Slam dunk conversation starter

Posted on September 24, 2011 by Jay McLaughlin

As most of you are aware (perhaps this is how we are acquainted) I enjoy talking with strangers. Martin’s is a favorite place. So, of course, is Starbucks, and Pony Pasture too. This afternoon I went to Martin’s. Evelyn and I had lunch at The Farmer’s Market at St. Stephen’s, 6000 Grove Avenue in Richmond. Specifically we had lunch at The Boka Tako Truck. Not yet a slam dunk conversation starter – except I had a frog leg taco! I swear I’m not making that up! You can talk with everyone you know all week, and several complete strangers, and  it is very, very unlikely you will meet anyone who has recently eaten a frog leg taco. So I was in Martin’s at the Village later and it was packed and the lines were long and what could be more entertaining than talking about the frog leg taco you just had for lunch? It was entertaining for me, anyway. The people I talked with seemed interested too. Unless they were just being polite… It was better than standing in line staring vacantly at the cover of Soap Opera Digest. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

I regret not taking pictures at the Farmer’s Market today. When I left the house this morning I didn’t even know I’d go there, much less eat a frog leg taco. I had my cell phone with me but didn’t get any pictures. Frog leg tacos are a fascinating culinary experience but are something other than photogenic. The Farmer’s Market itself was quite fascinating. Dogs everywhere, which was a ton of fun.

And speaking of dogs. You knew it would get back to that, didn’t you. Anyway, one delicious item Evelyn gets there – I’ve mentioned this before – is Reginald’s Homemade Peanut Butter. Today I was able to restock on my own, and I spoke with the owner. I had a conversation that didn’t even involve a frog leg taco! I asked the owner if he was Reginald. He said no, Reginald is my dog. Not only is Reginald’s made here (in Manakin-Sabot), from Virginia peanuts, it’s named after a dog. How could it not be delicious.

There will be pictures of the Farmer’s Market in the future. Meanwhile, a couple of pictures from the river. It’s misty down there in the morning now, or it has been recently. It gives the river a nice look. Faintly eerie, but peaceful:

Misty morning

It burns off while we walk, but lingers if we’re in the shade and there’s no breeze. This is Mackey almost at the car, with Roux loping up the trail behind him:

Mackey and Roux in the mist

I almost titled this post “something is getting fat at Pony Pasture”. The mosquitoes Thursday morning were just out of control. It was amazing. I doubt if they were getting fat; there were too many for all of them to get enough to eat. But whatever is the next level up the food chain is just getting stuffed. Maybe dragonflies or damselflies or all manner of birds and certainly bats. But if you are an organism that dines on mosquitoes, the buffet at Pony Pasture is all-you-can-eat-and-then-some. The one in this picture isn’t enormous, but there are some record-book mosquitoes down there. Perhaps mosquitoes use Pony Pasture for a mosquito-sumo-wrestler training facility. Because they are the sumo wrestlers of the mosquito world.

Not a fun picture to take

Other and considerably more comely bugs remain, but they’ll depart soon:

Getting ready to head south

The makeup of plant life is changing as the weather changes. There are always mushrooms and fungi and lichen at Pony Pasture, but they are proliferating now. It’s damp and cooler and there’s almost three fewer hours of sunlight every day. I’m seeing much more of this and other varieties:

As my Dad is fond of saying, "there's a fungus amongus"

I’ll sign off with a wave. If you look close you can see clouds reflected in the water. Have a great day,

Jay

wave

Posted in Dogs, Flowers, Fun, Rivers | Leave a comment

animate/inanimate

Posted on September 14, 2011 by Jay McLaughlin

14 September, 2011        animate/inanimate

Our wonderful and talented and generous friend Ariel took this beautiful photograph of the four of us together Sunday after the river:

Mackey is the black dog, Roux in the center, Turner with his tongue hanging out

Animate, for certain.

My friend Clark is a Renaissance Man and his interests are many and varied. He often guides me to the CSX tracks near Brown’s Island in Richmond to see if there are trains around. More often than not there are engines, sometimes several. Today a train parked there but we could only see the back. Have you ever spent much time around trains? I mean, really up close and personal? They’re inanimate but they certainly don’t seem like it. Even a hulking 100 ton coal car looks like a living thing. Maybe it’s the latent energy contained inside, although they have that animated look even when they’re empty. Look at some of what Clark and I saw today and judge for yourself.

