science!

We did that petco DNA test on Lenny that tells you what breeds your mutt is made of. We swabbed his cheek with a mascara brush and mailed it to A Lab. This is what came back:



Ha ha, just kidding.



Huh.

??

I think it is problematic because certain breeds are not profiled yet and some of those might be Lenny breeds. Like foxhound. He does like the snow though. Clearly that comes from the malamute. That and the one blue eye.

shenandoah camping

Last weekend we went camping with my parents at Loft Mountain in Shenandoah National Park. Normally we only go to the northern part of Shenandoah because it is closer so I was excited to go to the other end. It was Lenny's first time camping and he was pretty good, by which I mean he was not much worse than he is at home, except for the first night, when he was not tired at all and alternated between biting us and trying to chew his way out of the tent all night.

I knew something was going to be wrong with our campsite because it was the only reservable one that was not reserved already. It was just that it is not level so you slide down the mountain all night, and also it is not that big because most of it is taken up by shrubberies full of ticks and spiders.

On Saturday it was a little rainy. We did the Big Run Loop trail which is 5.8 miles and 1100 ft elevation change and it elicited massive amounts of whining from the hike participants. We only saw a couple people until the connection with the Appalachian Trail where there were many skinny young people with scraggley beards.

"Check the map again because I am tired and so I feel that the hike should be over now so we must be going the wrong way."

Lenny has no complaints.

On Sunday it was nicer and we did the Rose River Falls Loop. I didn't think it was that much easier but there was much less complaining. It was rather crowded though and every now and then you would look back and see a pack of toddlers dressed in LL Bean fleeces hurtling towards you.

Here are some more pictures.

Lenny goes to Washington

Yesterday we took Lenny to DC to Vegfest. Sometimes he ducks away when people try to pet him so we are trying to socialize him more. He did very well and did not have a head explosion and met many dogs and let many people pet him and only ducked away a little bit.

Chris O waited in a giant line to buy us a tasty cake from Vegan Treats. We also had some falafels and some oddly gooey soft-serve vanilla ice cream. Lenny had a sample of V-Dog and serious amount of face-licking from Caramello.

Then we took Lenny for a walk on the national mall which was swarming with militant republicans.

Don't Tread On [Lenny's Tail]!

As Lenny was petted by both vegans and republicans in one day, I think we get a gold star for socialization.

adventures in demodectic mange

It was very sad and lonely without Oscar. I found this poor puppy on petfinder. He was in a high-kill gassing shelter in North Carolina.

An organization called A Shelter Friend pulled him from the shelter for us and arranged to send him to us. He had to be in quarantine for 2 weeks to make sure he was healthy enough to travel. Unfortunately during that two weeks his shelter illnesses got much worse. Lenny showed up in a crazy van full of dogs on their way to rescues in the northeast, at 2am. He was a mess!


Poor Lenny had demodex mange with a secondary staph infection, coccidia, hookworms, and tapeworms. Also he stunk like a dirty horse. It is sad for dogs in shelters how the stress and circumstances can make them so sick. And also make their furs fall out so no one wants to adopt them. But now after six weeks of a million pills, Lenny is better! I just hope the day comes soon when I no longer have to squirt ivermectin down his gullet. He is now very feisty and bitey and has gained 13 pounds. He will be starting dog school soon.