Kargo had her first adoptaversary recently. She's been with us a year now, and how time flies. She's now 1 1/2 years old, and she still wants to play like a puppy. She loves her walks, and here she is on one of her morning walks in San Francisco around the Sunset Reservoir. The weather was gorgeous that morning -- the ocean was a perfect blue and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.
It's always been hard to capture an accurate photo of how Kargo the Dog looks. She has a mix of colors in her fur (a.k.a expensive highlights) and she has a black face that does not show up unless the lighting is just right. I took these two photos on a recent morning walk when the sun was shining just so and I think the photos are pretty realistic. The one above even shows her white soul patch on her chin. The one below is a good profile shot of her head. Many people think she looks like a mini wolf.
Kargo is just over 15 months old now, and her weight appears to have stabilized at 38 lbs. She is mainly black and grey in color and is full of energy. We took her along on our fall trip to dog-friendly Carmel-by-the-sea. Here she is on Scenic Rd. overlooking the beach.
This trip is not complete without a hike in Garland Ranch. Look ma -- no leash! We let her walk off-leash for a good part of the downhill hike and she did just great -- she would trot on ahead of us but always turn around and stop and wait after a short distance.
We stayed at the dog-friendly Cambria Shores Inn.
The beach at sunset is a photographer's dream come true.
The other great hiking destination is the Fiscalini Ranch Preserve. It has great ocean views and fabulous benches scattered throughout the trails.
While hiking, we stumbled upon this geocaching box.
The next day, we took a hike along Donner Lake in Donner Memorial State Park.
This is the arch that stands at the entrance to the Truckee community memorial garden.
During the two days in Truckee, Kargo met tons of people and tons of dogs. We believe she had a grand old time.
This is Kargo now just before her first birthday. Her ears are both fully up, and she weighs just under 40 lbs. Her fur color has great highlighting. We decided to get her DNA analyzed by Wisdom Panel. According to their analysis, she is 1/4 German Shepherd, 1/4 white Swiss shepherd, 1/4 labrador retriever, and 1/4, wait for it ... Saint Bernard! I can believe everything except the Saint Bernard, but I think I'll just go around telling everyone who asks that she's a Saint Bernard mix anyway to see what they say. All those dogs are big, but the analysis says that her adult weight will be 37 to 59 lbs, so I guess she's on the lighter end of the weight chart. When we adopted her from the SF-SPCA, they listed her as a shepherd/labrador mix, so they were pretty close all along. Here's her ancestry in chart form:
This is on a path on our hike in Garland Ranch, a favorite hiking spot in Carmel Valley for both humans and dogs.
And of course we had to visit Diggity Dog in Carmel.
Here we are in front of a mural in Cannery Row.
This is a view of Monterey bay.
We've been wondering how Kargo would react to cats, but there aren't that many cats that will approach her on the neighborhood walks. I got lucky the other morning and this friendly cat just sauntered over to say hello. The cat actually got almost nose to nose with Kargo and Kargo was interested in playing with it.
There are some great views on the trails. Here's a view from the cemetery overlook that also has the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.
This is a view overlooking Crissy Field with the downtown buildings in the background.
We're always looking for opportunities for Kargo to meet other life forms. Here she is saying hello to a horse.
We went on a hike with Kargo recently in the Fremont Older Open Space Preserve and a good time was had by all.
After the hike, we discovered that a nasty, nasty tick had attached itself to Kargo behind her right ear. We named the tick "Terrence" but that was probably unnecessary. We had purchased this Tick Twister tool some time ago but never tried it out so this was our chance to do so. Let me tell you -- that tool is the greatest thing ever. Even though the tick was still very small, it was easy to latch onto it and it only took about 4 twists for the tick to let go. I used to do the removal by using a gloved hand and twisting the tick with my fingers but this is much faster and easier.
This is Kargo at eight months. She's bigger at just over 35 lbs and her fur is now a mix of black and grey with some brown. Her ears are still asymmetrical though. She still has her soul patch.
We're always trying to expose Kargo to different life forms in the animal kingdom, so we took a walk to the bison paddock in Golden Gate Park. This was the closest to the fence I've seen the bison go. Kargo looked at them but did not have much of a reaction, which is a good thing.
Now that Kargo is almost 8 months old, her coloration is changing. She used to be mainly a black dog but now her hind legs are a grey color and she has grey and brown tints throughout her fur, sort of like an expensive highlights/coloring job.
The late great Tomokee had quite an extensive wardrobe for a dog. He was quite a bit larger than Kargo, so most of his clothing was thrown away. There are a few items that I think I can alter to fit Kargo. In particular, I was able to change the closure a bit on this lovely jacket and it fits quite nicely. We call this the "McCloud jacket" because it looks like the jacket worn by Sam McCloud in the McCloud TV series.
In San Francisco, I usually take Kargo for her morning walk around the Sunset Reservoir. On clear days, the Golden Gate Bridge is clearly visible in the distance. On that particular day, it was a bit hazy and you can barely see it.
In addition to cows, there were horses. This one was grazing, but she also get relatively up close and personal with a couple of horses with riders on the trail.
On Sunday, we took Kargo to SF's ocean beach (or, as I like to call it, the "edge of the world") for her first beach exposure. It was overcast but the temperature was mild. Kargo had a great time meeting other dogs and she only took about three bites of the sand.
