News, a Gotcha Day, and the Start of our Mountain Trip

We've had a lot going on around here, between travel, R's health, and normal everyday stuff. I didn't want to worry anyone but we found a lump on R's good forelimb that had us worried. We found it while we were far away from home camping in the mountains. We had it checked by our vet yesterday, and it's benign! Phew.  After all he's been through, we didn't want another thing to slow him down.

As for R's rehab, our vet is thrilled with his progress. He's doing better than any other CUE patient that she's rehabbed in the past. We still are working hard with him - the great progress is a huge motivator to keep working.

As for that camping trip, we loaded up the LabMobile and wandered the Colorado mountains for a couple of weeks. This photo was from our first campsite, well above 11,000', where we luxuriously spent our first night eating gourmet pizza and snuggling in sleeping bags. There's nothing like knowing that we had weeks of alpine adventures ahead of us.

It's an area that I love because it's usually devoid of many other people so Shyla can run with me while I mountain bike. Aside from a few rare exceptions, Shyla has become a super reliable and fun mountain biking partner. It's much more fun to ride with her than by myself!

I feel lucky that we live at high elevation so it didn't bother either of us to ride up to the highest points in that area - well over 12,000'. I love the stark beauty of the world above treeline. Shyla does too - and she loves watching the marmots scampering around, like she's doing in this photo.

We climbed and climbed until we reached the end of the trail. I gazed at the mountains in the distance and wanted to explore them all! You can see the remains of an old mining cabin in the foreground. Can you imagine living there?

Here was the view through one of the doorways that was still standing. Pretty nice, I think!

After we checked out the cabin, we kept rolling. The land is so open above treeline that Shyla could run in the tundra parallel to me, leaping into small tarns and through boulder fields. I love watching her run - so graceful and powerful!

And the mountains are the perfect backdrop for Shyla whose name means "daughter of the mountains". We just had her 4th Gotcha Day. I cannot believe that she's been in our family for that long. We cannot imagine life without her showering us in kisses every day!

Thanks, Shyla, for all the love that you've given us!