K Zooms (and Bobcat Night)

K and I meandered our forest during the only sunny part of the day today. We saw the sun rise over the clouds oozing up from the plains toward our mountains.

K happily soaked up the sun, although the air still chilled us to the bone.

I've been giving K short off-leash times during our hikes, allowing her to gradually rebuild the strength in her paw. Today, we saw one of her favorite people during a hike, and K broke into zoomies, with her butt tucked like a puppy's. She zoomed and zoomed around in circles, bucking like a filly. She acted happier and younger than I've seen in months. I laughed loudly and gleefully!

Our vet visit still didn't illuminate exactly why she has a lump and swelling above her amputation site. We're going to continue antibiotics for an extra three weeks. If it hasn't resolved by then, we'll start on the fancy diagnostic tests to reassure ourselves that there's no smoldering bone infection despite her powerful antibiotic cocktail.

Today, I went for a mountain bike ride that started in sunshine. I passed a deep blue reservoir.

As I labored up a hill past a meadow, I felt eyes on me. I scanned and guess who I saw?

All elk eyes were on me. The herd of more than one hundred elk wanted to cross my path but weren't sure if it was safe to come out into the open. The herd surged forward and then paused, awaiting my next move.

I quickly pedaled on so that the herd could stop worrying about me.

On my way home, I checked a couple of wildlife cameras. At a bobcat scent post, a stocky cat had investigated the pee-mail at about 10 PM.

He exited the clearing using exactly the same route as the mountain lion who visited this spot a couple of weeks ago.

To my delight, I discovered that the bobcat, presumably the same one, had visited our clearing later in the night... a little after the lunar eclipse reached totality. I wonder what the animals think of an eclipse?

This photo is for Stella, who has been clamoring for a front view of the bobcat for months!

The photos from next to my house are in color, even at night, because I use cameras with incandescent flashes close to my house. In contrast, I use infrared flash wildlife cameras out in the forest to avoid spooking animals in their own environment.

A coyote had also visited our house earlier in the evening. He broke into full howling just as the eclipse started. Did any of your dogs howl at the eclipse?

The mystery animals from yesterday's post were a bear and a bobcat. I have to agree that the bear looked a lot like R in closeup! We've had a very odd winter so far, with little snow and many warm days. I think that, unlike most years, some bears are still wandering in slow motion around our forest.