Dog tongues and bear behavior

First, I must thank you all. At every valley in this cancer journey, you have all been an inspirational chorus of support. It means so very much to me. Yesterday, you reminded me that, even though things look pretty dire to me right now, I should seize the day with K. So, I did. Thank you.

I'd also like to point you toward one of our "dog-blogging" community who has written a book that was inspired by her amazing experience with the blogging community when her dog, Max, had terminal cancer. She dedicated the book to the blogging community. MaxMom recently posted an excerpt from her exceptionally well-written, funny, and poignant book. I highly recommend checking it out.

As I scrolled through my photos today, I discovered that R almost always sticks out his tongue as he starts to run toward me for a recall. One of you made the funny comment that "he's testing the wind for take-off". It's a funny habit!

K likes to stick out her tongue too, but not usually at takeoff. This was from our ride this morning.

We got a late start this morning because K is a world-champion snuggler after the boys get up and go running. I'm going to have to resist the temptation to sleep late with how warm it is these days. She still romped over Hug Hill but you can see that she panted as she galloped.

We were just recalling that as a puppy, K was a wild girl first thing in the morning. We'd get her out of her crate and bring her into bed for snuggle time. She'd become a piranha, play-biting both of us with her sharp puppy teeth. That would get us out of bed in a big hurry. What a big difference a few years make!

Now, K is a calm and steady force in my life. She hasn't laid teeth on anyone in many years!

On a completely different note, our bears have become quite active in the forest. I haven't seen any near houses... but my cameras are getting photos of them regularly at their scent marking trees. Because my cameras are pointed at specific trees, we can see how different bears behave when they encounter the scent of another on a tree.

One bear went through, vigorously marking trees on 4/22, and then another followed in his pawprints one week later. The video below shows their behaviors. They're definitely different bears because the first one had a white blaze on his chest while the second one didn't. I suspect that the second one was a younger, less dominant, bear since he/she never stood up bipedal to mark a tree.

You can watch the video here or at Youtube.

I also have footage of a bear marking a tree in a different area. I'll save that for the near future.