Kiwi's courageuos cousin encounters cougar!

Jasmine, another beautiful ACD from Washington, Vancouver Washington that is, had a real surprise on one of her recent hikes. (Kiwi resting next to me, just sighed and farted. Nasty flavored rawhide recycled, ewwwww)
First off, meet Jasmine's family, Emory and Rebecca, who have lovingly taken in an ACD rescue into their Northwest home and have provided lots of TLC for Jasmine.Now is that a Northwest setting or what? So there they were, Rebecca and Jasmine hiking in the Columbia River Gorge area when they spotted a COUGAR from a distance! Rebecca was quick with both mind and camera. She commanded Jasmine to lie down and stay, then was able to pull off the photo of the puma before it took off. (I remember Kiwi being charged by a mountain goat when hiking Mount Ellinor. My sphincter was so tight a single spider-web strand wouldn't passed.) Take a look at the picture, man, it gets me excited just thinking about being in that situation, with no protection. Props to the girls.
Rebecca has let it be known that when on family hikes, Emory provides protection from dangerous critters. Sometimes he says firearm protection is warranted, but her version of Emory's protection has something about "ode de Sasquatch". ;-) But just look at that smile of his. I'm sure he could charm the whole hive of honey from a bunch of busy Ethiopian bees. According to rare archival documentation, below, Emory has been charming the wild things for a long time now (he's the one holding the stick thingy). Whichever story you believe, when hiking, one must be on the look out for the wild things in the Northwest.
Here's another great shot of Jasmine out on a hike. I think I see a hint of a smirk as she is thinking "poor flatlanders" while posing for the pic. LOL No pollution in the background sky. Oh wait, The Pacific Northwest is just terrible. Lots of traffic, nowhere to shop, expensive to live, poor government institutions, lots of communicable diseases. Best advice is to stay away, yeah, just stay away. Nothing to see here, move along folks. ROFL.........

Kiwi's Northwest Video's

TO SEE KIWI'S VIDEO COLLECTION, GO TO YOUTUBE.COM (or click on the title to be taken to YouTube) AND TYPE "KIWITHEACD" IN THE SEARCH FIELD.

Testing a link to a video.

And it worked!!! If you click on the "Kiwi's Northwest Video's" it will take you to "YouTube". This is a free service that allows people to share videos with other people. Now that I know how it works, I can add some more of Kiwi.

All videos and photos are taken with my Canon Powershot 400 & 550. I prefer the 400 as it is slightly smaller. Photo quality is good enough at 5 Megapixels, which means I have to resize them anyway to put on the web. :-)

Off to find some more videos of Kiwi and our hiking adventures.

Full day

Kiwi initiated this weekend by bring me a flyer about a nearby herding trial. Linda Bell and Alison Deilke of the Cascade Austalian Cattle Dog Club made sure we got the all information about the event and even driving directions a two-legged male could follow.
Kiwi started the day at sunrise so we could catch an early ferry to Whidbey Island. It was a very warm weekend up here in the northwest, uncomfortably so, but there are others that have it worse. I wonder if dogs get brain freeze when they gulp down an ice cold slurpee?
The pic below kinda sums up the day for Kiwi and I. We did not know anyone and most folk were busy with their four-legged friends herding and such, that we called it a day around lunch time.
This on shot of another red ACD, shows it in herding action with ducks. Ducks, sheep, and cattle were the classes? offered at this herding trial. I still want to get Kiwi engaged in herding, but I prefer participation to observation, so I'll continue looking for local herding trainers.
One of our highlights while returning back to our dog house was the stop at the Wildernest Outdoor Store. Here Kiwi and I have made some of our outdoor purchases. There is a wonderful lady by the name of Lindsay that help us find the right backpack for Kiwi, the Palisades 2 by RuffWear (size small for Kiwi, who is at about 33 lbs, with plenty of room for any future growth). With Whidbey Island behind us, we cruised home and prepared for a full day on Sunday.

