmates, all while enjoying the beautiful greens and scenery of Golden Gate Park.

I can spend hours watching the nice people of the SF Lawn Bowling Club

You may be asking: “What is lawn bowling?” In short, you roll bowls on grass attempting to come to rest as close as possible to a target ball, called a “jack.” The game is related to bocce. But someone once said, “Bocce is like checkers and lawn bowling is like chess.” I couldn’t agree more.

Bowls clustered around the jack

I could go on about lawn bowling and our club, including its beautiful, historic and comfortable clubhouse (which has a nice display of postage stamps featuring lawn bowling from many countries including Australia, Tonga, New Zealand, Solomon Islands, Canada, and South Africa). Instead, I urge you to check out the website, http://sflbc.org, where there’s lots of interesting content on lawn bowling and the club.

As she recently completed her cat sitting assignment, one of my guardians and I just returned from driving Judith down to SFO again. So sad to see her off, yet I’m so happy to have had the good times with her for the past two weeks, and I do look forward to the possibility of a visit for me later this year.