Rikki Tikki Tavi

Rikki in June 2004

Rikki in July 2009

 We had to let Rikki go on Friday. She was the most energetic 12-1/2 year old dog we've ever had. She was fighting off a soft-tissue sarcoma (cancer) between her right front shoulder and chest and it just got too large to be comfortable anymore to walk and be happy. She, like most dogs, have incredibly high pain thresholds, so she was playing even the day of her death. But when she started to whine and pant most of the day and be obviously uncomfortable in her skin...well, we had to let her go. It's so hard to know when the right time is to let them go, but there was no doubt in our minds that we had to let her go asap.

Sir and Rikki shortly after arriving in their new home

cooling off on the last snow patch in the yard, 2003.

Rikki came to us with her brother "Sir" at the age of 2 years old. She was a hugely energetic shepherd and would love to chase the Guppies around the yard before collapsing in a panting frenzy on whatever cool spot she could find.

RTT in 2003

Willy, Rikki and Sir (L to R)

She was incredibly bonded to Sir as they came from a home where their previous owner had died of cancer while they laid by his bed. Sir was her 'constant' and once he died a couple years after we got him (he was 10 when we got him and lived another 3.5 years) she luckily had a pack to keep her company. Her and Basie were best friends but she was also really bonded to the Guppies - Jesse and Bear.

Jesse and Rikki

LET'S PLAY!

Her chipmunk antics. She was very agile for a german shepherd.

Rikki and Sophie

Pouncing with chipmunk in mouth

About 5 years ago, we somehow taught her a game that kept her mind a bit more focused towards us and not at running herself raggged by chasing the younger dogs.  Also, she played a bit too aggressively with a couple of our other dogs soit was good to have her focused on us more anyways.

Mid-pounce playing chipmunk.

The game was 'chipmunk' and was quite simple-- i'd kick the chipmunk like someone would kick the can, and she'd squish another chipmunk (plastic dog toy chipmunks of course) in her mouth while following along usually going sideways or backwards to watch where the chipmunk was going. There was no real goal, but I think she loved it when she'd "bonk" the kicked chipmunk with the chipmunk in her mouth. I likened it to Dodge Ball -- she didn't want to get hit by the chipmunk when I kicked it because she'd jump or sidestep out of the way, but she'd try and bonk it herself. Pretty odd game but she absolutely LIVED for this game and connection with us.  As Rikki got older, she didn't want to stop chipmunk and she played it until her last day. But we tried to 'diversify' her focus to include hiking around the hills near our house.

Only until her arm got so unusable she was hiking a few miles a day on the trails out back up until a few weeks ago.
On a hike out back of DVR looking towards James Peak, 2010.

My January 2011 birthday hike

Rikki was a very young soul. She really never 'grew up' but did get less manic in her later years. She had such a sweet side of her personality and would never demand attention. I really got bonded to her, in the last year especially. Even though it was the right time, because of cancer it felt like we were robbed, once again. Her mind was so awake and ready for everything and anything, but her body just couldn't go on any longer. The tumor had grown so large it was like a football under her arm. Just three months ago they took out a 2 pound tumor and got 99% of it, but the 1% they weren't able to get grew exponentially until it was just too big to let her live comfortably any more.

Rikki and Jesse ready to play. This was shortly after her tumor surgery and she was ready for chipmunk!

Goodbye pretty girl, we love and miss you. Thank you for all the inspiration and fun times.

---

Happy Festivas!

Smrp and the Guppies looking west

Dog days of winter

peeping smrp

The first official day of Winter. It's going to be hard to leave the snow, where we can snowshoe from the front door and right into the woods.  The dogs seem to love powder days as much as the people standing in the lift line at the mountain an hour before the lift starts.  I honestly don't miss those days of waiting for the lift to open while freezing my balls off.  I'm so glad I found Jesus (the Backcountry...with a capital "B").  This includes our backyard, as the Backcountry is everywhere there aren't lifts and lift-lines.  Just GO...and you shall find it.

Jesse Guppie can barely control her excitement for all the powder!

Crazy-dogging in the belly deep powder.  She ran around up and down dragging me along with her.  We keep her on a long 25ft leash because...well...without it? She'd be gone.  Deer, squirrels, elk, coyotes, foxes, you name it...she'd suddenly chase something and look up and be 10 miles away.  Not worth the risk.

More pouncing.  She's like a half bunny half kangaroo in the snow!

Jesse Guppie at Sunset only somewhat tired from the big hike in the deep snow. 

Solstice ride and SNOW!

