RCHS Update

Meet Bola.

Cute, eh?

Bola is currently available for adoption at the Rutland County Humane Society. You can go read about him over on their website, but I think I have cuter pictures. And I won't accuse him of being unmannered. Unmanned, yes, but not unmannered. He has manners, they're just not entirely appropriate for most human households.

First let's have some stats on good 'ol Bola, and then we'll get on to the cute pictures.

Shar Pei Look-a-like Wrinkly Forehead and Ears?


check!

Happy Bully Grin?

check!

Serious Dog Expression?

check!

Big Muddy Feet?

check!

White Spot on Right Hind Foot?

check!

Airplane Ears?


definite check!

Bola and I went hiking in Pittsford today. This is what the trail looked like from Bola's point of view.

This is what Bola looked like from my point of view as he tried to climb back up the vertical riverbank.


It's a good thing he was wearing my dog harness instead of the one from the humane society, or I wouldn't have had a handle to pull him back up the bank.


Bola was up for adventure today when we went out. I no sooner got him back on the trail, and he decided to dig to China.


Once the Great Dig had been averted, Bola made another attempt at the river. Until he realized just how chilly the water was and he executed an emergency screeching halt.


All the mud necessitated a good scrub down when we returned to the car.


And all the digging, climbing, and screeching halting necessitated a nap.

RCHS Update

Boss Lady managed to make her way to RCHS this morning. Jess told her there were only 4 dogs to choose from for hiking. It's always good when there aren't many dogs waiting to be adopted. What Jess didn't tell her was that there was a litter of puppies playing in the front cat room. Puppies! Oh, they were so cute! They're mutts, with maybe some dachsund, or maybe not. They're 5 1/2 weeks old right now, and raring to go. They kept their distance at first when Boss Lady stepped in to play with them, but pretty quick 3 of them trotted over to tackle her. Then two more joined the group. Only one puppy kept it's distance, and it was busy attacking the stuffy toy and chewing on the cat tower. Boss Lady scopped them all up, one at a time, and cuddled them. The little boys liked the cuddling, the little girls not so much. They chewed on her fingers, and her boots, and her boot laces, and her pant legs. One even tried to play tug with her sleeve. They were simply adorable! But, enough with the puppies. Boss Lady finally dragged herself away from them and chose a hiking partner.

Per Jess's advice, Boss Lady snagged Alaska, a very nice husky x chow mix. Alaska trotted along very politely with Boss Lady, although he was a little camera shy at first.



After a little while, he warmed up and discovered just how cool Boss Lady is. See his pretty stripes? Maybe he's got some tiger in there somewhere.



About half way through the hike, which she cut short, by the way, Alaska suddenly stopped walking, trotted back to Boss Lady, sat down politely, and requested scritches. Boss Lady was only too happy to accomodate him. She's a sucker for scritches requests. When his need for scritches had finally been satisfied, they continued on their way.

Alaska has a special message for my loyal readers: I'd really like to go home with you.




I'll use my sad face, if you don't come take me home.

You Are Such A Girl

I enjoyed a bonus Wednesday hike today, despite the icky weather. After witnessing all the ice in Pittsford during yesterday's hike, Boss Lady decided to take me there. She really wanted to get me out on the slippery ice and throw snow balls. She wanted to make me slip and slide so she could take funny pictures. Luckily for me, the ice wasn't nearly as slick with the new snow cover. I did slide a little bit, but only to make her feel better. She was determined to get funny pictures of me playing on the ice, though, so she staged a couple. I didn't believe her, but it turns out I could fit underneath the ice.


I could also sit on top. And jump. And bounce. That's some strong ice.




We were experiencing a "wintry mix" according to the weather channel. In plain English, that translates to a mixed bag of shit. We had snow, sleet, and freezing rain. Miraculously, Boss Lady managed to drag out of bed early enough that the roads were still fairly clear and the trail was still in good shape. While we were hiking, the precipitation switched over to freezing rain, leaving us pretty well soaked, but who really cares. The rain didn't bother the mice running around under the snow, so why should it bother me?



