Dear Maia, Isaac, and Virtual Wanderers,

This year’s camping season got off to a bit of a late start due to Koko’s surgery and recovery. It is now 3 weeks post-op from her bilateral perineal hernia repair (add spay, removal of large ovarian cysts, umbilical hernia repair, and bladder stitching.) She is still on rest, so it was a tent and a dog stroller.

I wasn’t sure what Kokopelli would think of the tent. It was kind of like a big crate with all of us inside. (I didn’t find out until a month later that she could bolt out of the tent door and down the road, but that is another story.) For this trip, she was still healing and pretty compliant.

We took a couple of hikes that were stroller-friendly. The first was around Mear’s Bay and back. After that, we stopped for lunch at the True Grit – they have a dog-friendly porch. In the afternoon, we hiked to the Dennis Weaver Memorial Park. We did pretty well with our Hikers 365 Challenge miles today. That was our only full day.

We did stop and take the nature hike at Ridgway State Park Visitor’s Center before we headed home the next morning. Kachina is such an awesome mentor for Koko – it was fun to watch her orient Koko to the camping scene. And, for being 3 weeks post-op, Koko seems to be doing absolutely fantastic for a dog who was in hospice 2 months ago! Even though her tail is shaved weird!

Love Ya’all, Cathy Hartt (Grandma Hartt)