MUNGO EATS Latin America

Some of you faithful readers (you know who you are), may have realized that a few weeks ago we were “haked”, I mean hacked.  Somehow that fact that we were violated by a poor speller makes it worse!  In any case, our webmaster has got things more or less on track now.  Some of the posts are still missing and a few pictures need to be re-inserted.  I will get to that as soon as possible, but I thought I would post something new first. 

Sargon is doing okay.  We just finished an obedience class and Sargon did well.  He even got to wear a little graduation hat.

I know, it looks a little silly, but Sara made me promise to get a picture. 

Last week, the kids went to camp and Kevin and I had a week to ourselves.  We went out for supper…twice!  We even took a day off in the middle of the week to go hiking.  We actually went to Kananaskis, which we haven’t done in years and years.  It is usually easier and more enjoyable for us to hike in areas other than provincial and national parks, so the dogs can run free, but we though we would give it a try.

It is widely known that there are two kinds of hikers in the world.  I am a forest/field/flower hiker and Kevin is…not.  Kevin is a view hiker.  He likes to get above tree-line and look around.  I like to call these particular hikes “spider hikes”, because spiders are the only living things you see when you are above tree-line (do I sound bitter?).

The hike started off great.  We walked though a great meadow to a fresh forest and sat by the most beautiful little tarn.

See the wonderful wild flowers.

Ahh…amazing!

Then the trail changed and we started to go up, and up and up.  My little wildflowers disappeared and we ended up on scree and snow….WHAT?

At least the dogs had fun.  They got to race around on the snow and they had a blast doing it.

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Kevin got his view

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I got sore thighs!  Poor aching me!  We did get to see some sheep.

We even saw them “bonk” heads.  Even though it is cool to see sheep, it is not cool to try to prevent an 80 lb dog (or two) from chasing down sheep, especially as one is slip-sliding down a scree slope!

I think we should stick to hiking in the Ghost!

I love going down to the Ghost River Forestry Reserve, or as we call it “the Ghost”.  It is our favourite place to escape to on nice, sunny, spring days.  Unlike the last time, we were able to drive in to the area this time and go for a little walk.  Most times that we visit the Ghost, the Ghost river is largely diverted into Lake Minnewanka, to make electricity.  On rare occasions, like when there has been a wet spring, excess water is actually allowed to flow down the natural river bed.  We have only seen this a few times.  When this occurs, we are unable to drive to our usual hiking spots and this was the case yesterday.  The good thing about the ghost though, is that any place is a good place to hike around.  So as soon as we hit the river, we turned “left” and started walking.   The other great thing about the ghost is that you can almost always walk somewhere without seeing another soul.

It was a gorgeous day, the first sunny, warm day we have seen in a few weeks.  The dogs were very excited to run around free, off leash and apparently there were lots of great smells to keep them happy.  I wrote the other day, that Sargon is nearly as large as Mungo now, and you can see from some of these pictures, that this really is the case.

Though the body size is similar, coordination and brain power seem to be miles apart.  I sometimes think that Mungo enjoys messing with Sargon’s little head.  Mungo decided to lead Sargon into the water.  Here is Mungo happily charging through the water, note the grace and speed.

And here comes Sargon…..see what I mean?

Grace?  Speed? ABORT…ABORT!  I think he’s lucky to have made it out of there in one piece!!  I am pretty sure I could here Mungo muttering under his breath…”Rube!” 

Sargon found a bone to nibble on during the walk and he spent a lot of time flaunting it in front of Mungo.

But in the end, it was the big hound that got to gnaw on the bone, while the silly little one tried to look off into the distance, pretending he “didn’t want that stupid bone anyway!”

In any case, the good thing about being a little simple, like our friend Sargon, is that you don’t really realize when you are being made fun of, and you just go on having a good time, regardless.

And everything is better outdoors.  The water tastes better.

The sky looks brighter.

The flowers are prettier.

Even everyday (sometimes several times a day) chores feel better.

Or at least are a little more scenic!

Guess that is why this is the “bestest  place ever”!

Have a good week everyone…only 5 more days to the weekend again!

Checking out Sargon for the latest “issue” is becoming a bit of a game.  In the morning when he greets me, I quickly do a mental check of all his “problems” and see where we stand.

This morning his ear was relatively normal and his toes were arched again (his toes actually went back to normal after two days).  Great, I think to myself…all is well.  Then he turns and the sun reflects off his side and I see this.

Can’t see what I am looking at?  How about in this view?

Or this view?

My dog is covered in giant welts, wheals, hives!!!  I am assuming that these are due to mosquito bites, since I have no knowledge of anything else “new” in his life.  He doesn’t seem itchy, luckily, and he is bouncing around just like he normally does in the morning.  I gave him some antihistamine, note to self-Sargon is not a fan of fruit flavoured Claritin syrup, and wait for the bumps to recede.

If these truly are a result of mosquito bites, I pity the poor dog.  Mosquito season is just getting started and with the crazy amounts of rain we have had this year, it is bound to be quite a season!  Oh well, now we will have to call him Spotty.

Sargon is now 5 months old and he continues to grow and grow.  We now find that we have to actively look at a dog nearby to decide if it is Mungo or Sargon.  It is not blatantly obvious by size alone.  Mungo is still larger, but the two are close enough in size now that you have to pay a bit of attention to discern the two.  Despite his large size, Sargon remains a goof.  He is still clumsy and trips over his own feet often.  Part of this is just because he is growing so quickly, and just like a teenager, who grows six inches in a few months, it takes some time to get adjusted to the new length of your limbs. 

Yesterday however, I started wondering if some of his clumsiness was due to his flat feet.  Truly, this is something that happened overnight.  The breeder we bought Sargon from  tried to convince me that if I wanted my dog to maintain his nicely arched toes and compact feet, I should feed him large amounts of vitamin C.  The scientist in me, could not see the point in doing this.  I never given any of my dogs supplements and I really saw no reason for starting with this for Sargon.  But strangely, Sargon’s feet went from this…

to this…

Okay, the first one is Mungo’s foot, but you get the idea.  All four feet did this overnight, and he is not painful in any way, so I am a bit confused by it all.  It makes me wonder if the breeder had some sort of “history of flat feet” in her lines, or if this is just another one of those weird “growth  phases” that Sargon will go through.  This morning his feet looked better, almost normal, but by this afternoon, they were starting to droop again.  By the way, his “not perfect ear” had pretty much corrected itself over the last few months, but today it was “unperfect” again. 

I think I will take a wait and see approach.  Hopefully he will be back to normal again soon and we can stop calling him Flatty.