Dogs North and South

[furtech]

Taiwanese Mountain Dog, center. Full Flickr set here!

At the last minute I shot up to NorCal to celebrate Thanksgiving with family. On TG day, I met some good friends and their new Corgi puppy. OMG. Cute! Typically Corgi, she was fearless (but not stupidly so). She will be a GREAT dog when she grows up-- M&K have done everything right: good puppy class, lots of exposure to kids, people and other dogs.

Adorable


I also saw a new life-book dog: a Taiwanese Mountain Dog (aka, Formosan Mountain Dog). Amazing! She was one of the dogs adopted from a group flying Taiwanese street dogs back to the US to be adopted (very hard life for a dog in Taiwan). She is probably a mix-- but look at that tiny, thin body on those legs! It's like they ran out of whippet body parts, so they stuck a spaniel body on those whippet legs. She is beautiful and sweet, but those proportions are startling! Also, notice the spaniel-like head and stop. Smart, sweet and agile. Really interesting!

The first thing we did when we got back to L.A. was take a hike up the Newhall Pass to work off some of the turkey. This is pretty much a straight-up hill climb, with the usual fantastic views. We started the hike at Golden Hour: the point around sunset when everything glows as the sun sets.

We discovered that the heart rocks circle had been greatly expanded since we last were here. I love seeing these informal rock groupings and stacking. Perfect place for pics of the dogs! Much love.



I also found a cindar block at the turnaround of the hike. This is exactly what I'd been looking for as something for a project I'm trying, so I tried to lug it back the two miles to the car. Just when I thought I'd hide it in some bushes (about 200 yards later) and come back and move it a little at a time, I realized that this weighed about what I'd lost in weight-- so as an experiment I determined to lug it all the way back to remind myself of what it was like before. Success on several levels: I got the block back to the car and got a stark reminder of what that much weight does to you. It's amazing what a little OCD can accomplish!

Comments

[fenris-lorsrai.livejournal.com]

The Formosan Mountain Dgo looks really similar to my dog, but generally all landrace pariah types seem to gravitate towards a similar body plan.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

True (wrt pariah dogs)-- what struck me about this dog was her spaniel-like head and the incredibly thin frame on those long legs. On a whippet, this would look fine...but very short neck accentuates the strange form.

[lironess.livejournal.com]

Is that about 20 lbs? I can hardly carry a 40 lb cat litter only a few steps at a time and that is how much I have lost so far...

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Congrats on the 40! Man, I can sure feel the difference in my knees alone! Every pound you lose is eight pounds of pressure off your knees (<-- wow!) and I can really feel it-- like walking on the moon!

[didjiman.livejournal.com]

CORGIS!

[karisu-sama.livejournal.com]

CORGIS!! :D :D :D (yes, singular, but there are 2 pics of that cutie ^^)


I also like the heart-shaped "dog frame". R0ndo and Apache ARE love. :)

[karisu-sama.livejournal.com]

Aw, that's not even a complete cinder block! I lug full ones around my yard* all the time. :p~~~ (They actually vary in weight depending on the density of their manufacture. I have some that are relatively light compared to some others in my yard. I'm sure those will break more easily than the denser ones too.)

*OK, not with my elbow injury.... :/

[furtech.livejournal.com]

I just weighed it and I was pretty close in my mental estimation of weight: I guessed 25lbs and it weighs in at 24lbs, even with the end cut off. Still, it's about ten pounds less than my current net weight loss.

The heart rocks are wonderful-- but they're a bit of a climb to get to. Serious hikers would scoff at the difficulty, but for a fatty-wimp like me, it's a puffer! (approx. 2miles of ridge hiking each way, with about a 500' peak altitude gain)

And I agree with you and didjiman CORGIS!!!