Squirrel Patrolling at UBC

After watching the World Cup yesterday, mom took me to her school, The University of British Columbia (UBC) for a walk. The school campus was fairly deserted yesterday because it was Sunday. However, UBC is home to over 40 000 students from all over the world and can get very busy during regular school semesters. The main campus itself is located in Point Grey on the westside of Vancouver. It is a beautiful campus because of the beaches nearby and views of local mountains.

Walking down the deserted Main Mall Street

We live about ten minutes from the main campus so mom takes me there quite a bit. I love going for walks on the UBC campus because of its "inhabitants", NOT the two legged kind. The 7.63 km² Pacific Spirit Regional Park serves as a green-belt between the campus and the city, so critters of all sizes (from mice to coyotes) wonder onto the campus. We have only met a coyote once during our walk. I knew this was no ordinary dog so I bravely went and stood by mom with my tail way up in the air vibrating, while giving off threatening signals to let him know not to come near my mommy. The coyote seemed to have understood what I was trying to tell him and scooted into a nearby bush and disappeared. Other than that particular encounter, I have only come across the smaller critters.

I know exactly which garbage cans mice like to hide under, which garbage bins raccoons like to feast in, which trees the squirrels like the most, and lastly, which hedges the skunks have their nests in. So everytime I go there, I have to go check out all those places. Don't worry about the skunk part - ever since I killed the skunk in my backyard (mom doesn't like to talk about it), I have learned to stay out of their "shooting" range. If I see a skunk, I will still get all snarly at it, but I make sure I do huge circles around it so that if he decided to shoot me with his stinky gas, he can't get me!!!!

Since only service vehicles are allowed on Main Mall, this is where we usually do our walk. We start from the Forestry Science building on the south side of the campus, passing the Engineering, Science buildings towards the Rose Garden by the Arts buildings.

This is where a lot of the squirrels live..........

HA.....GOT ONE!!!

Raccoons like to feast inside this garbage bin infront of the Engineering Cafeteria. They usually come out at night, but I still have to check!

Patiently waiting at the curb before mom gives me the "OK" to go

Squirrels....HERE I COME!!!!!

This is where I caught (and killed...) a mouse last time - gotta be extra detailed in my search here!!!

Mom used to bring me to school everyday where she would let me squirrel patrol the campus in between classes. When it was time to go for classes, mom took me to all of her science lectures. I was always a very good girl, never made a sound and just slept through most classes. Most people sitting at the front of the huge lecture halls never knew I existed. People who knew of my existence all loved me and played with me during breaks (some of mom's classes were 3 hours long). The only classes I didn't go to were laboratory classes and also classes in Arts buildings. Thank doG mom was a science major so most of her classes were in the sciencebuildingss and I guess science people like animals, so I was welcomed by all including professors. People from Arts however, always seemed a little intimidated by me.

How can anyone be intimidated by a face like this??? Ok, maybe by the tongue.......

SOOOO, mom tried to get me to pose for some decent pictures yesterday, and I gave it my best shot.......hehehe

Who's that dead dog???

Please excuse my TONGUE...I get so intense and so pumped with adrenaline everytime I come to UBC that once I have a chance to take a break, I go flat out....hence the tongue. Plus it was pretty warm yesterday as well.

**Note: You may have notice from my pictures I'm wearing a boot on my left foot. The reason being I jammed my toes a while ago while rabbit chasing at Jericho Beach. Mom doesn't want me to re-injure my toes so she puts the boot on whenever I'll be doing a lot of fast running, turning, and stopping. This is a custom made boot from "Thera-Paw" (http://www.therapaw.net/index.html). The thick rubber sole molds into the shape of my foot so is very comfortable to wear. It also stays on amazingly well since I go digging, running, and swimming in it all the time!!