We had a guest along with us on this day trip, so it was decided to get in several nice "view" hikes/places during our hikes. Kiwi was up and ready, when are ACD's not?, and supervised us loading the backpacks into the Ferrari (silver, as can be seen in previous pics). Mount Ellinor was the first stop and for the first time, Kiwi lead us up the summer trail. Roughly the second half of the climb was out of the treeline and the warm, weekend sun certainly made its presence felt.
Here is a good upward climb at a decent grade. When clicked on, you can see other hikers on the trail. Notice how blue the sky is.

I threw this picture in for viewing because of the oh so contrasting white snow at the bottom. I was confident that there would be no snow after the warm weeks in July but there were a couple places that we had to make our way across. Man, did I regret not bringing the sun glasses. Had to squint so much and concentrate so hard at just my feet, that I think I missed bigfoot when he ambled by. Or that could have been Kiwi barking a "I told you so".

And another view of the steep grade pictured above, but from another angle. Showing the "stairs" that helped the two-legged climbers.

Kiwi using her brains to cool off at every opportunity. A quick snapshot of some mountain goat fleece and one of the little rocky peak residents. Some type of striped squirrel.

A couple of shots looking east at Lake Cushman and the Puget Sound. Notice the skyline? Much more haze than in June. We need a good rain and some strong wind to clear things up a bit. Could hardly make out Mount Rainier.



So we started back down. Slowly, carefully, and making good use of our water suppy. The steepness of this hike, caused me to look on with more appreciation of the hikers who were using trekking poles. I think that trekking poles should be considered if one is attempting a level 3 or higher hike (1-5 scale). Even though we took our time, it was still hot. For the first time ever on a hike, Kiwi would actaully lie down and wait for me to catch up. And that lying down took advantage of any shade that was available. I offered her water frequently, but I was still concerned. Once we made the treeline, the shade was most appreciated. Felt like a 10 degree drop.

After leaving Mount Ellinor and driving along Lake Cushman road, we stopped for lunch at Hoodsport. I snuck Kiwi inside the small, corner restuarant and kept her beneath our table while I supplied her with cold water and ice. She was fine and luckily she didn't get asked to leave until our meal was finished. Whew.
Then it was north on Highway 101 up to the Duckabush recreation area. There is a short, easy, cool 1.6 roundtrip hike to Merhut Falls. There are two main falls that combine, real close to one another for a 115 foot drop.
Just look at the color. Doesn't that look cool and inviting? Getting late, goota go walk the furmeister. Add more later.
And here we are again. Oh yes, Merhut Falls. Our companion on this trip comes from a dry, arid climate. They were really impressed with the falls. It was very nice, cool and enjoyable to crawl down and around the falls. Very moist, but oh so refreshingly welcomed after the early morning hike. Kiwi was certainly up and perky during this time.
From the picture above, which was taken about 60 feet away, we explored both the upper and lower falls first hand and with all four paws. Kiwi was brave enough after some coaxing to walk out on the horizontal log at the lower fall. She probably wouldn't have done so if I hadn't got out there first. It was only 3-4 feet deep so no worries.Here is the closest shot of the princess I could get while messing around at the upper fall. I tried to put her on a slippery rock for an elevated angle type thing, but she would have none of it at all. Too smart. ;-)
We enjoyed a good 30 minutes spelunkering around the falls and relaxing in the cool mist.

On the way back to highway 101, we stopped to walk around in the Dosewallips river. Well that lasted about 45 seconds for us humans. Cold, very cold, but refreshing none the less. Kiwi couldn't get enough. As you can see here, she might be giving us a hint at more detailed aquatic exploration techniques.

The final leg of our day took us to Mount Walker. We were plenty tired so we drove to the peak and took advantage of the designated lookouts. Late in the day, so not a good shot, but this is the peanut-butter loving, hiking buddy with Seattle and the Puget Sound behind her.