This is the train from the rear, for perspective:

Looking east toward downtown Richmond

This is the final car; this one’s been on the rails awhile:

Old timer. This one's moved lots of coal.

Despite the somewhat worn appearance, this is not just any car – it’s “a CSX Quality Car”:

a CSX Quality Car!

Look at the springs that monster rides on:


If this was a car or a truck we’d say this is where the “rubber meets the road.” When hauling 100+ tons of coal, no rubber, no road:

Where the train meets the tracks

Identifying info on the corner of the car:

Identifying information

Like the first blossoms of spring or a newborn kitten, coal cars are delicate and sensitive:

Coal cars have feelings too.

Headed east to deliver its load:

Bye bye

 

Posted in Dogs, Fun, People, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!) | 4 Comments

FANTASTIC hike

Posted on September 4, 2011 by Jay McLaughlin

FANTASTIC hike

Labor Day Sunday’s beautiful, and Mackey and Roux and Turner and I had the great good fortune of spending the long weekend with Pat and Megan’s dogs Luna and Lola. And my friend Lee and his son Owen brought their dog Lucy along and we had a beautiful hike at the river! Lee took this picture when we first got down there. My dog Mackey is the black dog (probably a Flat Coated Retriever mix) to the left. Maybe he’s a purebred; he’s an AARF dog. The beautiful Lucy is the Black Lab in front. She’s a great neighbor and a great hiker. Pat’s dog Lola is the brown dog in front of Lucy; Pat’s daughter got her from a shelter near Staunton. I think. Lola is energetic and cheerful and never runs out of gas. Pat’s other dog Luna is the black and white one in the picture, mostly or completely Border Collie. They got her from a Border Collie rescue place in Louisa. She is a doll, very loving and affectionate and pays great attention. Roux, as readers of this blog are aware, is my friend Alex’s stunning German Shepherd; that’s her on the right. Roux is an absolutely superb animal, in personality, in intelligence, in appearance. In spirit, in mind and in body, as we say at the YMCA. She is the Total Package. Just to my left is the newest addition to my home and my life, Turner. He’s from BARK. To the best of our knowledge he’s a Belgian Shepherd. There are four color variants among Belgians, a Malinois (I think that’s what Turner is), a Tervuren, a Laekenois and a Groenendael. That’s what my spectacular old dog Nicky was. Seal Team 6 took a Belgian into Osama bin Laden’s compound back in May. Turner clearly does not have the temperament for that type work. Nicky would have been a star. Belgians are superb animals.

We are ALL ready to hike!

Turner’s been on three full hikes at PP on the leash; today was his first off leash hike. He was perfect!

Obviously he's been hiking for a while...

Autumn is not quite here on the calendar yet, but it’s making its presence felt at Pony Pasture:

Float

There are pawpaws on the ground too. They’re getting big and ripe and delicious:

Fresh produce abounds

Walnuts are also on the ground (this is why they call it “Fall”, a noun and a verb):

Walnuts

I think these are from a sweetgum tree? Anyone who knows more about that, please comment or email:

Sweet gum (tentatively)

These guys (probably girls too) were sunning themselves mid-river. It was a long shot:

Sunbathers

I’m sure someone knows what this is; please enlighten me. Us. Enlighten us:

Anyone care to identify this?

We’re into September now and there are still several flowers growing. This is a cheerful example; it’s from the pasture itself:

A beautiful yellow flower

Lee and Owen and Lucy and Lola and Luna, thank you again for accompanying Roux and Mackey and Turner and me – what a hike! And thanks for the pictures, Lee! Have a great Labor Day everyone,

Jay, Roux, Mackey and Turner

PS Today wraps up Week 5 of training for Beach2Battleship. I have a 2+ hour run this afternoon. Training is going extremely well. It’s easier now. The workouts are longer but there are not as many of them. Long workouts are the reason I love this sport.

