Lens Artists Photo Challenge #334 – Cats and Dogs

Tina brings us the fun challenge of cats and dogs. I’ve always been a dog person. When I was growing up we had dogs but never had a cat.

Family Dogs

Shortly after Henry and I married we became Labrador Retriever owners. Through the years we have had two different black Labs, a chocolate Lab named Blue, and Blondie. Blondie was our best friend and traveling companion for many years. She traveled thousands of miles with us in the back seat of our truck as we towed our RV around the U.S. and Canada. She chased tennis balls and swam in great lakes, oceans, creeks, ponds, and rivers.

We lost her in 2017. I still miss her today.

Working Sled Dogs in Alaska

During our Alaska travels we enjoyed meeting some of the working sled dogs in Denali National Park and visited the Iditerod Headquarters to meet some of those beautiful dogs.

Working Sheep Dogs

When we traveled to Ireland we enjoyed a demonstration of sheep dogs herding sheep.

The University of Georgia mascot Uga (pronounced “ug-a”)

The University of Georgia Mascot is a pure white English Bulldog named Uga. There have been eleven Ugas through the years. UGA IV attended the Heisman Trophy banquet in 1982 with Herschel Walker who won the Heisman Trophy that year. UGA V was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated as the number one college mascot in 1997 and had a part in the movie “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.”

Below, in the image on the left Uga VII is walking on the sidelines in front of his air conditioned dog house during a home game in Athens, Georgia. On the right is Uga X at an event in Savannah. The latest mascot is Uga XI who’s real name is “Boom”.

A Cat who was a Mayor

In 2013 we met a famous cat named Stubbs who was the Mayor of Talkeetna, Alaska. He passed away in 2017 after serving as Mayor for 20 years.

Stubbs, the mayor of Talkeetna, Alaska in July, 2013

Many thanks to Tina for this fun challenge Lens-Artists #333 – Cats and Dogs

Day 53: Going to the dogs

Day 53: Sunday, July 7, 2013

Our day started with a visit to the Denali National Park Kennels for a sled dog demonstration. This is a very popular activity at the park. Demonstrations are given three times a day with shuttle buses leaving from the Visitor’s Center to take visitors to the kennel. When we arrived we had plenty of time to meet the dogs in their homes. Some were anxious to meet people and be petted while others just snoozed or ignored all the people.

These dogs are larger than the Iditarod dogs we saw in Fairbanks. The Iditarod dogs are like the thoroughbred of Alaskan Huskies and bred for racing.

Five dogs were hitched to a sled to demonstrate how they run.

After the demonstration we drove to the Mountain Vista trail head for short hike. The area where we hiked was the Savage River Camp back in the early 1900’s. Guests stayed in large white tents and dined in a large dining tent with linen tablecloths.

Even though we saw no wildlife we enjoyed the day.

We will be out of cell phone and internet range for the next few days when we enter Teklanika River Camp in the Wilderness area of Denali National Park and Preserve.