Trail dog

Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent.
To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden,
where doing nothing was not boring... it was peace.

Milan Kundera

I've felt really nostalgic the past week or so, seeing blogging friends posting photos of their dogs, and remembering how much I loved sharing my life with a dog.

Storm was our second dog, and our last dog (at least so far). He was a rescue dog, as most of our resident four-legged creatures have been. He came to us in early winter, after our Norwegian Elkhound disappeared one night. When I put up a note at work, a friend asked if we were interested in adopting a Siberian Husky that they had rescued. D fell in love with this big furry dog at first sight, and we took him home. We figured with 5 acres, if Bjorn ever found his way home, there was plenty of room for two.

We soon figured out that while kind and gentle with people and cats, Storm had a different perspective on farm animals. The first time we let him run in the front pasture, he chased the geese. The geese could look out for themselves, however, and the gander chased Storm off. A month later we were working in the front pasture, and suddenly Storm just took off, heading for our neighbor's place. By the time Dave got there, Storm had jumped the fence of their goat pen and had one of the goats pinned. So from then on, he was on a run unless he was in the house with us. We were disappointed. We wanted a farm dog, one that could stay outside while we were at work, keeping an eye on the place.

If we couldn't trust Storm off-leash at home, how would he behave when we went hiking? There was only one way to find out. We chose a trail off Snoqualmie Pass while there was still snow on the ground, and off we went. We kept Storm on a leash for the first mile, then unclipped the leash. We figured he'd either run off, or he'd figure it out and stay with us. We held our breath as he ran ahead of us about 30 feet, stopped and sniffed the snow... and came right back to us. We hiked for hours, and this dog knew his place was a few dozen yards ahead of us, and he kept a careful eye on us, never getting out of our sight. He became the perfect trail dog, and we never left him at home when we went hiking.