We have rain. Lots and lots of rain. 1.6 inches (4cm) in the last 24 hours, so the Herd is expressing its total boredom right now.
Rusty, Kodiak, Cheoah (er, cleaning herself) and Qannik (or, Qannik’s ears and body) on the porch
Rusty and Kodiak in the dog room (they swear not their wet paw prints)
But The Herd is excited. The A04 may have gotten theirs first, but we have more snow headed our way on Sunday. Up to 8 inches are expected and we can’t wait. Our hu-dad is worried he might not be able to get out Monday morning on a busy-ness trip (both the airport he’s connecting through and the airport he’s headed to are predicting snow too), but we think that’s great news. He can stay home and play with us.
The Snow Thief came back to us and our temperatures got warm yesterday (though it snowed for a while Tuesday night again), but we are supposed to be back to some snow this weekend. We want to keep the memory of snow going, so here are some random shots from this past weekend.
A road near our house before we walked on it. No paw prints!
Blue Ridge Parkway after we had walked up and then back.
So much for no paw prints, huh?
A view from our road. Chez Herd is just to the left.
A view from the Blue Ridge Parkway
Dad’s first shot of our favorite sign, except he wasn’t centered.
Ok, he got the sign, but we did not cooperate. But we love “Thunder” struck.
Aren’t the icicles great? Natasha always tries to carry one back.
First up, we have to talk about our favorite video this week (and, no, Khyra, it is not our collar video from yesterday). Our buddy Kat has a video of watching our video. So cool! We are glad to entertain our friend.
But our featured video today is dedicated to our buddy Khyra. We hope your snow thief is caught soon so you can have some more snow before that awful spring comes. Unfortunately, our jingle bells are masked some by our humans crunching through the snow (why don’t humans have paws?).
We are disappointed that our hu-dad did not get the best video of the day. We zigged, he zagged, and he suddenly ended up sitting in the middle of all of us. Again, those human feet do not grip as well as our paws. We were surprised he was there and turned around to ask him why, but then decided it would be far more fun to pounce on top of him and lick him over and over. It would have made a great video.
Our buddy Simcha posted a great question on the comments Saturday: I always think of windchimes when I see videos of “The Herd”. Do you wear special tags to make this pretty noise? Is there a purpose behind it? I’ve always wondered.
So let’s start with the purpose. We live in the small town of Maggie Valley, NC, which is nestled on the east side of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park (we can actually see the park from our house). According to the National Park Service, about 1500 Black Bears live within the park boundaries and countless others live in the surrounding area such as the Pisgah National Forest and the Blue Ridge Parkway. In fact, we had a run in with a black bear just last year.
In addition to the bears, we have bobcats, elk, (both of which we have seen) and lots of creatures you do not want to get up close and personal with (for example, skunks). The Park Service for years denied that Mountain Lions live in the area, but they have started even acknowledging that they might be here as well. No, we have not seen a Mountain Lion (sorry, Huffle).
Anyway, since we love hiking all of the various trails in this area, we would prefer to see these magnificent animals from a distance, but not up close and personal. So the idea is to make noise and bear bells are a way to do that. We don’t personally use bear bells, but the tags work the same way.
So, that’s the why. Now the how. Each member of the Herd actually has TWO collars, as pictured here:
The top collar is a break away collar made by Chinook & Co. We became a huge fan of these collars one night when Rusty and Natasha were wrestling and Rusty’s jaw got caught in Natasha’s collar. The more Rusty tried to pull away, the tighter the collar cinched around Natasha’s neck. Natasha nearly passed out before I was able to cut the collar away and get the two dogs separated. I had never been so scared as those few seconds and will never forget the sounds of Rusty’s screams and the look on Natasha’s face. I instantly took the old collars off and ordered breakaway collars.
The lower collar is a limited slip collar and is the collar The Herd wears when out for a hike, though they never wear them inside the house. They simply slip over the head, but can tighten when attached to a leash, but never tighten so far as to choke.
Both collars are demonstrated in this video:
So the jingle? As you can see in the picture above, the breakaway collar has an ID tag (dog’s name, address, and phone numbers) from Go-Tags and the Rabies Tag (often required in many parks to prove the dog has had the required rabies vaccination). The limited slip collar also has an ID tag from Go Tags for two reasons: 1) makes it easy to figure out whose collar is whose hanging on the hook by the door and 2) a second ID just in case the break away collar comes off while out for a hike. Thus, there are three metal tags that clang while we walk. Multiply that by six dogs, and you have a lot of jingling.
So, Simcha, there is the how and why we jingle while we walk.
Snow is meant to be enjoyed totally and completely when you are a Siberian. Don’t just walk in it – immerse yourself in it. As demonstrated by a snow covered Cheoah and a happy Kiska:
So this our pathetically obvious attempt to be added to the patrol. Our problem is that we live at an altitude where normal squirrels do not live. Really. None. But we do have flying squirrels. Squirrels with wings. Well, sort of. More squirrels with gliders. They can’t flap but they can float. And that makes catching them totally difficult.
So, anyway, we only get to see normal squirrels when we are out on our adventures and then the humans always have those pesky leashes on us. Sigh. But that brings us to our story.
We were at a flea market yesterday. Not sure why, we don’t want no stinking fleas. But flea markets do seem to attract the most interesting people. We were patiently sitting in our jeep looking all cute and fluffy and watching people come over to us and say how cute and fluffy we are.
A gentleman walked up wearing overalls and he had a fascinating long flowing beard as in the fashion among some men here in Appalachia. We found him to be very interesting to watch and sniff. And then we discovered a horrifying secret. He had a pet. In his overall pocket. Yes – brace yourself – the horror, the horror – a pet squirrel. Poking its little head out and watching the action.
We were shocked, we tell you. And we have suddenly decided we want to go back to that flea market. Maybe they actually sell pet squirrels there. Now THAT we could all get into.
Let’s get this out of the way first. Bad human. We have no fresh pictures since last weekend. Sigh. It is so hard to find good human help these days.
So we were looking at our photos from last weekend and noticed something. First of all, here is a picture of all of the dogs on the picket line:
Now here is a close up of Kiska, all relaxed and polite and well behaved. Notice how her paws are relatively clean and the ground under her paws is not disturbed. Even that wooly coat is fairly clean (a good thing considering how much fun it is to brush).
And now we give you Cheoah. Same idea, except notice how disturbed the ground is. And how muddy the paws are:
You can hide them little girl, but they are still muddy.
And so now the video proof. Notice how everyone is sitting calmly, but you can hear the Cheoah whines before you get to her. But she looks like she is sitting still until the the temper tantrum begins. I do love how the other dogs just ignore her and ignore how she bounces the cable around. She is learning though.
NOTE – Picket lines and tie outs are great tools, but great care must be taken. The Herd all wear limited slip collars on the picket line (they wear break-away collars in the house) and are always under close supervision. Learning to sit patiently on a picket line is part of the training. Cheoah is learning.
Rusty the Rooster stars in this particular Walking Wednesday edition. As always, he is a little unique in his approach. Check in tomorrow for Kiska’s response!
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