Rumpelstilskin

October 22nd, 2001-July 5th, 2007

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This is Bill, my buddy from Illinois. He just had surgery five days ago, and doesn’t he look great? He’s already playing fetch around the yard, and trying to take on a very big apartment staircase, all by himself. But, his parents are freaked out about the stairs and playing too hard, just like mine were after I had my surgery. Silly humans, they think that we are as slow to adapt to change as they are!

Hang in there Bill, your Mom and Dad will chill out and relax soon. Till then, keep on keepin’ on, we’re thinking of you! Get well soon so you can get back out there and play, play, play!

- Jerry

Back when we were staying at Whistler Gulch Campground in Deadwood, my people received a package with their recent mail. This included a bunch of goodies for me from the Kool Dog Kafe.

I won their Kool Dog Photo Contest last month so they sent me a bunch of yummy gourmet dog treats. Just look this movie to see how much I enjoy them!

This is supposedly one of my distant ancestors. Looks like a stiff to me. But not bad for being 37 Million years old! My people took this picture of Hesperocyon Gregarius at the Badlands Visitor’s Center. From the heat outside, I don’t think I missed much. I stayed in the trailer which remained pretty cool while they were gone.

They said it was the best interpretive center they’ve seen at any National Park. It was an impressive little natural history museum. I suppose that’s why they stayed to watch the short informative movie that showed there, or maybe it was the nice air conditioned theater.

Later that evening we went and listened to a ranger talk about the Badlands, and its history at an outdoor amphitheater next to the Cedar Pass campground where we spent the night. The next morning, Jim gave me a bath with our trailer’s exterior utility shower to empty the fresh water tank he had filled up the day before in preparation for the heat.

It was certainly hot, but tolerable even though there was nowhere to swim. Our trailer cast a big shadow for us, there was a nice steady breeze, and the view was incredible.

We would have posted this sooner, but we’ve been driving a lot the past few days through lots of farmland. And we didn’t have internet access at our last stop at Roy Lake because of all the trees. The swimming wasn’t that great since there was no beach for easy access, but I did have fun chasing all the jumping frogs! I’d never even seen a frog before. We’ll upload a movie of that as soon as we get the chance.

The highlight from this part of our full-time RVing road trip adventure, however, had to be going to see the great big faces carved in the rock at a place my people called Mt. Rushmore. This is another one of those silly National Park places where dogs are not allowed for whatever reason. (But kids can run around free and toss juice boxes on the ground! I’ll never understand that.)

But as a sly social experiment, Jim put on his sunglasses, held me close by the harness and grabbed Rene’s arm with his other hand. He tilted his head slightly as if listening intently as we walked right into the park past rangers and other people who would jump out of our way.

It was quite interesting to see people’s reactions as they grabbed their children out of the way and seemed to feel sorry for us – and not just because I have three legs for once!

As promised, we’ve posted some new movies to my three-legged dog videos page. You can see me swim at Keyhole Wyoming State Park and catch frisbees at Devil’s Tower, WY.

We’ve had some time to do this catching up while staying at Whistler Gulch Campground in Deadwood, SD while on our full-time RVing sabbatical. My people have spent the past few days here checking out the area. We even went to Sturgis – check out my tripawd dog photo gallery for a picture of me at the world famous Roadkill Café.

The picture above is supposedly of the city dog park in Spearfish, SD. The sign says otherwise, and I didn’t see any sign of other dogs so we didn’t even get out of the truck. It’s still pretty hot though, so we stopped at Spearfish Canyon Creek on the way back and got wet.

We’ve just updated my photo gallery with a few new pictures from my full-time RVing adventure but I’ve been having far too much fun to do much more. New movies of me swimming at Keyhole Reservoir and playing Frisbee at Devil’s Tower will be coming soon, I promise.

Did you know it was originally called Bear’s Lodge by the Native Americans? We met a Lakota national forest ranger who was kind enough to let me go up the trail to see this sacred place up close. My people pulled the old Therapy Dog routine, flashing my expired license, and convinced the ranger to let me hop up the trail marked “No Dogs” … I’ll never understand why they don’t allow us dogs on those trails, yet they let all those kids and fat people walk all over and toss trash around.

We only walked up to the boulder field at the base of the tower, but that was far enough for me. Jim pulled a bunch of my hair and wove it into a strand he tied around a tree with all the other Native American prayer offerings. Hopefully that will bring me good health and well being for years to come. Later we ran and played a lot. Just look at how tired I got…

I just love this full-time RVing roadtrip I’m on with my people! I enjoy traveling and meeting all the new folks and dogs everywhere we stop. I just wish strangers wouldn’t feel so sorry for me when they see me. I get along just fine on three legs thank you. I have one more than most people after all.

Just look at how easily I can jump into the backseat of our 4X4 Dodge Ram 2500…

Check out more of my three-legged dog adventure movies on my video page or tune into the Tripawds YouTube channel!

I’m cool, and I’m loving it! Finally, we found some real forest and got out of that sandy desert scene. Here I am in camping outside of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, where the weather was a cool 70-something all week. I played, I hiked, I swam. And when I was done, I got to relax on this lovely piece of “lawn” that my Grandma and Grandpa gave to us. My Mom and Dad used to make fun of people who had astroturf in their campgrounds, but now they’re finding that it helps keep dirt out of my fur, and they aren’t making jokes anymore!

I had a great time at this campground, but there was a lot of thunder and lightening in the afternoons, and I didn’t like that one bit. I’m glad to be moving on!

We’re finally heading North, trying to beat the heat, but it is still hot. And my people still insist on taking me on crazy hikes.

This one wasn’t so bad, just half a mile up from the highway in Glenwood Springs, CO. It just seemed like straight up.

I’m not sure what the big deal was about this walk. I don’t even know who Doc Holliday is or why we had to hike to what “might” be his grave.

Thank goodness we got a new Water Rover portable pet water bowl for me at the Barkery in Moab before we left! It’s not as cool as my Gulpy dog water bottle that broke, but it holds more water and you can easily put back whatever I don’t drink.

Recently, the great people at Animal Suspension Technologies sent Jerry their new Pet Support Suit to test out. Below is a movie and a product review of this great new product.

Believe it. The AST Support Suit lives up to all of it’s promises. We tested it on Jerry, a 75-pound, three-legged “tripawd” dog with hip displaysia. As Jerry will testify, the AST Support Suit is a critical tool that helps him get through life with as much mobility as possible.

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