My Furrend Molly, RIP

This is my 100th post and I dedicate it to my dear furrend Molly who wented to the bridge this morning. We knowed she did not has much time left when I sawed her in St. Louis after Turkey Day, but even if'n you knows it is coming, it still does not make it any easier. Molly woz 13 years old and not in gud health any mores. Here is wot Molly's mom writed today:

Molly's gone. She got up and went outside but then she collapsed outside and couldn't get up. She was having a hard time breathing. The vet did an x-ray and an ultrasound and there was no blockage but the vet said that she could see a huge mass right next to her liver that was pushing on her stomach. She also said her heart was really small which meant there was restricted blood flow which made sense for her feet to be just stone cold. We had to put her to sleep - we didn't have a choice.

I remember when I first metted Molly about 8 years ago, she tried to put the bitey on me! It was skeery. Our moms had to keep us separated for the first day until Molly gotted over herself. She did, and then we woz the bestest furrends. Molly's mom sayed that when our visit woz over and we wented back home to Noo Jersey, Molly cried for days coz she missed me. Her mom had to go adopt her sis Hannah to get her a furend! But when I sawed Molly this last time she remembered me and woz happy to see me. Rest in peace my furrend.

Butler Reservoir (Kinnelon, NJ)

Well, this woz kind of an axident hike coz it woz not where we planned on hiking. We wanted to go to Pyramid Mountain but the parking lot was closed when we gotted there. So mom sawed on the map where there woz parking at the north part of the hike by a ball field so we wented there and parked and woz able to pick up a trail from there. But coz mom gotted all turned around, she wented the wrong way and we never made it to where we woz supposed to hike, BOL! But this werked, too. We just dinnot knows where we woz until we gotten home coz we wented off the map mom had. At home mom looked it up online and founded out we did the 8.7 mile Butler Reservoir hike.


So it's kinda hard to tell you where we woz coz we dinnot knows. Here is one seenik place we woz at:


And some rawks we climbed up:


And thru the woods:


To the reservoir:


So the hiking trail wented all around the reservoir and we founded these frozened waterfalls. It woz in the single digits with the wind chillz so no wonner the waterfalls is frozened!


At one point mom lefted her camera on too long and the lens frozened up!


Mom had to make it warm so she could take more pikshurs.

Then, we camed up over a hill and gess wot we runned smack into? A HUNTER! Wif a GUN. A BIG gun! Thank goodness I had my no-huntin-me orange vest on coz the hunter seened me afore he seened mom and he could has shotted me ded thinking I woz a deer! Now this shows you why you should always wear your no-huntin-me orange during hunting season. We woz in a NO HUNTING ZONE! Mom talked rilly lowd with the hunter so the deers would hear her and run away. After we wented around the reservoir mom taked a picture of the hunters on the udder side of the waters. They is so noggty coz they is not sposed to be huntin there.


So then we camed to this pritty creek:


But we had to cross a bridge to git over it and I is skeered of slickery bridges. I would rather go thru the waters but it woz too cold today and I would has frozened so I had to go over. Watch me doing my death defying stunt crossing over the bridge. Drum roll, please...


Thank you kindly for your cheers and applaws!

So mebbe tomorrow we goes back and tries to do the rite hike, k mom? Mom has a pawty to goes to tonite so it depends on if'n she drinks too much whiskey.

My Park

You knows, I gots to thinking, I always show you where I goes hiking but I has never showned you the park wot is rite by my howse wot I goes to all the times! Pwoblem is, I has to share this park with my sisses and mom rilly does not like to take all 3 of us at one time. The boy ratted me out the udder day and told mom I howled the whole time she woz gone with Dixie and Sydney. The boy used to tell me to be quiet. This last time he decided to howl along with me. It woz very weird. He does weird me out like that sometimes.

So anyways, we has to start off our walkies in the park with a song and dance of excitements:

(Mom says to tell you she has raked those leaves up a gabillion times but the wind keeps blowing more over to our side.)

So we gets to the park and first we does walkies around the lake and that is .7 miles. When there is no udder peeples or dogs over there and we is far enuff away from cars, mom lets me off leash for a bit to check my p-mail.



Wate a minit - those last two woz from my sisfurs! Oh wate until I get back home...

So here is the lake where there is usually gooses swimming but it is all frozened rite now.


And on the udder side of the walk is the river where there woz some ducks but they swammed away when they seened me so you can't see them very well.


So then when we gets closer to the road with cars I has to go on the leash and heel. Coz I heel so well mom does not has to hold my leash. She hangs it over her shoulders so her hands is free. That helps her walk better with the fast musiks she lissens to on the iPod thingy wot is plugged into her ears.


We then heads over to the big walking circle wot is 1 mile long where there is always lots of peeples. Cept for today coz it woz rilly cold out, like 25 degrees. There we has ball fields


playgrounds for the chilluns


litter boxes for the peeples


and a swimming pool wot is closed now but I is not allowed in it anyways coz it is only for peeples


So that is my park for during the week when we can't do hikings.

Being Helpful to Our Peeples

It woz rilly, rilly cold last nite. With the wind chillz it woz 0 degrees! So I hads an idea. When we wented to bed in the nites, I taked mom's slippers to my hidey spot to warm them up for her. You can see the one I has unner my arm and the udder one I stuffed unner the radiator. When mom woked up this morning, both slippers was warm and toasty on her feets. Mom woz rilly happy with me.

