whoops

I brought the hairballs out for a hike this past weekend with a bunch of strangers, which is always an adventure. What makes it more so is that two little girls (ages 6 and 8, I think) were along, and the combined weight of the dogs was greater than the combined weight of the children. The hike up to alpine lake #1 was brisk and fairly uneventful (save for the gorgeous fall scenery and general happy hiking-ness), and the jog to beautiful alpine lake #2 was similarly so, except that the girls decided that they were a little tired after walking 3+ miles uphill and they wanted to use my pups to tow them up the rest of the way.



(if you look closely, you can see that it appears as though Rooster's head is erupting out of the little girl's neck area)

Beautiful alpine lake #2 is also known as Ollalie (oh-lolly) Lake, which I have purposefully worked into at least 5 conversations since the hike. Ollalie ollalie ollalie.

The girl/pup combo worked out really well going uphill, since the dogs naturally pull a bit when someone other than me is holding their leash. We tarried by the lake (OLLALIE!) for a while, and Rooster tried to find the Loch Ness Monster (or, failing that, to become Nessie part deux)



Of course we couldn't just rest on our laurels and be happy with the accident-free ascent with multi-species harmony. The girls wanted more, and neither their parental figure nor I were prepared to debate the issue (they were tiny, their eyes were huge, their proportions were designed to lure all nearby adults into believing that nothing bad could ever happen to them) (or come from them, but that's another matter). The problem was that the dogs, Rooster in particular, gain momentum when pointed down a mountain. Partially because of weight, partially because of excitement, and almost entirely because when he sees a difficult patch of trail, he prefers to barrel through/over it instead of using his pea-sized brain to pick open places to put his gargantuan feet. The girls had no chance. Knees were scraped, hands were twisted, children were dragged. They kept wanting to try again after being pulled over, but after a few times (hey, it was the giant eyes - they mess with your brain) the adults finally took over leash duty. Then their dad was almost pulled over. I ended up with one pup on each arm and a headache, but it was worth it to see this on the last hike of the season: