Shadow's Colorado Adventures - Part 1

Shadow's favorite adventure spot

Hi, my name is Shadow and I love it when my pack visits southern Colorado. It’s a new adventure every time we go into the Sangre de Cristo mountains. The views are beautiful, as you can see from this photo my foster dad took last year. But my favorite things are much closer to the ground. I am, after all, a five-pound Pomeranian with more fur than the law allows.

We get to visit this region at least twice every year – I don’t know much about time intervals; things just happen when they happen, and I just roll with it. All I know is that, when my pack starts putting a lot of stuff in that loud monster with round feet, and when I see them put my bed and toys in the back, I know I’m in for an adventure! Then, they start teasing me, saying things like, “Shadow – do you want to ‘G’ … ‘O’?” I can’t spell, Dummy! Just put the letters together so I can figure it out already! They sure waste a lot of time playing mind games with me before finally saying GO! Hey, I’m a senior citizen and have a lot of achy joints, but I will twirl around twice and then sprint to the monster thing when I hear that word.

It seems like forever just getting to my adventure, though. We leave early in the morning, before dawn, and don’t arrive until after the sun has set. I don’t care. I get to see my forest friends! (And a few not-so-friendly types.)

Shadow's forest friend

There are always beavers making dams in the streams, and deer everywhere. Giant bald eagles cast shadows on me (doesn’t everything?), and for some reason my pack doesn’t like me to venture too far when big birds are near – something about me being a “snack” for them. Heck, I’m a dog. I live for the moment. If you won’t let me sniff that thing over there, then I’ll just sniff this thing over here. Besides, it’s about the only thing left on me that still works! I can’t hear anything, and I have to be about 20 paws away to clearly see anything. But I can smell an approaching critter from a mile away. (I know: it takes one to know one.)

One of Shadow's dinner guests

My best friends at the mountain cabin are chipmunks. My foster parents nickname them “Cheeky” and other funny names because they’re always filling their cheeks with seeds and nuts we leave on the deck outside. That’s “Cheeky” in both pictures here, one up close from my angle on things. The chipmunks are even more timid than I am, but seem to “loosen up” a bit when the humans appear, because it means a lot more food to quickly store up for winter. But they are a little skiddish, so I like to sit by the door when one is eating seeds, just to stand guard so the humans won’t scare it away by approaching the door too fast.

Shadow guarding her friend

I know what it’s like to be dependent on someone else for protection, food, shelter, play and companionship. That’s about all a dog really cares about. I can’t speak for chipmunks, but I think they have no choice but to fend for themselves. (You’ll have to pardon my “translator” – he’s putting words in my mouth that no dog could know: “fend?”) It’s simple for us dogs. If you’re our friend, we’ll do anything you want us to do, as long as we get touched, fed, or reassured that we’re still pals. We’ll even wag our tails if it makes you happy (although mine just shimmies). You humans have way too much to think about – always worrying about something that might happen instead of concentrating on stuff happenin’ now.

Of course, I appreciate that my humans worry about me a lot, especially as you’ll see in Part 2, when the big bear shows up just a few paws away!

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