Happy with a dash of worry

K and I took our short stroll this morning, looking for new ways to make our 200 yard walk interesting. After all, we've been limited to 200 yards for about 10 weeks, and we've covered every square inch within that distance of our house.

If she had control of the keyboard, I think that K would report that I tortured her this morning. Out in our glorious meadow, K drank up the scents of coyotes, bobcats, deer, and elk.

Then, I asked her to balance a piece of kibble on her snout. She seemed dumbfounded at first. How on earth could she focus on a piece of kibble with dangerous predators lurking all around us? I assured her that I'd keep watch, and she eventually managed the stupendous feat of balancing a round piece of food on her nose.

And, her reward for that feat - the piece of kibble! K complained that it was hardly adequate!

We received the final pathology report on K's amputated toe yesterday. The good news was that there was no cancer found anywhere in the toe bones (the previous report was based on a small fraction of the toe). That's worth celebrating! The bad news was that the bacterial infection is a particularly nasty and opportunistic type (serratia). Moreover, we didn't get "clean margins". They always amputate one extra segment above the bone where the infection or cancer is known to be, to provide a "clean buffer" between the bad stuff and the rest of the body. Unfortunately, the pathologist found that the "extra" toe segment that they amputated had already been invaded by the bacteria. Thus, we can't know if the bacteria had already gone even further up her forelimb... I think that I'll be talking with more vets in the coming days to figure out the best next step.

I feel a mixture of emotions. I'm so relieved that there's not a trace of cancer in K's toe but I'm anxious about the infection that is still inside my sweet K. It helps my heart to see that K seems happy and stronger by the day.

After my games with K, R and I headed out for a snow bike ride. Our ride started sunny and warm. The warm air felt like a luxurious treat for this time of year. Soon, however, the clouds poured off the Continental Divide and surrounded us. Snow started pelting out of the sky.

It kept snowing hard for the rest of our ride, tapering off just as we arrived home. After leaving R at home, I pedaled out into the light snow wearing many layers of winter riding gear. That was the signal for Mother Nature to return our world to a warm and sunny place. I roasted in my stiflingly warm clothing but still had a blast out in our world. I feel so lucky to live in a place where nature surrounds me, soothing my soul, even if I do miss having K with me out in the forest.

Yesterday, I posted a photo of some tracks that I'd seen and asked for guesses about what animal it was. The funniest guess was Mango! Alas, the animal who actually laid those tracks weighs at least as much as TWO Mangos. Over the course of a week, I followed his tracks for miles and miles but eventually his huge pawprints disappeared in an area with little snow. Today, I was thrilled to learn of yet another segment of his route, satisfying my endless curiosity about our wildlife. He's a big male black bear, heading for his den for the winter. And, although it's many miles from my home, I have a pretty good idea where his den is.

In today's post, I wanted to show you lots of fun photos from tracking our bear but my internet is so slow that it's took an hour to upload each photo above (yup, that's FOUR hours of uploading for this post). So, my bear stories and photos will have to wait until tomorrow. I learned lots of fun things about a bear's life by following the big guy's tracks around our forest.