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19 August ~ 2007
Ben and Maggie are secure and confidant, and very happy. They know they are loved equally as much as they love me. Their hearts are lifted the same as mine when we travel together in wilderness.
All the adventures we have had have increased the bond between us. Below are photos from our backpacking and hiking vacation to Montana and Wyoming in early August:
All the walking on rocks took its toll on Ben's paws. Midway through the second week he was acting gimpy, then started favoring his front left paw. I was worried sick, and took him to a vet in Pinedale, Wyoming. She gave him some antiinflammatory pills, applied some ointment to the blister on his footpad, and bandaged up his foot. She assured me he would be fine once he rested his foot some. I was relieved.
The bottom three miles of the trail we take into the Beartooths is pretty much solid rock. Next year Ben will have some dog booties on all four feet, until we get past that point. I had them with us this year, but didn't use them.
Ben's spirit in the mountains is larger than life, and its not surprising it will surpass what his body can handle. Little Maggie walked the same trails as Ben, but didn't come down with any foot problems. She stays closer to me, doesnt try the things Ben does regularly in a backcountry day:
It was a good trip with my kindred spirit border collies. While staying at a campground on the Clarks Fork River, the campground host told me about a swimming hole that was upstream a little ways. I went up there one afternoon and found a black sand beach, all the way across to some large boulders. The water was way over my head. I would swim across to the boulders and Ben and Maggie would follow me, and follow me back. The command for our game of hide and seek is to 'find Dad.' I would yell that and swim underwater with the current for as long as I could hold my breath.
From then on me and the dogs went swimming every afternoon - a nice alternative to trying to find a shower somewhere.
Not that I am back from our August vacation, I know this much is true: There is not one person on this earth that is wealthier than me and my two dogs, wandering around the Mountain West, or at home bacpacking to some high country basin.
"The bond with a true dog is as lasting as the ties of this earth can ever be."
-Konrad Lorenz
I happened to read a touching news story today, from Iraq, in an article about dogs of war. It is a testament to the love of dogs and their people.
U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Adam Cann,a 23 year-old dog handler, was killed in the line of duty on January 5, 2006. Adam's german shepard Bruno sensed explosives, and began barking at the suicide bomber. Adam confronted the bomber, who detonated his bomb. Adam took the full force of the explosion. His german shepard and the other soldiers survived, shielded by Cann's body.
When Marine Cpl. Brendan Poelaert awoke after the explosion, he saw that injured Bruno layed over the top of Adam Cann's body, trying to protect him.