A hike and the wildlife

From the moment that we headed out the door onto our trails this morning, K just wanted to slide and wriggle in the snow. You can also see her "bad" leg in the photo below. The radiation really did a number on her fur but the radiation burn is gradually healing. Her radiation treatment was almost 5 weeks ago.

K was slightly limping today which, of course, sent me into a tizzy of worrying about whether her tumors are stirring or if she had injured the weakened bone. She still seemed happy but I think that her leg was hurting when she walked or ran. She's holding it funny, resting it on a snow pile, in the photo below but looks normal otherwise.

It was a gray day, except for a few flashes of sunshine. I took some photos when the sun rained down on us.

K chose one stick and carried it for much of our hike. Sticks are in short supply right now because most of them are buried under a deep layer of snow. The fact that K was playing with a stick told me that she wasn't feeling too bad.

We kept the hike short, in deference to K's minor limp and the fact that I was not feeling great either. I'm sure that you don't need me to tell you this - but having a dog with a deadly form of cancer isn't easy emotionally. I read far too much into every tiny thing, feeling as if I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. It's easy to say that we will keep a laser-like focus on *today* and not worry about the future until it gets here... but it's far harder to stay true to that attitude day-in and day-out. We just do the best that we can.

Before finishing our hike, we checked a couple of wildlife cameras. I actually got some photos!!! That's headline news given the depth of snow covering our forest floor.

A mule deer buck walked carefully in my snowshoe tracks and stopped to check out my wildlife camera. It amazes me how quickly animals notice the cameras, even in daylight when the cameras don't emit any light. The cameras are small and most humans don't notice them (although the cameras are posted are well away from human trails).

This deer had battered antlers. His left one was broken off very low. And, his right one looks almost as if it had bled from its base. If you look closely, you can see a reddish-orange substance in a ring around the antler close to the spot where he'll eventually shed the antler. I don't know if this is normal.

Then, he sauntered in front of the camera, giving us a nice view of his left tarsal gland. It's the red spot on his left hind leg that looks almost like a wound. It secrets chemicals that interact with the deer's urine (yes, he pees on his leg intentionally) to create his own "signature" scent.

Finally, at the very end of our hike, we discovered that a coyote had visited the area under our bear-proof birdfeeding station. In the photo, he was following my snowshoe trail out of the clearing. Do you see how deep that snow is? The fluffy coyote's head barely peeked over the edge of the trail. Life isn't easy for the wild animals right now.

I admire the wildlife who have stayed in the area despite the snow. I believe that our larger animals, like our elk and mountain lions, are staying at lower elevations. I can't wait for them to return!