Ramapo Valley Reservation (Mahwah, NJ)

Happy Noo Year! Of course, I had to start 2010 out with wot else, a hike! It snowed yesterday. The snows woz mostly gone by our house this morning but we figgered there would be more snows up north. We headed north but to little mountains at the Ramapo Valley Reservashun, not big mountains like last time. Shure enuff, there woz about 1-2 inches of snow at this park. Now I has to point somefing out. Peeples shore does need lots of stuffs to go hiking in the snows. Us dogs, we need nothin. Our paws is designed for this kind of wevver and donnot be thinking I is going to wear booties coz it is not happening. Allow me to demonstrate my point:


Thank goodness mom invested in her winter hiking gear so she can take me hiking in the snows! I think I should has some extra noms for all the monies I is saving mom since I does not need all that gear.

So anyways, first we headed up to a seenik overlook wot is called Hawk Rock and it woz kwite loverly:

Then I found somedog had lefted me some p-mail in the middle of the woods:


Oh, here is who the p-mail woz from! Two Bernese Mountain Dogs wot woz hiking with their dad. How kewl, mountain dogs in the mountains!


Then we camed to a remote trail where no man, woman or dawg had gone afore... Only mom and my paw prints woz in the snow:


We crossed over some beeootiful little streams. Of course mom slided in again, this time on her behind and she sayed a werd I cannot repeat. She woz surprised she did not get soaking wet. It pays to has the rite hiking clothes when you is peeples and not a dawg.



Then we camed to Bear Swamp Lake and hiked almost all the way around.

The lake woz frozened and there woz a nice part with Chrissmuss trees.


We sawed anudder deer! Can you see the deer in the pikshur?


So we told the deer not to walk over into anudder park coz this park is a safe no huntin me park. But there are parks all around this one where there is huntings.


So we hiked 7.5 miles today. It woz a good thigh werkout in all that snow!

Pee Ess: Wanted to menshun also that since I started keeping track of my hikes with my bloggie, in 2009 (since beginning of June) we did 35 hikes for a total of 333 miles!

Abraham S. Hewitt State Forest - Bearfort Ridge and Surprise Lake (West Milford, NJ)

Well, you knows that last weekend we had a snow blizzard. Yesterday it rained all day. Guess wot? It melted all of our snows! And today it was in the 40 degreeses. So mom scrapped our original hiking plans and taked me to the mountains instead thinking the snow must has melted up north in the mountains too! I did not think I woz going to see the mountains again until springtime. Shore enuff, we gotted there and the snows woz almost gone. But the pwoblem woz that all of the melted snows and rains from yesterday was coming down the mountain! There woz a gabillion waterfalls and rite off the bat we had to cross a slickery bridge over this one:

Those steps woz steep and they skeered me but mom put my leash on and maded me go up. It woz only 3 steps so once I gotted up those, I GI Joe crawled across the bridge and then we was off with our hikings.




We climbed up the mountain and there woz some nice seenik overlooks:




At one point mom went down this big rawk wall and it was way too steep and skeery for me. I could see that mom was hasing a hard time with it. She gotted to the bottom and looked up and this is wot she sawed:

I woz saying "No way is I climbing down that rawk. It is way too steep and skeery. You has to come back up." Mom woz telling me she could halp me if'n I would come closer and I would be safe but I woz not believing it at all! So mom climbed back up. She woz not happy with me. We had to go a diffrent way coz mom sayed she could not climb back down while holding me, it woz too dangrus. But the udder way we wented woz very nice. There was a moss path wot woz like soft carpet unner my paws:


And then we wented thru a rhododendron tunnel:


Even tho we wented a diffrent way, we still camed out at Surprise Lake. Surprise!!!!! Had I not weirded out on mom, we would has come around the lake from over there on the udder side.

Surprise Lake woz pretty frozened still so no swimming there today. But there was no shortage of waters. The way back to the car woz through downhill instead of uphill so the trail woz flooded out in lots of places. It woz not a pwoblem for me but mom was hasing some difficulties and one time she slided in the water and her waterproof shoos went under and her feets gotted all wet BOL!




Then we gotted back and had to cross that bridge to get back to our car wot is way up the hill there to the left. But it woz not so skeery this time. And sides, I was tired and wanted to get to my car. We only hiked 6 miles today since we had to cut 2 miles off coz of me (see above). But they was rilly, rilly hard miles and it taked us over 6 hours to hike them coz of all the floodings and sometimes slickery ice spots in the shades. We had to be rilly careful.

But we still had funs and it mite be the last time we can hike in the mountains until springtime coz winter is coming back tonite and it is getting rilly cold with more snows. Bye mountains! Mebbe I see you again soon, mebbe not till springtime.

Chrissmuss Day 2009

So here is wot we did today on Chrissmuss.

I gotted a skwerrel from Santa Paws. It woz not a real live skwerrel like I asked for but then I suppose mom putted the kabash on that. Iz OK, I can nap with this one coz he is floofy.


Sydney gotted a pink octopusseh from Santa Paws:


Dixie gotted a moose from Santa Paws:


Sydney swiped my skwerrel:


Sydney swiped Dixie's moose:


Mom taked me back to that Cheesequake Park wot has no cheese to hike about 5 miles in the snows! It woz lots of funs and like being in a whole new park coz it looks diffrent with snows. Mom had gotted some speshul things called gaiters to keep her feets dry in the deep snows. They is not like alligaiters, but diffrent. I think. I is lucky that I doesn't need gaiters with my furs. If'n mom did not shaves hers legs, she would not need gaiters either.




Then for the bestest part of the day, we had Chrissmuss dinner. We eat Wellness kibble and we rilly like it. But today we also gotted Merrick's Turducken! NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM...


The kittehs gotted Fancy Feast NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM...


And foster bunny Penelope gotted her fave, organic Honeycrips apple NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM...


I hope you all had a grate Chrissmuss Day!