Year of the Bobcat

The aches and pains from my surgery are still dominating my consciousness. My approach to life is to trudge on, trying to embrace the aspects of life that I love, to help me forget the pain. Seeing this coyote trotting briskly through our clearing was a good start.I decided that trying to find bobcat tracks to follow would be a fun adventure so K and I began our hike by hitting all of our local cat's favorite spots. Those spots are generally boulders near meadows. So, we examined every boulder near our most expansive local meadow. K climbed up a snowy boulder.
We didn't find tracks or scat near that boulder but I captured a photo of my best furry friend.
We followed the bases of massive and imposing boulders, since bobcats love to leave their signs in those unique spots.
We perused every speck of ground in boulder fields but the elusive bobcat seemed invisible today. In our boulder scrambling, we found a glorious and remote viewpoint, that I suddenly realized sat only a quarter mile above the bear's den. After enjoying our private summit, we quietly retreated further from the den.
It was a peaceful spot that seemed to soothe my soul although not my headache. I hugged K for solace.
As one last try to find bobcat tracks, we dropped down toward a canyon trail. Voila, a bobcat had briefly followed in the packed furrow left by K's and my previous forays into this canyon.
This feisty bobcat soul, who weighs a tenth as much as a male mountain lion, left scat on the mountain lion's favorite scent post. K sniffed it.
But, after being parodied today about my habit of showing "actual pictures of piles of scat" in my posts, I won't show you a photo of our glorious find! The Thundering Herd's post made me laugh and laugh. Thanks Herd! I really needed a good chuckle.

I've looked at my Kathleen Coy bobcat painting many times over the past two days, a gift from my blogging friends that still astonishes me. All of you have no idea how many times that gorgeous painting has made me smile. Here's to the Year of the Bobcat!
To wind down the day, our foursome took a sunset hike together, and it felt like medicine for my soul. It didn't make my head or neck hurt any less but it made me smile. I'm lucky and I know it.
Now, our labraduo is sharing a bed for the first time since R started sporting the stylish cone. Although the cone doesn't upset R even a tiny bit, it scares poor K. She's been keeping her distance, until tonight. Of course, her new-found courage has emerged just as R is ready to have his staples taken out. C'est la vie!
Of course, if K actually sees R as the beast with one green glowing eye that he appears to be in the photo, perhaps her fear makes sense!

Thanks to everyone for their words of encouragement after yesterday's post. I know that I'm on a roller coaster, and that my body will rebound soon. I see my PT and my surgeon in the next two days so I'm almost sure that I'll get reassurance that this exacerbation of pain and fatigue is perfectly normal. In the meantime, I'll keep trying to do the things that I love.