About the cover photo: It took me three attempts of between 4 and 5 days each to get into the spot where this photo was taken. On the first two trips I suffered some very painful injuries. This spot is in the Baker River drainage in North Cascades National Park. Do you know the name of the mountain?

Converse hightops on my feet, I traverse the North Cascades in pursuit of my life project to walk into every high lake or pond mapped in the Skagit River watershed. The upper Skagit Valley near Marblemount, WA is my home and has been home to my family since 1888. I have come to feel that the culture of this place, like the culture of much of rural America, is misunderstood by an increasingly urban population and threatened by economic depression. I would like to share the stories of this place and the people who call it home. Through my stories and images of these mountains, my goal is to help others understand and respect both the natural resources and the people of the North Cascades.


Sunday, May 25, 2014

Skyeball's Trip to the Vet


Saturday the 17th of May I showed up at the farm with a long list of things to do. I was in the midst of a big project that I hoped to wrap up that day before moving on to some other things. I was a couple of hours late that day because I had gone to Concrete on errands before heading up to Marblemount.

As is my custom on weekend days, I went to walk our dog Skyeball. To my dismay I saw that the right side of her face was swollen to the size of a softball. This problem had cropped up about a month earlier and Sacha had taken Skyeball to the veterinarian where it was determined that there was some kind of blockage or infection in the salivary glands. Skyeball was sent home with some medications that appeared to eliminate the swelling. Everything seemed okay for several weeks but now here it was again.

Sacha wouldn’t be able to take Skyeball in this time so I would have to do it. It was already late in the day because I had run errands earlier but I decided to see if I could get Skyeball in to the vet’s. If I was lucky, I would be able to get Skyeball in and maybe get the problem resolved without taking a day off from work at my regular job. It was already late, so the day would pretty much be shot. By the time I got Skyeball to the vet’s, an hour away, got her seen and got her back, there wouldn’t be much time to do any work around the house.

I was in luck that they had room for an appointment. And the appointment time left me about two hours to work on a project before I had to take Skyeball in. Unfortunately, once I got her in, it was determined that I would have to bring her in on Monday for surgery to lance and drain the abscess. This meant I would have to take a day off from work.

I took her in Monday and the surgery was completed without any complications. We will have to give her medications for several weeks.

I took her back in to the vet’s the following Saturday to check on her progress and everything looks good so far. The swelling is gone or nearly gone and Skyeball appears to be on the mend. I will probably have to make at least one more trip down to make sure everything is okay.

Skyeball is a little unruly around some other dogs and she can be quite willful at times but she is overall a very good dog and handled the whole situation quite calmly, even though she doesn’t like the vet’s.

Skyeball before the trip to the veterinerian. 

Skyeball just after getting back from the vet's. The swelling is already noticeably reduced by the drain. 

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