Hiking After Nor'Easter Athena

Furstly, my mom and I would like to thank efurrybuddy fur their most nicest werds about my sis Dixie leaving us fur the Bridge.   It do be different here without her but we is slowly getting used to it.

So you prolly heard that just a week after Hurry-Cane Sandy, No-Easter Athena commed a callin' and dumped about 6 inches of SNOW on us, brrrrrr.  More trees commed down when we still had a mess from Sandy.  Yoda the Dog did say he be sending some chainsaw massacre gangs up to Noo Joisey from Furginia to help clear the trails and that do be so furry pawsome!  So we went hiking back on the Appalachian Trail in Pencilvania yesterday coz Athena did not leave them any snow so their hiking trails be open fur bizziness.

This be a different pawt of the Appalachian Trail in Pencilvania from last week.

We was headed to Pulpit Rawk.

We did has to go on rawks again but it woz not as bad as last time and no rawks put the bitey on me so I did not leak any blood and guts this time.

Now see this ofur here by the observatory?  Do you notice how there be no rawks?  I has to wonner if they dumped all their rawks ofur on the pawt of the trail we hiked last weekend?

Then, ta da!  Here I is at Pulpit Rawk.  But there was fogs down below so the seenik was fuzzy.

Then we turned by this big pile o' rawks coz it showed the way to more seeniks at the Pinnacle!  (I wonner how many sneks be spending the winter in there???)

Here I is at the Pinnacle but there still be fogs down there.

Ooooo!  Entry material fur Anna the GSD's SpectacularTongtacular Contest!

I think mebbe the fog be lifting some.  Let's wait a bit and take a break.

Waiting....

Waiting....

Well, the fog nefur did go away so I gibs you a picture takened on November 8, 2009 when I was here in the same place when there was no fogs.

Oops.  Sandy must has done that.

I went right thru it.  Mom, well, she got stuck, BOL.

So this trail do be all soft and grassy and mossy and stuffs and it was cushy on my paws.

And that trail taked us to a pritty reservoir butt...

BOOOOOOOO.

When we got back to the car mom found this hitchhiker on her backpack!  It was a furry warm day (65 degrees) and the bugs waked back up and was flying around!

And now I leaves you with some Shawnee Cam shots!

And Then There Were Two

Shawnee's mom here hijacking Shawnee's blog for a minute.  We've been expecting this day for oh, about 6 years or so.  You see, Dixie was only supposed to live half of a life because of a heart defect which was only partially repaired with surgery back when she was 10 months old, fresh out of the shelter.  She was a foster failure only because nobody would adopt her when it was disclosed that she was not expected to live a full life.  If they only knew how many wonderful years of a very full life they missed out on.  Their loss, my gain.

Dixie (1999 - November 4, 2012)

 

Every day of the last 6 years has been a bonus for Dixie.  Her cardiologist would call periodically to check on her and he would specifically ask "Is she coughing yet?"  No, she never coughed.  In fact, it was not even her heart that failed her.  It was her legs.  Over the past couple of years the muscles in her back legs wasted away to the point where she was having difficulty getting around and it was becoming progressively worse.  She did not want help.  She always had an I-can-do-it-myself attitude.  In spite of her protests, carrying her up and down the deck steps was happening more frequently and I would have to support her hips so she could eat otherwise her legs would slide out from underneath her even while standing on carpet.  She eventually had no choice but to accept my help.

Shawnee and I came home from hiking last Sunday to find Dixie collapsed on the kitchen floor, unable stand at all.  Her paws were ice cold and I do not believe she had any feeling in her legs.  She was awake but not in pain.  She let me wrap her in a blanket and carry her to the car without struggling like she normally would have.  I took her to the emergency clinic where she snuggled into my arms as she peacefully left the deteriorating body that could no longer sustain her.

 RIP Dixie Doodle.  We love you and miss you.

Dixie's Adoption Story on Dogtime.com

Hiking After Hurricane Sandy

So furrends, there be no place to hike in Noo Joisey coz the pawlice has all the parks locked up and CLOSED!  Yes, even the park by my house, see:

I had to make mom turn around and I walked her back home :(  So where to hike?  Well, we figgered that we would go see how the trails be doing in Pencilvania coz the boy and the girl was in Pencilvania and they sayed all looked OK there and there was plenty of gas fur the hikemobile there without waiting in line fur hours and hours like here in New Joisey.  So we went to the Appalachian Trail in Pencilvania coz rilly, can they close that?

According to the pee-mail, the Appalachian Trail in Pencilvania be open fur bizziness, COME ON IN!

Wowser, look at all these rawks!  But they taked us up to...

... like the graffiti say, Bake Oven Knob with...

... seeniks!

Wot a shame with all the graffitis but that be coz this be so close to the parking lot and it be a pawty spot, boo.

Oops.  Looks like that Hurry-Cane Sandy woz here.

And here.

Ummmm, mom, you know I do not do blow downs coz the branches grab my furs and I get stucked.

Good thinking, mom, bringing the snippers...

Ta da!  Mom cleared the way fur me.  Thanks, mom!

Looks like that Sandy did not nom up these powah lines like she did in Noo Joisey and Noo York.  There still be peeples with no powahs by us!

That Appalachian Trail be pretty cushy unner my paws here but I has a feeling that is not going to last.  They do not call this Rocksylvania fur nuttin, you know.

Ummmm, seriously?  Mom, wot do that sign ofur there say?

Oh. My. Dog.

But these rawks taked us to more seeniks even though it tooked us 1 1/2 hours to go 1 mile!

Owie!  I is a hiking casualty.  A rawk jumped up and put the bitey on me and made my bloods and guts leak out! (Seriously, Allred, I is not trying to one up you!)  But it woz too cold and windy on the rawks to stop and fix it so I had to forge onward.

Forging onward.

Furget the owie, I see more seeniks!

Like this!

Finally we woz out of the rawk field and yikes!  Looks like mom be planning on doing surgery.  I cannot look!

The only way I made it through surgeries was...

... by chomping down on a piece of chickun jerky.

A water chaser and I is good as new.

I made it all the way back to the car with no more owies.