Furry Friends

Yes that is a pomeranian on Kiwi's site. Why, because Buddy belongs to some wonderful folk who have had an influence in Kiwi's childhood. Buddy was adopted by a loving family who have worked hard to overcome Buddy's less than fortunate early years. Buddy is very shy around men, but every now and then bewtween barking he might give me a lick. Buddy is spoiled in the best ways and has some of the, I don't want to say "cute", but nicest outfits. You should see him in his martial art's gi, complete with black belt. :-) Buddy is known to completely sit thru any Bruce Lee film.
You can see Buddy is ready to defend the old homestead. Quite the efficient alarm system in action. And when there is a need for defense enforcement, Buddy will call on Major to make sure the peace is kept. Kiwi with Major. At a 125 lbs, Major will get your attention. And when excited, his strong as a tree tail, will definitely get the attention of all males of the two-legged kind. Must remember to manage the manhood with Major in the area. He has such a gentle soul and is extremely tolerant of Kiwi's, uh, fiestiness. Major is a fetch fanatic and gladly brings the ball back to the tosser.

And who is that in the box? Well, that little black furball is Max. Max keeps Kiwi's Aunt, Judy, occupied in her retirement. Max is THE prince of the house and pretty much gets what he wants. You should have seen the look on Max's face when I visited Aunt Judy and had the audacity to be resting on Max's bed when he came in for a nap. Priceless. He starred at me for awhile, swished his feline tail and haughtily sauntered off, mumbling about frikkin yankee's in the house left unattended. :-)

These two pictures show Max when he is a youngin. Nowadays, he is spoiled even more, but in the best possible ways. Kiwi has not had the "pleasure"? of meeting Max yet.

Oh there is another member to meet. A Northwest ACD!!!


The sweetheart above is Jasmine. This lovely ACD, who was rescued a few years ago, leads another Northwest couple around by the other end of the leash, Emory and Rebecca of Vancouver, Wa. Here she is posing in the snow March 2006 while recovering from TPLO-knee surgery. She enjoyed a drive to Mt. St. Helen's and she got to look out the window mostly and see Elk and the beautiful scenery.
Jasmine was rescued by way of an ACD rescue organization in Pullman, WA "Heeling Hearts". She joined her family when she was *2* years old. [She's now almost 6 yrs]The rescue organization received her from a shelter in Nevada. Mom and dad are retired here in the state of Washington and go hiking with her almost every day. They enjoy lots of waterfalls and wooded trails to keep Jasmine happy.
Sounds like a future hike for some trail loving ACD's. :-)

16 miles & 6 Tylenol

We started the day off with our usual routine, fill up with gas, check the tires and grab a breakfast. Here you can see Kiwi anxious to get on the road. Dad, why you got to fill up with energy? Us ACD's have plenty for everyone. :-)

This hike took us to Royal Lake and beyond. We started along the Dungeness River for a mile or so and then Kiwi took the right fork that leads up to Royal basin. The picture below shows Kiwi in front of Royal Creek. Some parts of the Nile are smaller than this "creek". Kiwi really does enjoy exploring the water and along the edge. As can be seen, the current is quite fast and she does treat it with caution. She'll mostly get the bottom of her belly wet, but definitely avoids the swift water. On the way down she fell about 18 inches off a bridge/log into some running water. Nothing like this picture, but enough to see her get swept about 6 feet or so before she found some footing. I was glad she had her harness on, because it was too cold for me to save her. Who am I kidding, I'd have jumped right in there. But no worries, she was fine. When she made it back on dry ground she looked at me to see how I would react to the incident. Well, I just starting hiking back down the trail. Kiwi only had time to shake herself and then catch-up. Certainly don't want to reward the falling accident with affection or else she might develop a phobia or something about bridges or logs. As it was, no harm, no foul, so dry yourself off and lets go girl.

