An Autumnal looking chart; the various fronts brought copious amounts of cloud and rain over much of England early on Sunday. Stats: Overnight low 8C, high 21C, thicnkess: 557dam.

It was grey and overcast when I got up today, but by the time I left on my semi-regular journey to Reading the skies had cleared and the temperature had shot up to 17C or so.

I took a change of route this time, instead of nipping around the M25 and along the M4, I decided to head up the M3 and through Bracknell instead. The plan worked well - I saved 24 miles on the round trip and arrived at the Trust at the early time of 10 AM. The skies had become partially cloudy, with significant cumulus development - quite fascinating to watch, although my attention was firmly focused on things closer to ground....

Duma and Dakota were at a dog show today, along with most of the handlers and the like. No, they (probably) weren't taking part, although Duma won the "Miss Wild Dog 2003" title last year when she was entered in a show the Trust was attending!

That left the Europeans and the old couple, Kodiak and Kenai, and I had the Trust to myself as I pottered around. All the wolves were sleeping, atlhough both Kodiak and Kenai looked up briefly as I came past.

(Latea, I think - I still confuse her with her sister).

By the time I'd walked back up to the observation building, another volunteer (by the name of Angela) turned up. We thought it would be just us two doing the work, but a third volunteer (Jody) turned up as we were starting on cleaning the Euro's sleeping quarters. Not much to say about the scrubbing and sweeping that went on, apart from that by the time we got to Kodiak and Kenai I ended up closing the "trap", which is a portcullis type thing stopping Kenai from getting to us while we cleared the area out.

After that, we nipped over the safety fence to say hello to Kenai (as Kodiak was still snoozing away). Jody and Angela got to stroke Kenai, but much as I wanted to I didn't join in. After a quick lunch, it was time to paint the pole barn where the trailers and such are usually stored. It was around then that things started to go wrong with the weather, with a few spits of rain from some menacing cumulonimbus. Nothing too much to worry about, but the showers became heavier and increasingly frequent, culminating in a torrential downpour just after we'd finished a section of the barn.

While watching the sheets of water cascading down (and listening to the roar of the rain on the roof), it suddenly dawned on us.... Kenai was stuck outside in the rain, as we'd not opened up the trap for her. So, I got to leg it, full tilt, through the rain to use the pulley to open up the gate - and when I got there, Kenai was watching the thing, almost as if willing it to open. After using the pulley I didn't get to see if she went inside, as it started coming down even more heavily - I zoomed back to the shelter of the barn. After that, Angela and I went back to Kenai and this time one of my dreams came true - after showing her my fist, she sniffed a bit then allowed us both to stroke her - magic!

Once the rain had stopped we tidied up (with Kenai's howls echoing around), then it was time to say goodbye - except I had something special in mind. After the others had gone, I once again found myself alone with the wolves - and with some really dark clouds heading my way. I guesstimated I had around 10 minutes, and I really wanted some photos....

Faced with the choice of nipping around the back of the Euro's enclosure or seeing Kenai again (and apologising to her for keeping her in the rain), I think you can guess which I chose.

I nipped back over the fence, camera in hand, and crouched, fist held in front of me. To my delight, Kenai came over and after a quick sniff, rubbed up against the fence:

Her tail and ear positions revealed the textbook "submissive" behaviour, and that combined with the fact she was effectively saying "stroke me!" did it. Lo and behold, I found myself in the bizarre situation of kneeling in mud, one hand under Kenai's belly and the other holding a camera - and not a soul around to see it. Needless to say, I was watching her like a hawk, as if she'd given even the slightest impression she wasn't happy with what I was doing, I'd have removed my hand like a shot. As it was, she certainly seemed happy enough to me!

For several glorious minutes I knelt there, with Kenai twisting around against the fence every now and then to let me stroke her other side. All too soon the first few spits of rain started, and I knew this time it meant it....

So, I said goodbye, packed up my stuff and trudged back up the hill to my car - and again, Kenai howled, over and over, as I was heading back....

On the way back, I drove through several torrential downpours (a particularly nasty one in Bracknell), but as I crawled through Surrey the skies suddenly cleared and the temperature shot up from 16C or so to 21C, and it stayed like that until I pulled up at home. Since then, it's become really dark and started raining, suggesting the rain at least followed me home. Shame it wasn't Kenai following me home instead, but you can't have everything!

Some miscellaneous bits to finish off:

* Kenai still has that cone, as you can see. However, the wounds seem to have healed quite well, so maybe, just maybe, that cone will be off next week.
* Here's a solitary photo from last week, which I found interesting. After seeing Kodiak and Kenai, they howled as I was walking away:

(You can see the fence dividing the two, no doubt something they'd dearly love to break through!)

Curious, I turned back and they both stopped - indeed, Kenai galloped up to the fence to greet me. I'll let you draw your own conclusions as to what their howling meant, as from a scientific point of view I wouldn't like to say!

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