PPS Sometimes I just can’t take my eyes off the river. It always changes but it never goes away. It’s always reassuring:

Hypnotic

Posted in Dogs, Endurance, Flowers, Fun, Rivers, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!) | 5 Comments

Since

Posted on August 30, 2011 by Jay McLaughlin

30 August 2011     Since

Since I turned 50 this year I decided to celebrate for a week rather than just a day. Since today is August 30, that means my week ended yesterday. Since it was such a big birthday, I began it with an amazing gift, a 5.8 magnitude earthquake. Since it was also such a big birthday and since I had lost two dogs I love within the last three months, a new dog appeared yesterday evening… since it was the final day of my birthday week. Since I also celebrated my 50th birthday week with a hurricane, I haven’t had any power at my house for some time now. Since there’s no power, I’m doing this blog post at Starbucks. Since a lot of others are out of power, every plug here is taken. Since I only have 67% of an old battery left, this will be a brief post. Since I took 108 pictures at the river this AM I should get a couple up. Since Turner (my new dog’s name) is only ~1 y.o. it’s hard to get a shot of him. But between his beautiful personality and appearance and the beauty at the river this morning and the beautiful light, I’ll find a decent one. More later. Since I haven’t written as much as I’d like.

Alex found Turner through BARK, an adoption organization she’s affiliated with. She has a good eye; I can tell already he’s a good boy.

Turner's first visit to Pony Pasture!

Turner in front, then Mackey, then Roux, uncharacteristically, in the background

Since I lost my beloved Nicky to liver disease in 2007 I’ve always wanted another Belgian. Nicky taught me more about dogs than almost any other dog has. A picture of Nicky in 2000 is below; he and Turner are both Belgians; that’s where the resemblance ends. I once brought Nicky to visit MCV. Ivory had been working there for years. Everyone was used to Ivory’s soft, caring, benevolent gaze. I walked in with Nicky and we encountered a nurse, who stopped in her tracks – many people stopped in their tracks when they encountered Nicky – and said “That dog looks like he knows how to Take Care of Business.” You could hear the Capital Letters.

But Nicky worked for years with a man named Fred who had a very severe brain injury and couldn’t get out of his wheelchair. And Nicky would let Fred brush his teeth. Another person brushing your teeth is the definition of “getting in your face.” The more defenseless a person was, the nicer Nicky got. I miss him. But I’m happy Turner is here. I will learn different things from Turner.

If you’re wondering about his name, Mackey was my first dog named after an ultra distance sled dog racer, Lance Mackey. Turner is also named after an accomplished ultra distance sled dog racer, Frank Turner. I met them both on my Yukon Quest adventure in 2006 and they both had and continue to have a profound impact on me.

Nicky was very serious about taking care of my car.

Enough for now – my battery is almost recharged (they freed up a plug for me, this is a great Starbucks) and I have work this afternoon. Have a great day,

Jay, Mackey, Roux, Turner

PS This excellent Starbucks is

River Road 2

5001 Huguenot Road

Richmond, VA 23226

804-285-4195

Posted in Dogs, Fun, People, Rivers, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!) | 2 Comments

For the person who has everything…

Posted on August 25, 2011 by Jay McLaughlin

For the person who has everything…

Tuesday, August 23 was my 50th birthday. Friends took me out for lunch. One friend gave me a card – and you just can’t make this stuff up – that said “Since you seem destined for world domination, this small birthday gift seemed appropriate.” And she handed me this beautiful globe (see below). Then we finished the outstanding cake another friend made and the building began shaking with a 5.8 magnitude earthquake! Can’t decide what to get a friend for a unique birthday gift? Give them homemade chocolate cake, a globe, and their very own earthquake!

Remember the quake on August 23, 2011? Here's the reason! Thanks Jody!

This is the crowd who helped me celebrate my birthday. Me on the left and Evelyn next to me. Sue is on Evelyn’s left; she made the cake. See it in front of her? Now it’s mostly inside of me. I almost finished the whole thing that evening. It fueled more training this week plus a special 50th Birthday Edition Appalachian Trail Hike and Campout with Mackey and Roux last night. Marcia is next; she’s the ringleader. Our raison d’etre. She started our whole lunch group a year or so ago. Thank goodness!  Jody (right) gave me the globe. That’s it in the little box in front of me. This picture was taken before the quake. Look at Jody’s face. Doesn’t it look like she knows something’s about to happen? I’ve known her a long time; she’s known for her unique gifts. A globe and an earthquake on the same day? Coincidence? I am so sure.

My birthday pals - pre-quake!

Once again it’s been far too long since my last post. I’m working a lot and having a lot of fun. Often simultaneously. Plus since my birthday was this week I’ve had – and continue to have – lots going on. I’m in the fourth week of ironman training. I’m happy this is the first recovery week. I’ve been seeing lots of this:

Swim (a lot)

This:

Bike (a lot)

And this:

Run (a lot)

Of course I’ve been swimming in the pool and riding my bike and wearing my shoes but you get your camera real wet or ride off the road or run into things if you try to take a picture of yourself so this is just to give you an idea.