This is a nice hike in the woods before starting the elevation ascent. The trees are spread out, the path is plenty wide, and the beautiful brown and green is enhanced with the sounds of cascading water for about an hour and a half. Very relaxing and enjoyable.
As we make our way up we pass some large trees. I don't know what type they are, Yule Gibbons I'm not, but the one in the photo below was real close to being 6 foot diameter. If Kiwi was male, I'm sure she would have marked her territory. That would have made a great shot, but, Kiwi has her trail manners and acted in a respectable manner. Mostly..... :-) As I type this, she is softly barking while she is napping. Too funny. Ooop, just woke herself up. snicker


Well about six plus miles into the hike we made it to the lower basin. There are some streams coming from the Lake and a few campsites. Actually a decent place to pitch a tent. Relatively open area, running water nearby and good views. After the lower basin, Kiwi lead the way up through more elevation passing mostly that green and brown stuff. You level out, follow the winding trail and emerge at Royal Lake below. I remember passing one couple returning from their trip and asking how much further. Well they said about 15 minutes. I must have not heard the "one hour" before they said 15 minutes. It took a while, huffed and puffed some, but make it we did to Royal Lake.


There is a trail that circles the lake with campsites plainly marked. Certain times of the year, the park service requires that these campsites be reserved. The picture below is from one of the campsites. If one is staying overnight, the lower basin had fewer mosquitos than the lake.
Taking the lake trail and branching off to the right fork will take you to the upper basin and some other campsites, some of which are "private". The signs did say "private" but I was at a loss to understand. There were some "group" sites also. Larger areas that for more people. Saw several bear buckets in use at some of the campsites. Safer to put your food in a tough container in a high location between trees, so bears can't get your goodies. The photo below shows a nice green hue to Royal Lake. Plenty of pretty colors in the Olympics. Now Kiwi just curled up next to me and is dozing. And sharing some flatulence. Yep, even dogs. ;-)


This shot shows part of the upper basin. A pretty decent size valley where we heard a bald eagle make a piercing cry. That was the highlight of the hike for me. At the same time I kept a look out for airborne animals as Kiwi could be on the eagle's menu. Most likely the many marmot holes we saw were the providers of many an eagle meal.

Off to the left of the picture above was a roughly 25 foot waterfall from the surrounding snow melt that started the stream that wound thru the valley. Above photo, just left of center you can make out a small scree field that is shown later. Below you can see the valley from the other end. The trail we followed brought us along the right side.


Here is the scree field that we crossed. If clicked, it will open up to a bigger size and you can see another hiker coming our way. Notice that there is not much of a path. Had to be careful, while envying Kiwi's low to the ground, four paw drive.

Pass the scree field, Kiwi takes time out to cool off in the snow. We are around 5,400 foot elevation at this point. Beautiful blue sky, no pollution, no sounds but those of nature and the whole outdoors to ourselves.

Just over the ridge behind Kiwi, we explored during lunch and found a "pond" of snow melt. Real nice and clear. Giving good, smooth reflections of the surrounding peaks till Kiwi put on her pith helmet and explored the waters edge. Yes, it was clear and cold. Couldn;t been more than 3-4 feet in depth.

Believe it or not it was at this time that the camera's memory card became full. Too much video on a high setting. No problem though, plenty of pictures. However, we did not get any snapshots of the marmot that were living in the rock strewn area surrounding the snow melt pond. Below is a shot of a pika that was occupying the surround rocks of the upper basin.

After this it was just eight miles back to the trailhead. The Tylenol helped. Took two when starting the hike, two more at lunch befors starting our return and the final two upon reaching the car. LOL The return trip was made in a little over 2 hours, thankfully downhill. ;-)

I was impressed with Kiwi again, as she rested a little on the way back home, but was up and being an true cattle dog, with tail wagging and mouthy loving, while I searched in vain for some Rum to introduce to a coke.

