oh my gosh

ThickeningAgent

http://www.oregonhumane.org/adopt/detail.asp?animalID=121823

Judar_Spitzer

!

ThickeningAgent

that dude will probably grow to be 160 pounds!

SOMEBODY ADOPT HIM!!!!

Loose_Thread

Somebody put him to work.

ThickeningAgent

"The Saint Bernard was founded in 980 AD by St Bernard de Menthon and bred by the monks- most likely by crossing the ancient Tibetan mastiff with the Great Dane, Greater Swiss Mountain Dog and the Great Pyrenees. The first Saint Bernards were of the short haired variety, as the long-haired variety's coat tended to collect icicles. They were used by the Hospice, a refuge for travelers through the dangerous Alpine pass between Switzerland and Italy. In the middle of the seventeenth century Saint Bernards became popular as a rescue dog working to save people from avalanches in the snowy passes near the Hospice. The dogs are able to smell a person under many feet of snow. They have saved thousands of people searching out and finding lost or injured travelers. The dogs would work in packs looking for the victims. When found they would lick and lay down with them in order to keep them warm. While a dog or more would lay with the body(s) another dog would head back to the Hospice to alert them that they found the humans. A full rescue team would then be sent out. The Saint Bernard has also been known to be able to predict storms and avalanches. This may be possible because of the dog's ability to hear very low frequency sounds which humans cannot."

WE NEED THIS DOG!!!!

YoursTruly

I find the plight of the dog whose skills are no longer needed/used to be deeply melancholy. There are still avalanche dogs but none that I know of are St. Bernards. The ones in Telluride are yellow labs.

Adopt him!!!!!! He will need to eat 15 pounds of food a day or something. How much energy does a guy like that have? Is he a big runner, or more of a slow plodder?

YoursTruly

didn't St. Bernards also have a small keg of brandy tied around their neck, to warm whoever they found in the snowstorm?

amazing skills

DOGS ARE AMAZING

Matthew

I would like some brandy.

freddy

I knew a guy who had a Bernese Mountain Dog, and they would go up to the mountain and the dog would pull the guy on skis. Sounds fun! (Sort of. Also scary. But I bet that dog loooved it.)

YoursTruly

I just read in my dog science book that it's harder to teach dogs to pull things than it is to teach horses, because dogs are predators and horses are prey, so dogs aren't used to "running away" while horses are. WTF? (meanwhile you can't teach a horse to fetch a stick, but since canids bring food home for their pups, you can teach a dog to fetch)

so I don't know how dog sleds and this crazy skiing dog happen! Maybe those dogs are just geniuses.

I want to go dog-skiing (with brandy)

There is a famous husky who lives in Telluride and is in a lot of the Warren Miller skiing movies, who rides the chairlift with his buddy and then just runs down the mountain after his buddy, who is on skis. Sometimes you'd see them. Crazy celebrity dog! God, what was that guy's name?? Started with a Z. He lived near my house and I'd see him out on the road sometimes on the way into town.

Lots of dogs actually would hang out on the mountain. There was a whole culture of cool guys who were allowed to bring their dog with them because they'd basically grown up on the mountain and knew everybody there.

Check out this rad early 90's ski gear, also tricks! Nobody does spreads like that anymore, WTF.

this video made me super nostalgic

YoursTruly

oh yeah, his name was ZUDNIK, which is the name of a ski trick where you get air and then push your body toward your skis, while keeping your skis parallel to the ground.

I think later Zudnik's owner got another dog named MOBIUS, which is a really insane flip you do when you get serious air. My friend Jenny Albin once landed on her head while doing a mobius and everybody thought she'd died but she was fine

YoursTruly

those dogs were actually pretty gnarly. My brother just reminded me that they were always running wild out by our house and killing deer and stuff.

the_owls

OMG that ski video is amazing- we need to get that dog, and those outfits, and get some crew to go do dumb puppy jumps up on Hood!

YoursTruly

really fun stuff
I totally had one of those fluorescent ski suits. It was great because you could just stick your SONY walkman in the front and not worry about it falling out the bottom of your jacket. Also peanut butter sandwiches, an extra hat, and goggles in case it started snowing.

Loose_Thread

i like you western skiifolk

swamp_knobbler_mahan

"As for the barrel on the collar, it first appeared in a painting by artist Edwin Landseer called “Alpine Mastiffs Reanimating a Distressed Traveler” in 1820; Landseer was only 17 at the time. The cask was thought to contain brandy and quickly caught on in the public imagination, though the monks and their dogs never actually used such a thing." (Alcohol, after all, could hasten dehydration—not a good treatment for a snowbound traveler.)

BEST NAME FOR A PAINTING EVER.

1234

We should have dogs like that here but with coffee in their barrels.

Judar_Spitzer

I want a dog like that that has a barrel of pina colada.

1234

Do you like pina colada?

Matthew

I like tropical flavors.

MirandaJuly

I'm a big pina colada fan when the setting is right.

ed_chigliak

I am the hugest Pina Colada fan, perhaps the barrel could be mounted with a swivel so that it the slushy aspect is maintained perfectly until drinking. I had really epic natural PC's at the jungle hobbit eco resort on my recent trip, but then we went to an all-inclusive mega resort place and their drink mixes were horrible and way too sweet(maybe even there was fake sugar on top of the hfcs?), I had to give up my beloved Pina Coladas and switch to Cuba Libres...DEATH TO BAD DRINK MIXES! GIVE ME FRUIT OR GIVE ME AN ACCEPTABLE SUBSTITUTE!

etc.

YoursTruly

REANIMATING A DISTRESSED TRAVELER!?!???!!!!!!!!!!!


I've never had a pina colada!

Leland

I love the big dumb rum! When I stray from whiskey I fall into the arms, or paper parasols, of fruity girl drinks..... yum! tropicalismo!

ed_chigliak

yessss it's a whiskey to rum continuum for me too, with temperature/season as the y axis.

the_owls

I seriously hate the taste of coconut! It really impedes my island beverage consumption!

My ideal rescue dog would have a barrel of precious hot toddy made from a fine bourbon and small insulated bag of s'mores. And perhaps a small monkey riding on his back who would slap my face.

YoursTruly

a dark n' stormy is a rum drink
a dark n' stormy is a wintery drink
right????
or do I only think that because of the title! OMG

the monkey slapping your face could be wearing a santa hat
and be named "Milicent"
the monks would come and see her slapping
and say "arrete, Milicent, assez! C'est bien, le pouvre humain est morte"

Loose_Thread

Haha, why would the monkey slap you?

ed_chigliak

and Milicent would say "Non, mes parents, le pouvre humain vivres encore, si on le donne encors cette formidable boisson"

ed_chigliak

I think Dark & Stormy is an island/nautical drink, applicable in all climes.

the_owls

So that I don't die!

If I was frostbitten and passed out in the snow I would want a slap in the face.
If I was being rescued by an animal I would really love that, and also want more animals.
I know from experience that frostbite makes you not give a shit or actually feel like something bad is happening, so the attitude of a small monkey could be ideally rousing.

the_owls

The feeling of impending frostbite is a gentle "Meh"

Matthew

I would be interested in many animals bringing me this drink

kdawg

Hugh has the coolest blender I have ever seen in my life, so I had a huge number of (mostly virgin) Piña Coladas last summer.

I would want a rescue dog to bring me a hawaiian punch slurpee, or else hot port.

ThickeningAgent

GUYS! HE GOT ADOPTED!