About half way through our hike, Boss Lady looked down and discovered big gobs of blood in my foot prints.


She called me back to her and tried to figure out which foot was creating the bloody mess. It was my right front foot. It was really bloody, and she was initially worried that I had cut a pad. Turns out I just broke a nail, though. I snapped it pretty short and hit the quick, hence all the blood. Boss Lady cringed and shook her head. It didn't bother me, though. I didn't make a peep when it happened, which is probably why Boss Lady didn't notice at first. And it didn't slow me down one bit. It did continue bleeding for the rest of the hike, which was about a another mile. And for the 20 minute ride home. And it was still bleeding just a little when we went into the house. It still wasn't bothering me, but Boss Lady really didn't want blood spots all over the rugs. She dumped some corn meal onto a plate and proceeded to prepare my foot for frying. Mmmm. I'd never eaten corn meal before; it's kinda yummy.

RCHS Update

With the stressful holidays finally behind us, I was able to return to RCHS today and play with one of their pups. RCHS reports a fabulous holiday, in which they made many happy adoptions and are finally down to an acceptable number of cats. I couldn't believe it when I went in and there weren't any cat cages in the hallway. They also adopted quite a few dogs out. Last time I was there, every run was full (about 16 dogs) and today there were only 8 dogs. There were several dogs that looked like fun, but I was informed that Shadow was most in need of play time. And indeed she was.

I was very happy to discover that the road to the Pittsford Trails trailhead is once again passable. The river is still high, about 2-3 feet higher than normal, but it's better than the 5-6 feet it was a couple weeks ago. About 3/4 of the trail seems to be flooded. Fortunately, it is also frozen, and the ice is covered with about 1" of crusty snow for traction. Today was a perfect day for a hike, and Shadow and I enjoyed ourselves immensely. Unfortunately, the camera did not enjoy itself. The batteries died after my 3rd picture. I managed to get a few more, but I was kinda bummed.

I don't know what it is with labs and water, but Shadow just wouldn't stay away from the edge of the river bank. She kept trying to slide over. And once she did manage to slide over whilst I was busy arguing with the camera batteries. Fortunately, the edge of the river is rather frozen and I was able to convince her to climb back up before she got herself in real trouble. Stupid dog.


I informed her, once and for all, that I was not going to allow her near the river. The "bog" on the other side of the trail was nicely frozen, so I allowed her to skid around over there. In between skidding sessions, she sniffed out something under all the dead weeds and snow, and proceeded to dig it out.


She never brought anything out, but she certainly managed to dig herself in there pretty deep.



I think I'll take Colyn over there tomorrow to play on the ice. It really is all ice. And I'll make sure the camera batteries are fully charged.

You'll Be Getting A Dictionary For Christmas

On Wednesday, Boss Lady promised me an adventure. A real adventure, too, not another one of these half adventures down at the Rugby Field. She told me we were going to Pittsford. I distinctly recall hearing the word hike. Boss Lady must have an old dictionary or something, though, because I ended up doing 1 1/2 hours of riding before finally getting a 1 hour hike. She loaded me into the car with good intentions. We just had to take a short ride before we could hike. Except, once she got in the car she realized that she would have to get gas or we wouldn't make it to Pittsford. And, in order to get gas, she had to stop at the bank to get some cash. Then she figured that if we were driving all the way to Pittsford, we might as well make a quick stop at RCHS. She wanted to drop off a bag of nickel bottles and a holiday card. Plus, she really wanted to check at Gormley's Christmas Tree Farm to see if they still had the old fashioned crib from last year.

When Boss Lady saw the crib last year, she immediately knew it would be perfect as a dog bed. Unfortunately, she didn't have the space or the $100 to bring it home. This didn't prevent her from wishing she'd brought it home. All year long, she's been thinking about that dog bed. So, she decided that if Gormley's was still trying to get rid of the crib, then it was coming home with her. Nevermind the lack of money or space, she'd figure something out.