Catching up to July

With some keyboard time, I should be able to catch-up to the present for Kiwi. She certainly is always ready to expend that energy she has. If anyone knows of a way to bottle the ACD puppy energy, please share and then we can retire in style. LOL
So far this month, Kiwi and I have hiked Marmot Pass. Located in the Buckhorn Wilderness, it is a 10+ miler, round trip that has an elevation gain of ~3500 feet. Definitely a two-Tylenol hike. On these more strenouous outings Kiwi will not be burdened with her back-packs. She'll have her Ruff-Wear harness attached so her owner won't lag to far behind or get lost. :-) Actually we hiked Marmot the first two weekends in July. The weather was perfect both times. However, the camera failed on the first trip. Arghh! Talk about frustration, I bled on that hike. Oh well, the following weekend was perfect for a return trip. So revitalized, bandaged, and with a backup camera, Kiwi lead the way.

Here Kiwi is exploring the the early stages of the Dungeness River as it makes it way down from snowmelt. Yes it is clear, sensuously clear and frikkin COLD! But Kiwi doesn't mind at all. She excitedly explores all over. Not going in anything deeper than her belly. Maybe she does notice the temperature. haha
Another nice feeder stream that sounded real nice as it made it's way down the mountain. If you look just right you'll see Kiwi sorta smirking. I believe its because she knows not to add any fluids to the pure mountain runoff. ;-) Even when she has to empty the bowels, all on her own, she will go off the side of the trail and do her business. Gives me a good feeling, as one of the main complaints on the trails is people not picking up after their pets. This lack of responsibility takes its course and ends up with pets being banned. For example 99% of Olympic National Park does not permit pets. However, one tree over in the Olympic National Forest, leashed pets are permitted. Really rubs me the wrong way, beacuse there is so much to explore in the park. That reminds me, I need to check my next year destination to see if they permit pets. Hopefully get to hike up in Banff, Canada. That will provide some logistic challenges with Kiwi, so I have my homework cut out for me.

As we continue our trek upward and onward to Camp Mystery, Kiwi stopped occasionally to enjoy the flowers as they begin to bloom in abundance. We went across a couple areas of scree that were very little trouble.

Off to our right as we ascend and break out of heavily forested area, we are able to take in the ridgeline. No snow here as it receives more exposure from that big bright thing in the sky.

After Kiwi takes another water refill at Camp Mystery, which is that last stop before reaching the Pass, she pushes on. On the previous weekend we saw about five campers and enjoyed a good half-hour break on our return. Nice friendly folk. (note to self, take more pics of fellow hikers) The picture below shows Kiwi taking in the bowl right at the pass. If you follow the trail she is on, you will be at the pass in a New York minute. Then you get to take in the super vistas that are all around you.

Ok, the next few shots are Kiwi hamming it up for the camera while enjoying the surrounding views. We followed one trail to the left that lead us to roughly triangular plateau where we sat and ate lunch. While snacking, we were able to hear the whistle of one of the local marmots. And Kiwi found out that marmot scat was a previously unheard of hiking delicacy.

Some nice flora that we ran across. The little "berries" remind me of something from a kid's cereal box. Don't know what they are, but they sure do look nice.

Kiwi does have a fondness for snow. She'll take her chomp and play with with. Roll around in it and genrally has a good time. Below she is cooling her jets while dad catches his breath. "slow two-legged mammal" is what she seems to be thinking.

Pure Austalian Cattle Dog



Neener-neener dad, I can touch my nose with my tongue and you can't. haha This pic of Kiwi also, somewhat, shows her "eyeliner". The blackness around her eyes that trail off in the direction of her ears. Reminds me of the egyptian paintings in King Tuts exhibit. I know its corny, but she is a queen at times. LOL

A light June

The month of June saw us slow down a little. We did finally get to start our hike to Mount Ellinor with the roads being accessible. There are two trails, a long one that winds a couple miles thru forest and short a short one that has none of the pleasant hiking experience, just the verticle aspect of reaching the top of Mount Ellinor. Kiwi's first trip was on the long trail. The two pictures below show the "Chute" at Ellinor. The Chute is a very steep climb, and best ascended with mountain gear (ice axes & cramp-ons). You can actually see people going up the Chute in the second photo (they are the little specks, LOL) With Kiwi not being able to understand the weather report on the local news, yet, we were not prepared to tackle the chute on this trip. Safety comes first.