Another thing that’s been fueling my workouts – that’s always fueled my workouts – is delicious peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. On whole wheat toast. They are just so delicious. Evelyn raised the quality of the sandwiches this year when she gave me Reginald’s Home Made Crunchy All-Natural Original Roast Peanut Butter and my absolute favorite jelly, Graves Mountain Blackberry Preserves. Toast my favorite bread, Prairie Grain Bread Company Nine Grain Bread – all three products are made here in Virginia – and make a PB&J with those ingredients and you’ve got the best fuel going. Best tasting and most energizing.

High powered training and racing fuel

Speaking of great tasting and energizing food – it’s not like I could write about that without mentioning chocolate. In addition to Sue’s cake, Evelyn gave me Fox’s U-bet Original Chocolate Flavor Syrup to make my own chocolate milk. Alex gave me Hachez Cocoa D’Arriba Mango Chili 77% dark chocolate.

And Lee and his kids brought over this pillow cake plus flowers they grew in their garden plus three of the most beautiful hand-made cards you have ever seen. The cards are unique and sincere and creative and colorful and warm and cheerful and thoughtful and who could ever hope for better and more meaningful gifts?

I've got the best neighbors in the WORLD!!

And Evelyn knew I had my eye on some colorful handmade forks and spoons from the South of the James Farmers Market; check this stuff out:

Look at those CARDS! Those FORKS and SPOONS! That CHOCOLATE!

I have dozens of pictures from the campout; it deserves its own post. But here’s one from down at the shelter. There was only one person there; he took this just before he left. Roux was already wanting to be hiking!:

Those are hiking dogs and they're ready to hike! Especially Roux!

Posted in Dogs, Endurance, Flowers, Fun, People, Rivers, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!) | 12 Comments

Wonderful!

Posted on August 18, 2011 by Jay McLaughlin

Wonderful!

Late summer has been uncharacteristically busy. I’ve wanted to post to my blog – I love to post, it always feels great – but one thing has led to another, what can I say. Since my last entry an inexcusable 11 days ago, I have seen and experienced wonderful things. Most wonderful of all – my close friend of eleven years Kendall graduated!

The Graduate! What an accomplishment!

He has matured and overcome more in eleven years than I can even describe. Kendall has stuck by me through thick and thin, and remained a loyal and steadfast friend through more difficult experiences than I care to recall. He is generous with his many gifts, and taught me things I never learned in college or graduate school. What a privilege.

We’re also all still working through the loss of Max which, as you may imagine, comes and goes. I still feel Roux is having the most difficult time. She’s doing fine, but she’s obviously out of balance. Obvious to me, anyway. I think a new  dog will find its way to us soon. We’re keeping our eyes open.

I see lots of beautiful things, and enjoy them all. I haven’t gotten as many pictures as I like and few with my “good” camera, i.e. my camera that does not also double as a telephone and an internet browser. But I’ve been privileged to see beautiful sights when I only had my phone, and I’ll put them here too. It does well when the light is good. A week ago today this was the sunrise:

I am amazed every time. Like the river, the sky is always different and always perfect.

After the river this morning I squeezed in a quick ride. I was riding for about 1.5 hours and when I’m riding I don’t care to stop. I like to keep the pedals turning and stopping is rare for me. Equally rare is a beautiful field of sunflowers; in my decades of riding I’ve never seen one before. This merited a break from my no-stopping rule:

Cheerful

I got back to the car an hour or so later and took my helmet off. Inside, to my great delight, was this lovely moth. With a color faintly reminiscent of sunflowers; perhaps she (or he) hitched a ride back at the field. Possibly searching for greener pastures, if you will. The black is the inside of my helmet, the red is the padding, the blue is the hood of my car. You just never know what you’re going to see.

Isn't she lovely?

Anyway, that’s it for the moment. I have two more runs this week and one more ride then my first recovery week! Yay! Sunday is the last day of Week 3; then it’s 10 weeks until Beach2Battleship.