So, off we headed to the bank, the gas station, RCHS, and Gormley's. Oh, did I mention that we had a snow storm on Wednesday? We did, and the roads were awful. Which meant Boss Lady drove 35mph all the way to Pittsford, instead of 55. And the winding road out to Gormley's was particularly fun. The good news was that after that long trip, the crib is still available, and reduced to $75. Boss Lady told them she wanted it and would return on Saturday to take it home.

Yeah, great, I've got a wonderful dog bed, but I'm still sitting in the back of this car waiting for my hike.

Finally, Boss Lady headed the car towards the Pittsford Trailhead. Only to discover that we couldn't get to the trailhead because the road was flooded from all the rain we got a couple days before that. When she explained the situation to me, I just looked at her. You don't really mean to tell me that after being promised a hike, and riding around in this car for 1 1/2 hours, you plan to take me home without any hiking? I know you're not really going to do that.

So, she didn't. She drove back to boring Rutland and took me out at Pine Hill Park. At least I got first tracks on one of the trails.

I can tell you what Boss Lady will get from me for Christmas.

RCHS Update

Yesterday morning I hiked with Reno again. He really is very sweet. I was actually thinking about taking out Shadow, but then I forgot to bring Colyn's large harness. Once I got a look at him, I knew there was no way the smaller harness would fit Shadow. Reno was perfectly happy to go out again, though. He was sleeping on his little platform bed in his run when I arrived, but he popped up when I came in and said his name. He was very excited about coming out with me. He was also very opposed to the notion of wearing a harness. He dodged and darted and ducked his head for almost a minute before I finally managed to wrestle it over his head. Once he was all dressed and leashed, he dragged me outside and headed for my car. I insisted he piddle before getting into my car, so he managed to squeeze out a few drops, before racing over to the car again. He hopped right in and sat down politely.




Now, you'll remember that I've only hiked with Reno one other time, so it's not as if he would be familiar with the ride to the trail. But, the closer we got to the trailhead, the more excited he became. As we crossed the one lane covered bridge, he could barely contain himself. He was bouncing around and talking loudly. You'll note I said talking, not barking. Reno doesn't seem to bark, but he does talk some. As soon as I opened the door, he bounded out ready for an adventure.



The first thing he did was run to the edge of the bank and think about sliding down to the river. I told him in no uncertain terms that such an attempt would be very, very foolish and would result in his immediate return to RCHS for drying off. He seemed to take me seriously.


He didn't stop watching the river, though. Apparently, he found it quite intriguing.



I did allow him to get a drink when we reached a suitable place. Surprisingly, he was very careful about it and hardly even got his toes wet.



He also found ample opportunities for practicing his nifty invisibility trick. If not for that brightly coloured flower harness, you'd hardly be able to see him.



He bounced along through the hike, sniffing at this and peeing on that. He was very polite while I stopped to take pictures of the river (most of which are posted over on the adventure blog that you probably didn't know I had). And he didn't mind too much when I insisted on pulling out all the burdocks as soon as I noticed he'd collected them. He even sat down and calmly waited while I took more pictures of the river.



He was a little annoyed when he saw these fun tracks going across the icy river. He wanted to follow them, using the argument that if the ice was thick enough to support that critter, then it must be thick enough to support him. I disagreed and refused to let him test his theory.



He only sulked for a few minutes before I found another appropriate place to allow him to get a drink.


When we arrived back at the car, he was just as excited about going for a ride as he had been about going for a hike. I'm pretty sure he would have been perfectly happy hiking for another hour, but as soon as he saw the car he was perfectly happy to hop in and enjoy the ride. He's really just such a happy dog.

RCHS Update

Today's visit to the RCHS introduced me to Reno. He looks surprisingly like a coyote, doesn't he?


