A few days ago I was thinking to myself that he probably won’t make it through another year. He’s been struggling for quite a while now. He hasn’t been himself basically ever since his mom left us. Not even a younger partner in crime and kids could make it better. Well, the later might have had the opposite effect.

But I didn’t quite expect this turn of events.

You tell yourself that surely it must get easier with each one you let go. Being in the position of deciding “when” and making that decision, is a truly awful position to be in. Even when you’re not alone in making it and even when we all immediately knew what, why, how.

And I know now, that it doesn’t matter at all whether the decision grows slowly or it’s basically thrust in your lap by someone else. I really was hoping it would be easier.

But as long as there’s that: “We could do an operation…”, and you rationally know a massive operation at this age would only prolong the inevitable…

It doesn’t get easier.

So, farewell my handsome ball of fur, my bag of fleas (don’t think for a minute I forgot about those).

You were never old. You were always just a goofy kid and even if you obviously didn’t like human kids too much (and most humans in general), you tolerated them extremely well. You were perfect in every way.

• 

• 

• 

• 

It was a pleasure from your very first to last minute. You’re again in your favorite company.

So long and keep exploring. Both of you.

It all started with Bill Bryson and his hilarious book A Walk in the Woods. If he, an unfit elderly author and his reportedly rotund childhood friend Katz could do it, so could we.

Except we didn’t do the AT as the Appalachian Trail is otherwise known. No, nope, not even close. Back in the summer we went for a section loosely based on the SPP & PKK making our way from Kope back to Maribor. A 41 kilometer, 18 hour ramble (spread comfortably over 3 days) on a wooded ridge line of Pohorje.

But we had two dogs and they didn’t.

The whole affair had a preamble a few weeks earlier with a short camping, hiking trip to the Bayern Wald NP and their animal park/zoo. As far as zoos are concerned it’s certainly unique in the way they try to give animals as much space as possible while giving the visitors the feeling of being among them in the wild. It’s a place where you’re not guaranteed to actually see anything. If the animals don’t want to show themselves you’re out of luck. But it’s still just and only a zoo.

To be totally honest I’ve been germinating the idea of crossing Pohorje for years now, just never came round to actually going through with it. Now I sometimes wish I never bothered. Months later and my knees are still feeling it when I walk downhill for longer periods. Don’t know what but something got a bit worn off and it’s not a pleasant pain. It does seem a bit odd that a relatively short and easy walk would have long lasting consequences. But on the other hand, at least I can still ski back down wherever and whenever I bother to walk uphill.

Another thing that turned out not to be a good idea was bringing dogs with us. While it was a pleasure to have them with us and they enjoyed the walk itself, they also went through two nights of being attacked and chewed by ants and there was nothing we could do to help them. Letting them inside the tent was not an option but they certainly didn’t get much sleep outside. As a consequence neither did we. They both pushed through it, suffering some bloody rashes from the bites and they slept for the next two or three days straight. Perhaps they should be carrying their own backpacks with food and a dedicated dog tent next time…

As far as the walk… it’s likely one of the more enjoyable hiking stretches in Slovenia. Constantly in the shade, soft ground to walk on, plenty of water around and enough resupply options to lighten the load to virtually zero or, if you so desire, easily very remote and self sustained. During the week you won’t see more than a handful of people a day.

Pohorje, Kope to Bolfenk

Seealp käserei

Finally some competition!

Animalia or IHA St. Gallen 2009 dog show saw 11 members of the local appenzeller family on both days. Quite unexpectedly some dogs only came on one day or the other so we actually saw more dogs in one weekend than on all the other shows together. To sweeten the deal there were also a few non-competing visitors running around, one of them showing off his guide (seeing eye) dog skills.

Hanibal finished off the weekend with a second (of 3) and third place (of 5) among dogs, sweeping in for two more CAC titles and a reserve CACIB with excellent grades.

comments by I. Huber (DE)

unfortunately the handwriting is damn near illegible which makes it impossible to decipher some of her comments. Best effort below…

• Harmonisch aufgebauter Rüde
• Korr. geschnittene Kopf
• Braune Augen
• Kräftige Hals
• Feste Rücken
• Korr. ausgesetzte & getragene
• Korr. winkelung
• Harmonisch Bewegungablauf
• Stehhaar
• Richtige Abzeichen
• Havana braun
• V1, CAC, res. CACIB

comments by judge Alenka ÄŒerne (SLO)

• 2 y.o.
• Good type
• Nice head
• Good front
• v.w. angulated in front
• a bit straight behind
• Nice mover
• Good coat color and markings
• V1, CAC

frisbee demo

We took the Saturday afternoon off to walk around Appenzell and up to Seealpsee so Hanibal would at least get to enjoy a small part of the trip. Nice views, spotted some sweet skiing lines off Säntis if I ever return in winter. There’s still quite a bit of snow up there, making it possible to ski almost to the lake with careful route choice.

On Sunday we took off as soon as possible as we had a long drive back. Rather than going around through Germany again we went straight (well, in theory) through Austria, with a diversion through Liechtenstein for 5min where we were stopped by the swiss border patrol for obviously acting suspiciously by driving around a roundabout one too many times :)

Säntis

But the real navigational achievement was that we managed to take a different road in and out of St. Gallen each time :) We approached or left it from nearly all possible sides. Ohh, and I must not forget the absolutely heavenly food at Gasthaus Forst located among orchards in Kressbronn am Bodensee. It’s a not-so-short drive away from St. Gallen but absolutely worth it for the food alone. Highly recommended!

young bulls, playing

More photos in the gallery as usual. Feel free to browse.