The Vacation (a.k.a. lots of puppy pictures)

So we, got back from our vacation and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves - mostly, by doing absolutely nothing. We sat and read a lot of books (I made my way through 3 Hornblower novels), relaxed in the hottub, enjoyed the great flavors at High Tides (amazing seafood) and mused over our future.

The highlight of the trip was on Friday morning, when we decided to take Siku out to enjoy the sun and snow, leashless. As many dog owners know, it's hard to find a place to let your dog run free in the city/burbs/anywhere. Especially an extremely curious and hard-of-hearing six-month old Husky who loves to run. Dog runs are OK, but they're not ideal, and since he hasn't had all his shots, we don't take him to them.

Enter a long-lost secret: National Forest Service roads. We found a road that was on the way to Mt. Bachelor that had been snow-cat groomed for x-country skiers, perfectly patted down for a walk. We went in about 100 yards and off came the leash, on came the fun! We saw only two other people in our 3 mile hike - and they were on snowmobiles. Siku ran and ran, jumping in and out of the snow, tackling errant snowballs and generally having a good time.

On the plus side, we learned that he is indeed decently trained and responds to our commands even off-leash. Now, he was no attentive lab who was eagerly awaiting our every word, but if he heard his name, he responded and came to our sides with no problems! At least the last 4 months of training are starting to pay off. We'll definitely be revisiting the NFS roads come summer.

On to the pictures - so you can see how cute our dog is. Notes:
1.) No, he's not for sale.
2.) Yes, he's an all-white purebred Siberian Husky.
3.) No, his coat won't change colors.
4.) Yes, both eyes are blue.
5.) Yes, he sometimes gets away with murder just because he looks so good.
6.) Sometimes he looks like a huge dork.
7.) Sometimes he falls on his face, and it's funny.


The Forest Service Road:



Elisha, enjoying the walk:



Siku, doing his favorite thing:






Siku, jumping after snowballs:






Sometimes he looks like a huge dork:



And sometimes, he proves it:



The closeup:



Finally, our happy, curious, finally leash-free doggie:



And now you're all saying "Please, no more dog pictures." Too bad. They'll keep coming.