He's very sweet, though. His write up says he doesn't like to be handled, but he didn't mind putting on his harness at all. Well, except for the fact that it's all pinks and purples and flowers, and coyote look-a-likes don't wear flowers. Reno, and I just have to say that I think that name is all wrong for him. I don't have any suggestions, but Reno doesn't fit. Reno loves butt scritches, and neck scritches, and head scritches, and pretty much any scritches he can receive. I took him for a hike in Pittsford, and he was very well behaved. He's pretty laid back, but don't be fooled; there's still some puppy in there. Or maybe it's just Husky mischievousness. He wanted to chase the stick I picked up, and he got all bouncy in the tall grass. He even wanted to go wading in the river. What is it with dogs and water when it's cold?!? I do not allow swimming when it's only 40 degrees. Sheesh.

He wasn't very cooperative with the camera. He refused to turn around and look at me, so my first few photos were of his butt. Then I realized that if I wrapped the rope around a sign post, then I could anchor him in place while I walked around to face him. Even with that trick, he wasn't very cooperative.

He was pretty sure there was something behind him, and it was far more interesting than some chick in front of him with a camera. By the by, he doesn't know the word biscuit, or treat, or popcorn, or cookie.



He was disgusted that I wouldn't let him go where he wanted. He was annoyed at the anchoring. This is the dirty look he gave me. I ended up with lots of dirty look pictures.





When it became obvious that his dirty look wasn't going to sway me, he opted to just look pathetic. Why is it that dogs with bat ears can do such a great pathetic look?




When the pathetic look didn't earn him any freedom, either, he tapped into his husky side and told me exactly what he thought about the photo shoot. And he wasn't exactly polite.




Did you notice the blurry tail in these pictures? That's because his tail never stopped wagging during the entire hike. Seriously. He wagged and wagged and wagged. Everything was waggingly terrific. Riding in the car was fun (and he was very well behaved), getting out of the car was fun, getting into the car was fun, hiking was fun. Basically, everything was fun, and everything warranted tail wagging.

RCHS Update

This morning Boss Lady managed to make her way to RCHS early enough that she was able to take a hike before the weather started. Blazer was the dog of the day today. He's a big, beefy black lab mix. He was desperately in need of some exercise, so Boss Lady went outside to collect him from the outdoor exercise pen. As she was headed towards the pen, one of the fellows who works at RCHS offered to leash up Blazer for her. Well, Boss Lady isn't some wimpy toothpick, she's perfectly capable of leashing up a dog. Even a large, excitable, ill mannered black lab. Besides the fact that if she couldn't handle leashing him up, she probably shouldn't be walking him at all. Boss Lady thanked the fellow, but told him she didn't need any help. She also told him she planned to use a harness anyway, and she was perfectly capable of wrestling him into a harness. The fellow laughed and wished her, "Good luck with that."


He doesn't look so bad, now does he?


Boss Lady grabbed the harness and leash out of the car and marched up to Blazer's pen. She looked at him: big, beefy lab. She looked at the harness: a medium sized harness, currently sized just about as small as it could be. She took a couple moments to resize, all the while thinking that it just figures the one time she doesn't bring my larger harness is the day she needs it. Then she stepped inside the pen and greeted Blazer. He jumped on her, of course. And he wasn't particularly interested in being harnessed up. She managed to get it over his head, and to get his one leg through it. But, when she tried to clip it she realized she was going to have to expand it as much as possible. She managed to pull it off Blazer, and fix it, and put it back on him. Then she leashed him up (which really wasn't any trouble at all compared to the harnessing) and led him to the car.

Blazer turned out to be a pretty good boy. He jumped on her a lot, mostly immediately after he had run through mud. He pulled, but he also stopped and looked at her quite a bit. He sniffed a lot, and very much wanted to play in the water. He discovered that iced over mud puddles provide a certain kind of fun, as long as one doesn't go psycho puppy and try to spin in circles whilst in the middle of the frozen mud puddle. At one point he decided he was tired and, without warning, flopped down on his side in the middle of a particularly torn up and muddy section of the trail.

Aside from the drizzling rain that started about half way through, it was a nice hike with a happy companion.

RCHS Update

Better late than never, I always say.

