Back to your regularly scheduled program

But first, an update on Miracle, who is truly living up to his name. He's standing on his own and eating 12-14 cups of food a day. He's still got a ways to go, but his chances are improving every day! He's gone from looking like a zombie dog to the poster child for neglect, but it's a big step in the right direction. Miracle first arrived at 33lbs and now, with proper hydration and feeding, he's up to 50lbs and walking under his own steam to go outside to potty!

If you can spare a few minutes and a few dollars, please head over to IDR+ and make a donation. The bill for a recovery like this isn't going to be small and like all rescues, any little bit makes a big difference!

Now on to slightly less dramatic happenings...

I've been participating in a group called "52 Weeks of Chazhound", where there is a different photo theme each week. It'll be interesting to see how the year pans out. 

Week Two's theme was "Black and White"

 

The other week, before dawn had even hit the snooze button for the first time, Engineer Boyfriend, Sawyer and I piled into a rented van provided by  C.A.R.E  and headed from Denver to Hays, KS to both drop off a gorgeous Dane boy who was going to his new home and to pick up a load of dogs that were going to be going to various rescues around Colorado to await their new homes. The Dane was too big to fit into any of the crates we already had loaded, so he rode loose. Once he accepted that Sawyer was NOT a pillow for his comfort, all was well and he spent most of the ride asleep.

Apparently I am a pillow for his comfort.

We made it to Hays just fine, forgot about the time change just long enough to order food from Applebee's, scrambled to get it To Go instead of sitting down for the leisurely lunch we had planned and hit up the rendezvous point to get the dog. It took about an hour to get everyone pottied and loaded (with some bits of french fry bribery) and headed back to Denver with 21 dogs and 5 cats. I wasn't able to get any pictures of the dogs because we were on such a tight schedule. Just imagine a whole lot of Goldens/mixes, some lab puppies, two bostons, a cocker spaniel, two akitas and two Newfie puppies.

Sawyer kept a close eye on the kitties when we stopped for fuel. They were pissed about having to ride with 21 dogs.

Surprisingly, the ride west remained much quieter than I would have thought, as long as we kept the speed up. Jake the Golden would bark his head off anytime we dropped below 65 mph, but that was about it. Kansas tends to get a bad rap about being boring, what with the whole "no mountains" thing going for it (ostentatious, much, Colorado?), but I will submit the follow photo for your consideration. 

Exhibit A--just outside of Colby, KS

Kansas does know how to do sunsets. This is SOOC. I have the whole slew of these on my Flickr if you want to see just how colorful the Plains can get.

So remember that shark Sawyer got from his Secret Santa for Christmas? The love affair hasn't ended, nay, it's gotten stronger. 

Dun DUN...dun DUN...dunDUNdunDUNdundundun (psst, that's the "Jaws" theme)...

SNOW SHARK!!

"Dude, are you ok?"

 "I don't think he's ok."

 "Put me down! Auuuuugh!"

"Now I know how the surfers feel..."

"Fish are friends, not food! Fish are FRIENDS, NOT FOOD!"

 

Sharky is a little melodramatic at times. I think it's because he's resentful of being landlocked and an amputee. 

Ok, to apologize for my earlier crack on Colorado, I offer up this photo for your viewing pleasure.

Exhibit B--Buena Vista, CO

 

 Depending on where you want to go, you can hit up some good inner mountain action in about an hour. We decided to go the scenic route for about 2 1/2 hours to get to one of EB's friend's grandparent's cabin. Enough possessives for you? Anyway, tourists and natives alike love this state because Colorado has ostentatious stunning scenery, schizophrenic weather and lots of roaming wildlife. Except for Hank. Hank's roaming days are long gone. 

 "Heyyy you guuuuuuys!"

We were there for about two hours before Sawyer looked up and had a very classic WTF moment. 

"Wha..where's the rest of you??"

"Are you a zombie?"

"OMG it's a zombie! Alert! Alert!"

He eventually calmed down, mostly because he figured that if we were literally on the ground because we were laughing so hard, the zombie elk couldn't be too dangerous. He did keep looking up suspiciously for about another hour afterwards though, then Teva got him to wrestle with her and he forgot all about Hank.

Oh yeah, Sawyer has a girlfriend now. Teva the Golden. Teva is the stereotypical blonde--super sweet, not all there in the craniological department. 

"Yay! I haz a stick! It's my favorite!"

 

 Sawyer has attempted to come up with ways to enlighten Teva to the joys of higher thinking.

 

"Hmm, that didn't work."

H

 

 "And I go car-ay-zeeeee!"

 Teva's obliviousness doesn't extend to inappropriate biting.

 "Vogue."

There was a rather full moon, no clouds and enough snow on the ground for good reflective light, so I decided to drag along my tripod and play around with some long exposures.

 

 I'm rather happy with the results. 

Can you pick out Orion?

 

 I can't wait to play around a little more with this, especially when there isn't as much moonlight. The Milky Way is nearly tangible up this high and gets even better a few thousand feet up. So stay tuned!