Climbing the Allegheny hills

Buddy's ascended to the heights of another pass this week. Bald Knob wasn't quite as high as some of the other passes earlier in the journey, but with only three legs it was probably just as much effort for him. We've also found this cool statue to snap a photo next to.

Bud: 'Salami definitely rates at the top of my favorite things.'

Buddys new friend Pierce treats him to half a pound of delicatessen Salami in Wheeling city centre.

Over the last 24 hours this lovable guy has made off with a lb of lean mince, a bowl of chicken, a pork chop and now this lovely lunch meat.

I don't know how he'll ever be satisfied with an average stay-at-home life after this is all done.

Still living the doggy dream

Rabbits have been a bit scarce for the past week, but no matter. Bud has found a new creature to chase. I'm not quite sure what they are, but they're in rivers, trees, and under ground.

Buddy's music videos

Always happy for handouts

We stopped for a breather in the town of Stuartsville this afternoon and the lady in Sinclair's Churches Chicken made a donation to Bud's stomach: about five lbs of yesterday's chicken fingers. Break time has taken on a whole new level of excitement.

Cornfields, camping and prime rib

It's been heating up recently. I think it was about 90 degrees today, but fortunately there are lots of dirty mud holes to soak in, and the nearly endless corn fields provide a shady alternative to the blistering hot pavements.

Since we've been on the WT trail, there've been plenty of things to sniff. Why today Bud even came across a pair of foxes at play, though they didn't seem very eager to play with him.

We camped for two evenings in the park at Malvern, and on the evening of the Fourth there were lots of noisy aerial festivities to accompany the ambience of our roaring fire, neither of which suited Bud very well. He was content to remain sprawled out on the blanket by the tent.

The fireworks were later trumped by deafening crashes from a thunderstorm that rolled its way through in the early morning, and strangely, I think the pooch was more at easy with nature's display.

Today we stopped in the Irish town of Imogene and had a delicious meal at the Emerald Isle Restaurant and Pub. As a rare treat, the bar keeper, Mike Olson, found some prime rib scraps in his fridge (close to 3 lbs) for Buddy. As you can imagine, he became quite the glutton when faced with the prospect of such fine food.

One more day, and we'll have come to the end of this lovely trail. Then, it's back to the noise of the road once again.

Puppies like a nice bed too

What a softy I've turned out to be. When I got Bud, it was all about rules and discipline, but now I'm just as happy as he is to have him up on the bed. This morning he put his paw on my face and moaned a contented 'good morning,' Following it with a long, low bellowing that I understood to mean: I much prefer this mattress to the hard ground.'

Then again, it was probably just me transferring my own thoughts to a dog.
Thanks again for that shampoo, Cindy. He's a lot nicer to sleep by when not reeking of sewage and carrion.