I think the Mayan's world ended yesterday but i can't be sure. But up in the Nederlands, all was well last night after preparing the ranch for the upcoming big storm.  Everything (pony poop, for example) that you don't pick up will be buried for a long long time if you don't take care of it now!  They were calling for 8-16" and we woke up to just around 14-16" depending on settlement.  Hayride, Powers and I got out on what may be the last small-tire (not a fatbike) MTB ride on westMag for awhile.  Left and headed up Pungee at around 5:45pm and returned an hour an a half later having done a lil lollipop loop.

 Hayride was sporting the snowmobile pogies and that's all i could see of him. They're HUGE! And toasty.

 

 A pitstop at the usual place although there was no scenery to be seen (it was dark).  It was the start of the storm and just dumping.

The beer of the night was some solsticey Norwegian smoked barleywine which was...interesting. Can't say that I'll get it again but glad we tried it. We chased it with some hot tea and a slug of whiskey before heading down the trail.  Even if you hike more when snowbiking, it's SO much f'ing fun going down!

December 15th snowride

 Studded Nokian tire on the front and just some rather low tire pressure in back I headed out for a local loop to see what was rideable.  Lots more than I thought! With temps in the mid-30's and no wind (yep, none!) it was stellar outside.  The dog walkers, runners, snowshoer's, and XC skiers have packed down many of the closer-to-town trails so that even on a regular MTB tire you can ride most of them.  I did see KB's trax out there though and it made me have tire-envy.  Wow...those Endomorph's are freaking huge!

I just love this view of the old surveyline

Crisp and clear view of the Divide from the Lookout trail.

 The snowfall up high is lacking but at least the wind has been silently absent (so far).  Unfortunately for this area, with snow comes wind, so you can't have it both ways (no wind and lots of snow to ski).  So in the meantime, I'm happy to keep riding my bike.

Another loss...

me and Mariah, 2006

It's continued to be a rough year. It's been about a month already since we lost Mariah, our 25 year old Morgan. She was my girl's real first horse and she was such a funny personality.  Her sudden colic and death took us all by surprise.  Everybody knows colic is common in horses...but it doesn't make it any easier when it happens to one of your crew.  It's pretty awful to experience to find them writhing on the ground in pain, soaked in sweat from rolling around due to the pain from their stomach.

For you that don't know, colic is a generic term for a blockage in the intestines of a horse.  They can't pass the food through and it is extremely painful.  If not operated on and removed, they either eventually pass it...or die trying.  After 8 hours, Mariah wasn't getting any better with drugs on board and fluids, so we asked our vet to let her go as peacefully as possible.

Mariah was a total sweetheart with a tougher than nails personality on the outside.  We called her the Viper because she would 'viper' at Tango (who she loved and this was a sign of affection).  She got the funniest look on her face when you'd scritch her withers...but she hated to admit she loved human contact.  She was tough and sweet at the same time.  We will greatly miss her.

Our family has shrunk by 3 in 2 months. We still have 6 horses and 3 dogs that keep us busy and happy, but wow...what a Fall.

First ski tour of the season

 

Today's tour was...how do i say this nicely...challenging.  We've received almost 2 feet in the past several days so we thought it was about time to put on the planks and head up to the Portal.  Well, we need more snow. 

This looks really serene but we were hitting rocks just a foot under the snow almost every step here.

 Hayride, JHK and I headed up and did our best to stay positive on what was some of the most "interesting" conditions we've experienced.  The recent windstorm had knocked down a ton of trees here too and with only 2 feet of snow...not many trees were buried yet.  It was like trying to find your way through a corn maze that hadn't been cut yet.  There was no *good* way through, it all pretty much sucked.  Just keep bushwhacking and you'll eventually get to the top.  Hayride brought up how a recent article in Backcountry Mag stated that the ideal skin track is right around 12 degrees.  Yeah. That ain't gonna happen.  We were heading up to Squirrel Huck Gully and if we stuck to that rule, we'd have skied to winter park and back before getting to the top.

Who needs 12 degrees? Let's BOOTPACK! If anyone followed our skin track they died out there (self-inflicted).

 Once at the top, we were surprised at the calmness of air (no wind).  That made me pretty happy (shocked) since it was hovering around 0 degrees F.

View over to Crater Lakes

JHK at the 'top' - Marmot Poop Rock.

 

The best 10 turns of the day right here...and they WERE good!  Never-mind it took 3 hours to do the 3 miles to get here.

Hayride lower down for another 5 turns.

Can this be counted as training for the Olympics...?

Hayride getting his carve on

 All in all, we got back to the car almost at dark.  Our ski bases didn't look quite as bad as I thought they should have.  Maybe the cold temps helped protect our bases (hardening)?  A shot of whiskey to warm our insides helped, but we were pretty whooped.  My body hasn't felt like that since...well, the last time I was at the Portal.  Winter backcountry season is here!  But I think we're going to wait a bit longer for more snow to fall before heading up to Squirrel Huck Gully again.