Saint Sheprador

Based upon Kargo's ancestry, we're calling her a Saint Sheprador, or more appropriately a Weisser Saint Sheprador. Just think of it as a designer breed.

Kargo's ancestry

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:

Carmel visit

We took Kargo along for a trip to Carmel-by-the-sea and its surrounding areas. We usually make the trip twice a year and this was Kargo's first trip. Here she is on our walk on Scenic Dr. overlooking the beach.

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.

Kitty encounter

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.

Hiking in the San Francisco Presidio

We took Kargo for a hike in the San Francisco Presidio on Sunday. Here she is on the Bay Area Ridge Trail in front of the Spire sculpture by Andy Goldsworthy.

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.

Fremont Older hiking and tick removal

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.

Kargo at eight months

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.