Have a great day,

Jay and friends

Posted in Endurance, Flowers, Fun, People, Rivers, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!) | 2 Comments

flow

Posted on August 7, 2011 by Jay McLaughlin

7 August, 2011    flow
It’s difficult to believe my last blog entry was Thursday and now it’s only Sunday. And so much has changed. Well, only one thing really, but it’s a big change. I closed Thursday’s post with a paragraph beginning “Max is doing fine” and observed he was “happy to be home but exhausted.” I also mentioned his getting a few calories in. He remained happy to be home, but was never less exhausted. And never able to get any calories in. And never able to sleep and never stopped bleeding. He and I were up all night Thursday evening and into Friday morning. He couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep, could barely stand. He could bleed, and he did that a lot, but not much else. His health was going in one direction, and it was going that direction fast. I had him euthanized Friday around lunch time.

It’s been draining. But this has been the first week of ironman training. A sport that is entirely unforgiving of missed training time. So I’ve gotten in all three of my swims this week, all three of my rides, all three of my runs. My effort has been puny but I’ve been moving forward and it helps me eat and sleep.

Last night my friend Larry and I went to see a movie and yesterday evening I heard from two friends who wanted to go to the river in the morning. Plus I’d already planned to go with a third. So I got to go with three other people and three other dogs! Then at the river met my friend Clare and her beautiful dog Zoe! Boy if you were feeling sad or tired or sorry for yourself, it couldn’t stand up long in that environment. This picture was taken when we first got to the river. Zoe is the black dog in the back. She’s Clare’s dog. I think Lucy is the black dog with her back toward the camera in the front. Lucy is Lee and Kara and their family’s dog. I’ve had the great good fortune of dog sitting her this week. Mackey is the black dog behind me. Roux is under my right arm. Pat’s beautiful new dog Luna is the black and white one directly in front of me, and their other excellent new friend Lola is the little brown one. They are an outstanding pair.

Support Group

After we left the river and went home I did a ninety minute “run”, although that is a very flexible use of that verb. I moved forward on my feet under my own power non stop for 90 minutes. And I did not walk every single minute. Next week I’ll pick up the pace a little. This week was about getting it done.

After running I hopped in the shower then Lee and Evelyn and I caught an early show of Harry Potter at the Bowtie. We drove directly to Crossroads for dinner and ice cream. I was the only one who had dinner. They had toasted whole wheat  bagels and cream cheese with scallions, and tomatoes that tasted like they’d been picked around five minutes before they sliced them and put them on the bagel. It was absolutely out of this world. The minute I polished off the first one I went back for another. Then finished the meal off with Bev’s Strawberry Basil Sorbet. I could not wipe the smile off my face. There was a fun band playing and lots of fun people. Lots of very, very small children dancing. Non-stop entertaining. Their dances are all like snowflakes, every one is different, every one is perfect. The best thing, especially when the kids are around maybe three years old, is they’re dancing but they just don’t even know they’re dancing. They think about it maybe as much as we think about breathing. They can’t even stop themselves. They hardly take their eyes off the band too, which is also kind of cool. It is very, very refreshing to watch. Refreshing and rejuvenating and restorative. This weekend started out brutal and just got better and better and better.

We all miss Max. It was bad for Max, bad for me, and Mackey and Roux have felt  awful. Especially Roux, especially yesterday. She just loves Mackey, but she must have enjoyed Max’s calm presence. And it hasn’t even been three months since we lost Ivory. I didn’t expect her to be this upset but it’s been very obvious. I think she likes having big, confident boys around. But hiking at the river was a tonic for her this morning, just as it is for me. She’s already feeling better. We’ll see what happens.

Goodbye old buddy

I can’t properly express my thanks for the support from all of you. It’s better for me than the river, than watching kids dance, better even than eating chocolate. It is a treasure to have friends like mine. I’m looking forward to seeing you all soon!

Have a great week,

Jay and menagerie

Posted in Dogs, Endurance, Fun, People, Rivers, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!) | 19 Comments

Earlier today…

Posted on August 4, 2011 by Jay McLaughlin

4 August, 2011             Earlier today

Mackey and Roux and I got up early to go to the river this morning. It’s the best part of the day – by far. Lucy is hanging out with us for a few days. This is one of the rewards for getting to the river early:

The reward is to be there

Another early morning reward is Rose of Sharon at the river:

Rose of Sharon at Pony Pasture

I do a lot of work with animal and human behavior. A guiding mantra when working with behavior is “behavior is communication.” Lucy is shown here communicating unmistakably that when you go to a river, you don’t mess around taking pictures of flowers:

Exuberant Lucy

There were lots of geese hanging around at the edge of the grass. Roux sauntered over for a look; perhaps she wanted to introduce herself. Or maybe round them up. I whistled once and she looked my way. I see plenty of gorgeous dogs but Roux is magnificent:

She is a canine super model.

