Catching up

Wow! It's been a long time since I've posted here. First we were dealing with the distemper outbreak and all the heartache that came with the loss of 3 of Washington's foster dogs and then last week we were on vacation in Eastern Oregon, trying to recuperate and get re-energized.

It was a much needed break full of camping and hiking. Tilly and Frodo hiked right along with us and by the end of the trip Tilly was a bit like Charlie Brown's buddy, "Pigpen". She loved to give herself dust baths by rolling in the dirt and on trails chose to plough right through large piles of horse poop rather than take a few extra steps to walk around them. She also added a few black spots to her coat when she would rub up against the charcoal covered firepits in the campsites. Frodo, always the priss, avoids dirt and mud at all costs and even after miles of hiking would be perfectly clean. In the photo above, I am carrying Tilly on a hike in the John Day Wilderness after she laid down in a patch of dust and refused to hike any further. Note her ripped harness, torn when she decided to scratch her back along a downed log while the rest of us played in the river and weren't watching.

Our foster, Einstein, is still with us but has a great application and I'm guessing will be going home by next week sometime. We are currently working on getting a new foster dog flown up from CA who was on New Rattitude's urgent list. Her name is Stella and she's 7 years old and has most of her vetting already done. She will need to have her teeth cleaned though as she has bleeding gums and possible abscesses that need to be taken care of.