So what did we do to make up for the extra time? We did some house cleaning. With Kiwi assigned to remove all empty boxes to the recycle. Here you can see how thorough a job Kiwi does when assigned such a difficult task. She knows the good trash folk won't pick up any recycleables unless they are cleaned. Well, as seen below, Kiwi is doing her darnedest to comply with those recycling requirments. One of the "jobs" Kiwi enjoys is actually taking out the recyclable material to the bins. Roll up a magazine, squish a soda can or what-not and tell her "recycle" and she perks right up, takes the object in her mouth and will carry out to the container and drop it in. She actually loves doing this, gets so happy and rewarded of course. Now just to teach her which recycle goes in which bin: plastic, paper or metal and to open doors. Well maybe not to open doors. :-)


Part of Kiwi's socialization and training occurs at the local Petsmart. She is really lucky to have a wonderful instructor by the name of Kelly, who spent time at Sea World as one their animal trainers. One of the early problems I had in socializing Kiwi was my fault all the way. Kiwi wears a prong collar and responds well to its proper use. But when seeing and greeting other dogs, Kiwi would strain and lean forward to meet and greet, but I would be overly cautious and keep the leash tight in case the situation turned sour. Well, my energy of anxiety and Kiwi leaning into the prong collar caused Kiwi, as Kelly astutely point out, to be aggressive. She was unknowingly placing the pain and my energy onto the other dog. Kelly suggested a flat collar. So we tried it out at the dog park and sure enough, no aggression. Actually Kiwi was rather submissive with the other dogs. So now when we are out and about wearing the prong and an encounter is immenent, I will loosen any tension both in myself and in the leash. This has helped a lot and enable Kiwi to meet and greet more naturally. As she matures, Kiwi has become more "dominating" and will take a swipe at an ear for those dog-only-knows reasons. She minds the corrections and can behave with supervision. I just associate the behavior with adolescence and the breed. Any thoughts?

A couple of weeks of warm weather and Kiwi is anxious to retry Mount Ellinor. This trip we drive up the upper hike trail-head. The day was great. Sunny, seventies, and soaked with Northwest splendor. Well we knew what lay before us with climbing the Chute, so we just put paw in front of the other and took our time. Here is Kiwi about halfway up the Chute. Lake Cushman and the Puget Sound provides the backdrop. I cropped this picture and have it as my desktop wallpaper.

As we continued up Kiwi lead the way to a small ridge that had more great views. So I whipped out the camera and started snapping pics. At the same time a small goat family from below also joined us on the ridge. First time for Kiwi and I with wild animals of this size at this distance. The goats kept walking in their original direction, but one of the parents made a bluff-charge at Kiwi. Kiwi, before, during and after, never made a sound, no hackles up, nothing, just alert, focused and quiet. The bluff-charge stopped short about 4-6 feet of Kiwi. I could have made a diamond from a charcoal briquet. Fortunately, just the one charge and then the goats ambled off. While I was trying to get my stomach back in place, Kiwi looked at me like, "Hey, cool Dad. Anything else?"While at the top we took in the magnificent 360 degree views. Able to see Mount Baker, Mount Rainier, and even Mount Saint Helens, the volcano. Seattle across the Puget Sound was visible, including the famous Space Needle. To the west were the Olympic Mountains. Fantastic time at the top. Kiwi explored with the little rock squirrels and gave serious study time to the other furry animals, that I'm sure she thought needed herding. :-) Have to admit a little pride in Kiwi, in that she never barked, growled or did anything but exhibit polite canine citizenship.