Suzy Says

Jed Arm: Pronunciation: jed ‘ahrm (noun); a condition of the human upper limb, with varying degrees of pain, caused by throwing a ball or stick for hours at a time. Similar to housemaid’s knee or tennis elbow in cause and effect.

Back from my long weekend in the country with a mild case of Jed Arm. Jed is my brother’s dog, and she lives to retrieve the stick/ball/pine cone/giant, unwieldy branch. Playing with her is one of the joys of visiting my brother & sister. She is literally unbelievably well-trained: no-one believes it until they see it.

On Saturday, we visited Point Cabrillo light house. When Jed jumped out of the car, the ranger said she should be on a leash. The thing is, Jed doesn’t have a leash, because she doesn’t need one. So my sister Megan demonstrated Jed’s heeling and obedience abilities, which made the ranger say he wished his kids were as good as Jed, and told us to go on down to the light house. Jed sat nicely by the light house until we came out and said she could come with us to watch whales.

The whales are migrating back from Baja, and they are closer to the coast during their home migration than they are on their way south in the winter. So we had good views of giant tails, spouting blow holes, and massive, curving backs carving the cold waves. It was amazing. The rangers had a box of binoculars so you could see the amazing creatures up close.

But the ranger we encountered at Van Damme State Park was a dramatic contrast to the Pt. Cabrillo rangers. Megan and I were throwing the ball for Jed, who despite the chilly temperature, was happily chasing the ball into the ocean, swimming around, and then bringing it back to us, bounding with joy. Megan noticed the ranger approaching before I did, and said, “Oh, great.” He came up to us and said Jed couldn’t be on the beach without a leash. Megan apologized, put Jed on a heel, and we started back to the car immediately.

Either this wasn’t enough for him, or he just felt like exercising his authority that day (and it’s never wise to argue with a man carrying a gun, especially in a small town, where you know you’ll see him again), but he actually ran Megan’s license and put a warning on it. He also acted like he was doing us a giant favor by not giving her a ticket. Megan was really mad, and we got home in record time — without a ticket.