With one on a leash (even without one on a leash) it’s difficult to get a shot of the whole pack together. Even a small pack like this. This was the best I could do:

Swimming and hiking

We barely made it five minutes down the trail when Lucy’s leash snapped. If you ever dog sit, there are few worse feelings than having a dog you’re caring for running loose. But the moment the leash broke, she ran right up to me. She’d done this walk a bunch of times already so she knew the route. And she was hanging around with Roux and Mackey. So I decided to let her do the whole walk off-leash. She rewarded my trust by never letting me out of her sight, and by hopping back in the car ahead of the other two as soon as we got back to the parking lot. She is a very sweet girl. Here is a picture of her jogging along with the souvenir from her leash:

Out for a morning jog

Max is doing fine. He’s still snoozing away in the den. He looks up and gives me what passes for a wan smile whenever I come in. I interpret his demeanor as happy to be home but exhausted. He and I will both be happier when he gets a few calories in. But he’s fine.

Have a great day,

Jay and posse

Posted in Dogs, Flowers, Fun, People, Rivers, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!) | 5 Comments

You’re only as happy…

Posted on August 4, 2011 by Jay McLaughlin

4 August, 2011                 You’re only as happy…

I’ve heard you’re only as happy as your least happy child. My current least happy child is Max. I picked him up from the vet around 5:00. He actually jogged out in the parking lot; I had to slow him down so he wouldn’t open up his surgical scar. Since he’s gotten home he’s not real energetic. But I think he’s happy to be with his buds. Here’s a picture of him now he’s here:

My least happy child is not very happy

I think he’s just groggy and sore and worn out. He’s breathing fine but not eating much. They may have fed him before I picked him up; I wish I’d asked. He was also very cheerful and enthusiastic coming in the house. I have to carry him up the stairs (although he’d rather do it himself). I’m pretty certain he’s just finally letting his guard down now he’s home. Relaxing. We’ll take good care of him.

In a few minutes I’m going to put up a more energetic post, also of dogs, also today. Mackey and Roux and Special Guest Dog Lucy and I had a wonderful hike at the river early. I came away with a couple of pictures I enjoyed. I’ll post that in a few minutes.

Posted in Rivers | 2 Comments

Max is doing great

Posted on August 3, 2011 by Jay McLaughlin

3 August, 2011    Max is doing great

As many of you are aware, Max had a large mast cell tumor on the left side of his chest for some time. Dr. Scotti, our superb doctor at Springfield Veterinary Center recommended we have him evaluated by the veterinary oncologist at Richmond’s Veterinary Emergency and Specialty Center, Dr. Amanda Fulmer. The tumor was already large and getting larger. Dr. Fulmer recommended we have it removed. My animals are comfortable and I am comfortable at Springfield, so I asked if they would do the surgery. I dropped him off around 9:00 this morning.

Dr. Escobar called me at mid-afternoon and said the surgery had gone well. He said I could take Max home tonight if I liked, but it was a big tumor and there was still some bleeding. I elected to leave Max there overnight. I also knew I’d be taking Mackey and Roux and Lucy to the river at 6:30 tomorrow morning and there is no way to sneak out without Max knowing. And becoming agitated. So I went up and hung out with him for half an hour tonight. I brought him some chicken strips. Dr. Escobar said it was okay for him to have them. Max wolfed them down. They brought him more food; he was starving. I always think a hungry animal is a healthy animal.

Max recuperating

I think he's looking for more food - a good sign

Perhaps would rather come home tonight. But tomorrow will be fine.

That was a big tumor. Max is 11 y.o. I’m sure it will heal well; it’s great having Alex here to assist with follow up. And Dr. Scotti and Dr. Escobar and Dr. Kolster do great work. So I know Max’s recovery will be a good one. But the prognosis for advanced cancer in elderly dogs is not great. But he’s still got a lot of great hikes at the river ahead. I know I can hardly wait to get him down there; I know he’s looking forward to it even more!

Have a great day,

Jay, Max, et al.

Posted in Dogs, Endurance, People, Rivers, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!) | 5 Comments