Jack, October 3, 2019 ©voyager, all rights reserved
Jack, October 3, 2019 ©voyager, all rights reserved
It’s been rainy and damp for a few days and this morning the temp was only 10°. It’s certainly not my favourite weather, but as my dad used to say, “it’s better than no weather at all.” Jack says he doesn’t mind the change. He has more energy when it’s cool and it gives him a reason to grow hair. Jack likes to grow hair, lots and lots of hair, and by the end of winter he has a thick, lush insulating coat which he then sheds all over everything come spring – except Jack never does a full shed. Normally we go to the east coast for the summer and Jack needs an undercoat to swim in the cold waters of the Atlantic. This year, though, we fooled him and stayed home in hot and humid Ontario where his remaining undercoat was unnecessary. I kept waiting for him to shed through June and July and even August, but Jack held on to that undercoat through all the hot days of summer. By the end of August I’d given up and figured he’d just start the slow build up to maximum coverage for winter. I was wrong. At the beginning of September Jack went into full shed mode and the hair came out in heaps and clumps and, Oh Boy, did it come out fast. It’s only the second time in Jack’s life that he’s been without his undercoat and neck ruff and the first time was way back when he was a puppy. He isn’t quite finished shedding yet either. You can see the blondish bits around his neck starting to clump and by tomorrow they’ll be ready to pluck. Soon he should start putting on new hair and I’d like to track how long it takes for him to grow his thick, full coat back so I’m going to photograph him about once a month to see how long it takes before he’s as hairy as a wookiee again. Here he is today looking svelte(ish) at the beginning of Autumn. We’ll see how it grows.
Is he going gray or is that just white that he has always had? I have the gray in my beard and on my head that took a few years to reach peak gray, but my beard used to have a lot of red in it even though the hair on my head was always brown.
Handsome Jack!
My pair theoretically do a major moult in spring and autumn, but that can be thrown out if the weather is particularly odd, of course they shed all the time, the difference is when they are moulting the fur comes out in handfuls.
Serious dog!
Johnson Catman
When Jack was young he was completely brown. Any white on him is old-man gray and it first appeared when he was about six. His belly, which he will show you for the price of a cookie, is almost all grey now.
I’ve looked at these pictures again and again.
Whenever I’m sad about not having a dog, I think “hair” and get better.