A couple days ago we picked up a load in Sacramento that was due to
deliver yesterday in central Oregon (Bend and Redmond). We got into the
area midafternoon Tuesday and couldn't deliver until Wednesday morning,
so we stopped at the truck stop in LaPine, OR.

This truck stop sits right up against a nice stretch of woods. That's to
be expected, being in the middle of the Klamath National Forest. I
decided we'd try an afternoon walk in addition to a dark walk, and Harri
agreed to the idea. We took about a 20 minute walk, her first through a
forest. It took a little time for her to get used to the deadfalls and
all the broken branches on the ground, but she did finally figure out
that they could be fun. We did an hour long dark walk that night and an
hour sunrise walk the next morning, and she was really getting into the
forest scene. She would explore along the tops of deadfall trees, being
fairly careful not to snag her leash. And she found that it's fun to do
zoomies up tall trees, at least as high as her overly strict Paw will
let her go.

We finished off our deliveries and returned to the same truck stop to
await our next load assignment. We did an hour and a half dark walk last
night and almost an hour sunrise walk this morning. Now she's really
getting into this forest explorer thing! She zooms along the fallen
trees, hops over bushes, scrambles very quickly up tall trees (up to
about 8 feet up, where I stop her), and is generally out close to the
limit of the leash the whole we're walking. She really loves forest
walks.  She will generally spend at least 10 minutes of each walk
sitting atop a tree stump just watching, listening to, and sniffing the
forest around her. It's quite a sight.

On a side note, she's getting more beautiful as she matures too. I need
to put up some new photos, I guess. Her white tail tip is now close to
an inch long, the lighter orange raccoon strips on her tail are now
white, the light socks on her feet are all turning white, and the fur
from her rear paw, over her back by the base of her tail, and down her
other rear paw is turning whitish as well. She's coming to look a lot
more like her handsome Sammy brother!

We are now on a run from Springfield, OR to Las Vegas and will be
travelling a stretch with a dearth of truck stops and lousy cellular
coverage, so we might not be able to check in again for a couple of
days. But we will return as soon sa we are physically able to do so.
Purrs coming to all who need them.

Dan