Tag: snow

Our Aging Pup

Our dog Ellie outside the grocery store on a snowy winter day

Age is taking its toll on our sweet pup. Her stamina has been declining and while she still gets around pretty well, she’s not as confident in her footing as she used to be. Her hearing seems to be on the decline and she has a thyroid issue (thankfully it’s responding well to medication). At her last checkup her blood pressure was high as was the protein in her urine, the latter something we’ve been keeping an eye on for a few years, so she’s now on blood pressure medication. She had an ultrasound yesterday and thankfully her kidneys are in good shape, but there is a growth on one of her adrenal glands that might be harmless but could be the early stages of cancer, we’ll recheck in a few months and see if it’s growing.

The hardest part yesterday was that in order for the ultrasound to be effective we couldn’t feed her in the morning, and food is one of Ellie’s great joys. Funnily enough she has lots of little ways of reminding you she hasn’t been fed but she won’t get aggressive or even bark, so gentle is her nature. As I got my breakfast, even though disappointed her owners had forgotten to feed her, she got excited as this is when she gets a dental bone, her favorite treat. But even that had to wait until after her test so I had to watch as her initial excitement turned to confusion and sorrow as she slowly realized her hints weren’t being taken and she wasn’t even going to get her treat.

Perhaps as a side effect of the sedation for the ultrasound, or worry over lost treats, her stomach was upset all night so I stayed up with her to let her out into the yard whenever she started dancing around on the hardwood. She was feeling better by morning but I was so tired from being up most of the night that I’m taking today off.

She goes back in a couple of weeks to recheck her blood pressure and protein levels. One thing that remains unchanged is her bountiful and joyful spirit. She doesn’t mind that in addition to her allergy pills she gets an extra pill in the morning and three in the evening, as we put her pills in hot dog slices that she readily gobbles down. In fact she’s trying to convince us that she also needs to be treated for scurvy, botulism, and space madness.

This picture was taken in early January when we got a nice bit of snow. My wife and I walked with Ellie up to the neighborhood grocery store for a few supplies and Ellie and I waited outside at one of the picnic tables while my wife grabbed the groceries. She’s drooling because I kept bribing her with treats so she wouldn’t greet every single person entering the store and sniff the bags of those walking out. I’m holding the camera down and to my left, she’s watching my eyes for a sign that another treat might be forthcoming.

May you have many happy and healthy days to come, sweet pup.

Is That It?

Our dog Ellie looks up at me with a light dusting of snow on her back

My wife and I wanted to see the new Star Wars movie so a couple of days after Christmas we drove up to a neighborhood movie theater. When we came out a good bit of snow was coming down, a rarity for this area, but I knew it wasn’t supposed to last long. And it didn’t, slowing down even during the short drive home.

I took Ellie to the dog park as soon as we got home, both because she loves the snow and because it reminds me of the day we decided to adopt a dog and later found the perfect one. Sadly though the snow had all but stopped and it was too warm and wet for it to stick to the ground. I couldn’t resist a picture of her looking up at me with a light dusting of snow on her back as she stood in the muddy dog park.

But she wasn’t lamenting the lack of snow but rather watching me to see when I would start running, as her favorite game is to run beside me and match my every move. This field used to be grass and clay which turned into a soupy mess the entire winter. Ellie would dance around, giving me her famous chop chop, encouraging me to run. I could never convince her that only one of us was built to run in that slop. But now that there is sand in the main part of the dog park, it not only drains much faster but also compacts nicely under your feet, so while you may get a bit dirty when it’s soaking wet you’ll maintain good footing while you run. My thanks to the parks department for that, it’s made a big difference in our winter walks.

Ellie of the North(west)

Our dog Ellie stands next to a tree in the snow near the Irving Park dog park

Snow is not common in Portland so when we got some unexpected snow we took Ellie on an extra walk in the afternoon so she could enjoy it. It was snowing on our morning walk and continued during her annual checkup at the vet but had stopped by the time we took her on her second walk. The freezing rain had just started by the time of her evening walk, which by the next morning left everything coated in ice and Ellie refused to go on any more walks until it melted. She hates ice as much as she loves snow.

Her vet visit showed that her thyroid levels are really low, which might account for some things we had chalked up to aging like her reduced stamina. She’s taking medicine now but it’s too soon to see any improvements. I was thankful for my little Subaru while taking her to the vet, as given the rarity of snow we only have all-season tires, and the car handled the snowy streets without complaint. I left it parked the next day as our streets were solid ice, even snow tires wouldn’t have helped then. Thankfully warmer weather returned the next day and the streets cleared up, although the yards and sidewalks took a bit longer.

This picture is taken at the edge of the dog park at Irving Park, one of our stops on our walks in the neighborhood.

This Used to be Goodbye

A view of Mount St. Helens near sunset

It used to be when I left the River S Unit at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge and started my trek home, I’d round the bend and get this lovely view of Mount St. Helens. Early in 2004 I stopped to take a picture of the volcano with the foothills coated in snow, as they were just starting to convert a meadow into a subdivision and I knew the view wouldn’t last.

A large number of new subdivisions have gone in since as the sleepy little town transforms into a bedroom community for Vancouver and Portland. I’ve often thought about how wonderful it would be to live in one of those houses, to be able to roll out of bed near sunrise and be right at the refuge, but I wouldn’t seriously consider moving there — the refuge is on the other side of the Columbia from where I work and the commute would be soul-crushing.

Pika in the snow

Pika in the snow

In December this pika picture got linked to from a popular site and the resulting traffic spike pushed me over my monthly allowance, so I shut down the personal site I had run for almost two decades and started looking at other options. In the end I decided to give Flickr and WordPress a try for a year and then will decide if I’ll go back to self-hosting or not.

I’ve re-edited the picture and I think it looks better than it did on my old site, and even better you can download it at a much larger size. It’s also much easier for me to upload images both here and at my blog, so there are some definite advantages to my new setup.

I met this pika in the fall of 2007 on the trail to Amphitheater and Surprise Lakes in Grand Teton National Park, a trail I’ve hiked on multiple occasions. My pictures of this pika are my last pictures from the trip. The white in the background is snow, I had to turn around higher up on the trail as the snow was getting too deep for my hiking shoes. Originally I was going to spend the next day in the park but ended up cutting the trip short as the area got hit with a heavy snowstorm.

Life, like the weather, can bring unexpected changes, hopefully this one will be for the best.

The Pitch

The Pitch

It might look like she’s catching the ball, but Ellie is actually throwing it back to me. We adopted her when she was five and she was already doing this cute little trick so I can’t claim any credit for it.