John 'Yankee' Riddick (pictured at right) of Waramanga thinks that dogs are ''pretty neat'', and, if dogs were a little more articulate they'd surely bark the same thing about him.
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Every day (''when it doesn't rain'') he goes up to the summit of Mount Taylor on his 68-year-old legs carrying several litres of water with which he fills a big steel drinking bowl for the many dogs a day taken for walks up there. How grateful they must be, panting, to find this well-watered oasis where they most need it. He's from Virginia in the US. He served in the marines in the Vietnam War and then came to Australia to marry a girl he'd met on R&R. He's been in Canberra for eight years and keeps his seasoned legs supple by, as well as his daily on-foot ascent of the mountain, cycling 15 kilometres a day, much of it to and from the foot of the mountain.
He loves his daily routine. As well as his favourite dogs (''I see 'em every day'') he has some favourite dog owners too. They're the female ones. Every Valentine's Day he leaves all of them, at the summit, a Valentine's Card in which he assures them:
Roses are red.
Violets are blue.
Sugar is sweet, so they say;
But not as sweet as you Mount Taylor girls.
