July Adventures

There's been a lot of action in the past few weeks. Since July 1 I've climbed 5 14ers, camped, hiked, trailrun, wrestled hoarded dogs, drove (rode) all around Colorado and got a promotion at work.

I've yet to see the increase in pay on that last one, but the fitness is making me happy. And having gone to seize dogs was quite the experience.

I probably am not able to provide a whole lot of details, but it was intense. I've seen the show "Hoarders" and its animal counterpart, but that didn't prepare me for the smell. Twentyish dogs inside a house for however long. The house was stuffed full of all sorts of junk as well as the dogs. The fences were covered in old, rotting clothes. The dogs were all terribly thin and mostly unsocial. And they were all unusually quiet. Even on the 3 hour drive back to the shelter there wasn't so much as a whine out of them. It made for a long day. I had no prior warning that I was accompanying Colorado Humane on this trip. I was told to go and so I did. But we didn't go right away. I waited around for about an hour. Then the 3ish hours driving. Then more waiting as it rained and the officers assessed things. My coworker and I were told to wait at the truck until they made sure the resident of the house wasn't home. They all wore bullet-proof vests. More waiting. Then we put together a bunch of crates as they broke into the house and started bringing dogs out on control sticks. There were a few in the yard that we baited with cat food and trapped pretty easily. Then after we caught and kenneled about 15 of them we waited some more. Then more dogs were found in various closets and barricaded nooks and crannies. The total came closer to 20.

All this waiting added up to a 14 hour day. Because my day wasn't over when we arrived back at work. Instead of being able to pass the dogs off to another team, we remained to complete their intake because most everyone else was gone for the night. So I got even more sweaty and stinky while holding the dogs as others vaccinated and photographed. It was all quite fun really besides all the waiting. Perhaps I'll apply for a position in that department.

As for hiking, after the two on Tuesday, my boyfriend and I have hiked 3 fourteeners in as many weeks. We've basically run out of "easy" mountains and I can certainly feel the steepness of the last few. They haven't given me any trouble while actually climbing, but the next day my calves are so sore I have trouble walking down stairs. But our 14er total is 10, only 42 or so more to go! Hahah.