Snow dog

We took Tomokee with us on a snowshoeing trip to the Sierras last weekend, and he really enjoyed himself. At first, he was a little dubious, like, "what is all this white cold stuff?", but it didn't take long for him to like bounding up and down the snowshoe trails. Here he is enjoying some snow. Note that he is wearing his very stylish camo neoprene jacket. It was quite cold on this particular day in Donner Memorial State Park.
He made some dog friends, including Ziggy here. This was a day earlier in the North Tahoe Regional Park.
And here, he's doing some exploring with a dog named Cody in that same park.
And finally, he's sitting respectfully in front of the E Clampus Vitis plaque in Truckee. Notice that he's wearing his ever-so-sharp apre-ski fleece jacket -- very appropriate for a town like Truckee.

He's blessing you with his ass

So, Tomokee has this odd behaviour where, instead of sticking his face in yours when you're around his height, he backs his hind end up to you and shoves. He did this a couple of times to Betty who looked up at me imploring and asked, "What is he doing?" Only one answer seemed to fit the activity, so I told Betty Tomokee was blessing her with his ass.

Just for the record, it's not just a "touching you with his rear end..." it a full on back up and shove, as though he were trying to "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" with just his butt.

He's going to need his own suitcase

For our upcoming short trip to the Sierras, Tomokee will have more clothing than I will. We got him the neoprene jacket at the vet's suggestion, but I had already ordered this fleece jacket some time ago and it just arrived. He can wear the neoprene in inclement weather, and he can be the dog-about-town in the fleece look. You can just call him McCloud.

Camo wear is always fashionable

We're planning to take Tomokee with us on a snow-shoeing trip to the Sierras soon, and although our vet said that he probably does not need clothing, we could always have him wear a neoprene jacket to keep him insulated from cold and wet. I look at this as a rare opportunity to dress the dog. We got this lovely neoprene camouflage vest for him to wear. Doesn't he look sharp?

Buff Dog

We took Tomokee in for a preventative maintenance (a.k.a. health check) at the Adobe Animal Hospital. The vet declared him to be "just perfect" and that he is as buff as a dog can get.

The vet also said that he won't need booties for hiking in snow, and most likely will not need clothing but it never hurts to put him in a neoprene jacket. This means I
won't need to buy him a full winter wardrobe -- I'm disappointed.