Great News

Yesterday afternoon, the sun set in a blaze of glory as I walked the Duo.

When we arrived home, we did some goofy training games. Each dog had to do a down-stay and allow me to place a treat balanced on a paw without them eating it. Each dog uses the same approach. Never, ever, look at the temptation. K stares at me during this game.

R turns his head away from the treat, refusing to even let his snout drift in the treat's direction. They're allowed to eat the treat when I release them.

For the first time since before her surgeries, K was very naughty while I focused on R during this game. She broke a down-stay to sneak up behind me and bury her head in my open treat bag. I had to laugh. K is back!

This morning, dull gray skies and a whirling wind met us on our walk. K stood on a boulder cliff and gazed at the elk herd grazing in the meadow below us. You can see her boot in the photo, protecting the paw pads with hyperkeratosis (overgrowth of tough pad material). We had to abandon the Ruffwear boot because K hated it. This boot is a Muttluk, which she likes much better. It is tiding us over until a custom Therapaw boot arrives in the mail.

When we arrived home from our short hike, an awesome phone message awaited us. K's pathology report showed that the highest bone that they removed, a metacarpal, was clear of infection. Thus, no more amputation is needed to control the infection. We'll use antibiotics to clean up any remaining infection!

In honor of that great news, I wanted a happy photo with a clear blue sky behind K. This one is from yesterday.

Now, we have a rehabilitation and restrengthening phase ahead of us. I am SO happy about that! The future seems bright.

In fact, there's even a chance that K will be able to run along side my mountain bike, in moderation, sometime in the future. We can't be sure that will happen - but I love that the possibility exists. At the very least, we'll be able to enjoy long hikes in our forest.

For today, I left K at home and took R for a mountain bike ride. The boy was over-the-moon happy, and took flight ever so briefly!

He looked like a "Meth Lab", according to Mogley, as he crazily sprinted to me. More than one person sent me the link to Mogley's Meth Lab post, saying that it looked like R was a Meth Lab!

When I headed out solo on my mountain bike after both dogs were tucked in at home, I felt happy, happy, and happy! I found that a gorgeous buck has passed one of my remote wildlife cameras. For new readers, I post these cameras in the forest, and motion triggers them to take a rapid-fire series of photos. My favorite trail camera company, trailcampro.com, has great explanations of how they work.

As I rode along through wild weather, including wind and snow flurries, I spotted a mountain in the distance that glowed beneath the looming clouds, as if the sun had singled it out for the spotlight.

That vision summed up how I felt today. We've had a lot of dark clouds but now the sun seems to be shining on us!