Boss Lady duly visited RCHS on Tuesday. Upon inquiry as to who needed hiking, she was most disappointed to discover that her options were Flash the beagle, or Chelsea the beagle mix. Sadly, Boss Lady is not a huge fan of beagles. It's not that there's anything wrong with beagles, per se, it's simply that Boss Lady greatly prefers to keep her arms attached to her body and beagles greatly prefer to detach said arms. Boss Lady has yet to encounter a leashed beagle that did not immediately and at all times pull, hard, on the leash. Really, if you're going to walk a beagle you might as well simply detach your arm at the shoulder, hand it to the beagle and be done with it. Because when you're done with the walk, that's how things will stand. But, feeling too guilty to simply run away from the beagles and deprive one of them from a much needed hike, Boss Lady ventured forth to meet Flash and Chelsea.

As it turns out, Flash is your standard, every day, run of the mill beagle, and Chelsea is a cute little brindle beagle x pit bull mix. Being partial to brindle's, and having never had anything but positive experiences with pit bulls, Boss Lady opted for Chelsea as a hiking companion. She harnessed her up, and loaded her in the car. (And here is where I would like to happily thank Boss Lady for finally investing in a new and appropriately sized harness so that she no longer has to steal and resize my personal harness each time she goes and cheats on me. I mean, it's bad enough that she's playing with another dog, there's no need to steal my adventuring gear to do so.)

What with the increasing number of "designer breeds" these days, Boss Lady would like to suggest an appropriate name for Chelsea's "designer breed:" Pit Bugle. Chelsea, as the prime example of her breed, is as loud and obnoxious as a bugle at sunrise. So obnoxious, in fact, that after the short 5 minute ride to their hiking destination Boss Lady was ready to drop Chelsea in a pit and run away. Thus, Pit Bugle.

Aside from this noisy annoyance, Chelsea was a nicely behaved little girl and didn't even try very hard to pull Boss Lady's arm out of the socket.

Also at RCHS on Tuesday was an absolutely adorable GSD puppy. Just adorable. She was maybe 6-8 months old, and almost silvery colored. Her name is Lucy. I think I am quite lucky that Boss Lady is currently in a living situation where she is not able to bring home another dog. Lucy would surely have come home with her otherwise.

I Told You

Remember Julianna from last week?


Remember how I told you it looked like she was plotting something?

Well, she was. She was plotting to steal from me. The little thief. This morning Boss Lady woke up at a reasonable hour. It was cloudy, but it wasn’t raining. She checked the weather channel and discovered it would probably be cloudy all day (it wasn’t) but it wouldn’t rain (it didn’t.) Good news, this was, as it meant we could go forward with our adventure plans. Boss Lady got dressed in hiking clothes (re: grungy jeans and an old t-shirt). She filled her water bottle. She gathered my harness and my leash and my rope. And she drove away without me.

Julianna stole My Boss Lady, My car, My leash, My rope, My harness, My hike, and My chipmunk. That’s right, during their hike a foolish chipmunk ran across the trail in front of Julianna and she had the opportunity to pounce on it. She didn’t kill it, but she got to pounce it. That should have been My chipmunk and My pounce.

Somebody better take her home soon, because I do not take kindly to her stealing all my stuff. Here, let me remind you how cute she is.

In the Pitts

Pittsford, that is, and it’s far from the pits. It’s got critters (beavers), water (two whole rivers!), olfactoray pleasantries (dead fish in the middle of a dry field), and duration (the Boss Lady can easily stretch it out for 2 hours of romping good fun). The only thing Pittsford doesn’t have is off-leash funness. Which makes it less fun than Shrewsbury, but not by much.

Despite the fact that she very nearly did not escape with her life, the Boss Lady did manage to snap a few pictures (damn new camera. she says it’s just too much fun) the last time we went to Pittsford. True to her word, we have not returned since.

See? Swimming funness.






Ah, and the old drowned rat syndrome. Which also illustrates nicely how a good water shake starts (at the tail, if you failed to notice.)




The water shake progresses forward.



And there I am nice and dry again. Sort of.