Wellie seems like a perfectly normal dog*…until you see him swim. Watch his heroic efforts to rescue me from the menacing waters of Sheep Lake in this Oscar shoo-in from Tofupup Productions:

*or at least a perfectly normal rat.

From the first moment we set foot on the trail to Noble Knob, it was clear that this was Bobby’s place. Aside from the obvious (peeing on something means you own it, right?), he just seemed incredibly happy there, smelling the flowers in the meadows, looking for critters and snoozing in the sun. We’ve always thought of it as Bobby’s hike.

This week, we went back to Noble Knob to spread Bobby’s ashes and say our farewells on his favorite mountain.

It was such a bittersweet trip; the weather was perfect and the hike was as beautiful as ever (…and Wellie was running around like crazy, tongue flapping every which way – apparently this is one of his favorite trails too!) but saying goodbye to Bobby felt so sad and so final.

I’m not going to write much since I’m tearing up just thinking about all of this, but it was a beautiful last hike for Bobby and I am so glad we did it. Now we’ll always have a place to go to visit our little Scabbers.

A friend sent me this quote today that made my eyes well up all over again:

Who are these characters who come and go from our lives, leaving behind hair on the sofa and more than a few footnotes in our personal history? Who sends them to us, and who takes them away? Does it matter? They are gifts. We can only embrace, enjoy and let go when we must. Even if it always seems way too soon.

I’m also going to try to keep this one in mind (thank you Dr. Seuss):

Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.

To all of you out there who are lucky enough to have animal companions, give your little (or not so little) friends an extra hug today. You will never regret it.

We spent the weekend camping at Penrose Point State Park for our friend Tom‘s birthday, so we figured since we were already down south, we might as well go to Mount Rainier for a hike. Except dogs aren’t allowed on National Park trails. Bah!

We have a favorite dog-friendly hike right outside of the park, Noble Knob, but since our fellow hung-over hikers had already been there, we decided to go to Sourdough Gap and Sheep Lake instead. The trailhead is literally seconds away from the park entrance at Chinook Pass.

Since we had to forgo the classic National Park hikes because of the little bastard, here’s a bunch of photos of Wellie on the trail. Seeing how deliriously happy it makes him to hike makes it worth a little bit of sacrifice.

We were in the middle of the heatwave, so even Wellie seemed to enjoy cooling off in Sheep Lake. He jumped in over and over again (to save us, I guess), so he must at least hate the water a little less than before. He’s also slightly less awkward when he swims. Progress!

Just about 11 years ago, this little heartthrob was born:

That tiny, fuzzy rat grew into a very handsome boy named Bobby, and I fell in love with him and JK at the same time (some might say that JK lured me into his arms using Bobby as bait).

After we stole him from JK’s parents, Bobby became our furry (well, not that furry) son. He even came to our wedding:

Bobby was a perfectly healthy, happy dog until last year when he got very sick with meningitis. He somehow managed to pull through, and for these last two months he was like a young dog again. JK and I were amazed by how energetic he was, so it came as a complete shock to us when he suddenly collapsed and had a seizure in the dog park last Friday. We drove as fast as we could to the vet, but it wasn’t fast enough. Our beautiful little boy passed away in my arms.

I am so glad that both JK and I were there, that Bobs was so happy, and that he was in a place he loved so much, the dog park. Even so, I am absolutely devastated. Bobby was my constant companion through so many years, and I miss him so much.

Thank you for keeping us warm at night, and for keeping me company through some very tough and lonely times. Thank you for going on walks with us, even though some of them were very long. Thank you for being so patient when there was suddenly a little brother in the house. Thank you for being the best little dog in the whole wide world.

I’ll miss your weird little growl and how good your ears smelled, and that cute sound you made when you yawned. You were the most loyal friend anyone could ever have. I love you.

Thank you so much for all your well wishes! Bobby is doing so much better; he’s eating up a storm and getting lardier by the minute. I think he might even be ready to go on some little walks around the neighborhood soon. He’s our little Christmas miracle!

Speaking of miracles, I have fallen in love…with a vegetable. I’ve had an aversion to spinach ever since a regrettable episode four years ago involving me, a salad, and some slightly soggy spinach that had been in our fridge just a tad too long. Did you know that when spinach is past its prime, it tastes like fish? Nas-tay.

Well, after reading about green smoothies all over Bloglandia for about a year now, I decided it was time for me to grow up, get over my gag reflex and give the Wonder Green a chance. That’s right – I’m putting spinach in my smoothies! I’ve adopted Angela‘s term for the concoctions, Green Monsters. The most shocking thing is that they taste good, and after having them for breakfast a couple of days, I actually started craving them. I usually only crave chocolate and potatoes (in various shapes and forms), so this was a welcome surprise.

My basic recipe is:

Green Monster

2 tbs frozen berries (you can add more, but it will make your smoothie look very…brown)

1/2 banana

1 cup hemp milk (or soy/rice milk)

4 cups spinach and/or kale

1 scoop Amazing Grass (hippie superfood stuff)

a couple of ice cubes

a dash of cinnamon

In order to mix it up once in a while, I use different greens, add some extra stuff like parsley or cucumber, and I also made a very good holiday themed Green Monster where I used pumpkin instead of berries and added cloves and ginger. Mmm. I’ll have to make that one again for Christmas. For your first couple of smoothies you can use more berries and less spinach so you can get used to the taste.

I’ve been drinking these for breakfast for about a month now, and it feels great to know that I’ve consumed about 326 servings (ballpark figure) of veggies before the day has even begun. I’ve also had much fewer headaches and migraines even though I’ve been fairly stressed out these last few weeks, which makes sense since I am finally getting some nutrients into my body.

Even Bobby likes Green Smoothies – when he was at his worst and wouldn’t eat any of the tasty things we tried to give him, I caught him licking the leftover smoothie in my glass. After some quick googling (sorry honey, “binging”), I found these pet safe green smoothie recipes and started making him a mini Green Monster every day. Whenever I used the blender, he would come up to me and wag his tail! It was pretty much the only thing he would eat before he got his medicines and his regular appetite back.

Hopefully eating all this spinach is going to make both of us as strong as Popeye (but without the unfortunate medical problems):