Like us, our two little dogs have had plenty of experience climbing in the White Mountain range. Our black female miniature poodle has had ample opportunity over the years, of mounting vigorous, time-consuming ascents. Her last big ones were Little Haystack, Moosilauke, and Eisenhower back when she was about tw0 to ten years old. And up until the age of sixteen she climbed the twins, Welch-Dickey with us and our apricot male toy poodle who was then ten. We, and they, are now more interested in modest climbs, finding the ascent to the Rattlesnakes challenge enough for us.

They're accustomed to staying, for the last eight or so years, in the same cottage as a jump-off point for our daily mountain trail forays. They know the place well enough; most years we would stay for a week in both June and September. But Button is now almost nineteen, her memory is failing, she has lost much of her hearing and eyesight, and is readily confused. Although she is still capable of going along on relatively modest walks, she requires carrying a good deal, when she becomes tired.

The pace little Riley takes seems excruciatingly slow at times, but it almost matches the kind of pace I can comfortably sustain with my own failing endurance at 74, so things work out well enough. I don't have quite the strength and capacity of my husband, capable of carrying Button and carrying on himself. And there are times, like a gradual descent, when Riley is tired enough that I will pick him up and carry him the balance of the way down to the trailhead.

This year the weather was dreadfully hot and humid, and the heat took its toll on Button. She was also more disoriented than usual. She will not sleep on a dog bed at floor level, having become accustomed over the years to leaping up on a bed or a sofa to sleep. Now that she no longer leaps she still wants to sleep where she is most comfortable and we lift her to a bed or sofa. And, because her eyesight is so compromised she forgets spacial limits and sometimes falls off. Which she did, on a number of occasions while we were away.

She also suffered from occasional bouts of feeling quite unwell, once having diarrhoea and since she no longer "asks" to go outside when she needs to evacuate, and we're put in the position of trying to guess when it's time, and this further complicated matters. In the wee hours of the night on several occasions she had to be partially bathed, as a result.

She's an excellent traveler, always has been, and it was a relief, finally, to get her back home where her normal routine, and her familiarity with her surroundings helped her immensely, and us as well.