Fun Times in 2015. No really, there were some!

While sometimes it feels like it, especially when paying her continuous vet bills, 2015 wasn't always about Holly's cancer. Tonight I took a look back at all the photos of us enjoying life, and it looks like we had some really fun times. Sure, sure...much of the early part of the year was surgery, recovery from surgery, radiation treatment, and then recovery from radiation. And I took a ride on many many emotional roller coasters. But throughout I also met some pretty wonderful people. I met Mary and her horse while Holly and I were living dual lives at WSU. I met Lara who's lovely dog Rudy ended up with the same cancer as Holly. I met Joyce who was looking for help in navigating the WSU waters after her own dogs cancer diagnosis. I met Kari who runs a foundation that raises money for canine cancer research.

And in between, we hiked, we rambled through the woods, I worked, my family visited, work kicked my butt, I went on 2 vacations...and now that we are at the end of 2015, I'm realizing that this year wasn't that bad of a year after all. I decided to pick just one photo from each month that represented the fun we had this year. Here's hoping 2016 will be even better.

JANUARY

We love snow!

FEBRUARY

Holly and I spent A LOT of time driving this month

MARCH

Life pretty much revolved around Holly in March

APRIL

"Snacking" on something gross on a hike

MAY

We spent tons of time running around the woods this spring

JUNE

Pinkie and The Brain about to get into trouble on a hike

JULY

Trip to the Beartooth Mountains

AUGUST

Such a wonderful pair of hiking buddies

SEPTEMBER

Autumn was busy, smokey and hot...but still oh so beautiful

OCTOBER

Our other hiking buddies...Jubilee and Raj

NOVEMBER

Back to hiking in the fabulous snow

DECEMBER

At home...see, we aren't always out hiking ;)

Happy Holidays

Happiest of Holidays from our clan to yours :)

Holly (10), Danee (7), Ursa (9) and Inca (15)

What do you mean stay?

Sherpa Holly

Sherpa Danee

Sherpa Ursa

Sherpa Inca

Happy Winter Solstice

Celebrate this beautiful season and the longer, and hopefully sunnier, days ahead. 

December Snow Smackdown

Holly enjoyed a fierce smackdown with her bestest snow wrestling buddy Ruby. Strangely, they only play together in winter, and only when there is snow on the ground. Ruby is my "other" dog...she belongs to my neighbor and landlord, but I might as well be her second family for as often as she is over here visiting. It's awesome to see Holly enjoy herself...you'd never know she had 2 bum legs, is 10 yrs old and is on chemotherapy :)

Hairless Dogs Need Winter Coats

Okay, so technically Danee isn't a hairless dog. But she may as well be considering how much she loathes the cold weather. As a result, Danee has many winter coats...6 of them. I've a hard time finding coats that actually fit her AND allowed her to move freely while running through the woods. She is deep but narrow chested, with a long back and a wasp waist. Plus she has very thin hair on her chest and belly which makes her cold even when wearing a traditional horse-style coat. The result was that I ended up with several coats of varying styles that kinda fit, but not really, or in one case, it fits but it's simply not warm enough.

The coat is too tight in the chest and not warm enough

This one is plenty warm but doesn't cover her belly

This one was too large and she swam in it.

(Pinkie and The Brain) This coat fits well, but the belly band pops open when she runs through the woods.

This coat is too large on her for hiking in the woods

This one is very warm, but doesn't fit her chest right...it impedes her forward leg movement while running.

A friend recently mentioned that Hurtta was discontinuing one of the winter coats and there were sales all over the place for them. I was going to forgo buying standard styles and just order her a custom dog coat, but I was curious so I looked up all the measurements and found that their size 12 might actually fit her.

Lo and behold, it FITS! I'm happy to have finally found her a coat that will keep her warm and stay on properly while she runs hell's bells though the woods on our winter hikes.