Dog news and Mr. Bobcat

We've had a "normal" day, after what feels like quite a few abnormal days with quick trips to the vet thrown in to keep me on my toes. Shyla has been getting her morning hikes, and she's a super happy girl. Doesn't she look fetching as she did a down stay on top of Hug Hill?

We also practice our recalls on our favorite hill.

Yesterday, we went to training class and did socialization work. Shyla continues to stun me with how smart she is. She's learned to touch my shoe with her nose so easily! I must get a video of it soon because she's such a puppy about it. She throws in all sorts of cute little motions as she crosses the room to poke my shoe with her nose. We haven't yet tried it with other people - the ultimate goal is that I'll say "shoe" as she meets a new person, and she'll touch their shoe rather than jumping on them. Jumping is not a big issue yet (fear inhibits her) but my trainer thinks that it may become one because she's begun jumping on people who she knows.

After Shyla and I did our morning hike, it was R's turn. He seems almost normal now, after a week of stomach upset. He's still taking Cerenia, an anti-nausea drug, and we'll stop it tomorrow. That will be a big test. The main news on his health is that his blood work has returned to being as messed up as it was at the beginning of this whole episode 5-6 weeks ago. He has a "marked" population of damaged red blood cells (acanthocytes) and "reactive lymphocytes" in his blood. My vet feels 90% certain that a toxin in his Natural Balance Limited Ingredient food caused all of this. We are home-cooking for him now, and I'm working hard to figure out a long-term plan. In the short-term, we just want him to recover from the damage done to his body by the bad food.

I took this photo today. He's such a wonderful dog...

After exercising both dogs, it was time to keep my spine happy by spinning on my mountain bike. This is a daily necessity for me. Otherwise, the back spasms and the sciatica become too overwhelming. When Shyla's body is mature enough, she'll join me on some of my mountain bike rides.

It was during one of my solo rides to a very lightly traveled part of the forest that I saw a bobcat last week. As I rode along on a faint path, I spotted him on the trail 30 yards ahead of me. He trotted quickly to the side of the trail. I assumed that he'd vanished, like bobcats usually do. Despite my expectation that he was gone, I stopped to scan for him, and he was not far away! The photos are in chronological order.

He had taken cover behind two boulders but I could easily see him. He wasn't looking right at me at first.

Indeed, something to his right had his attention. That worried me a little. I wondered if a bigger and fiercer animal was hidden over there but I didn't see anything.

Finally, he looked straight at me. He didn't seem afraid but didn't look particularly thrilled to see me either.

He began alternating between looking to his right and at me.

He squinted a lot, to the point that it looked like his eyes were closed. But, he was looking directly into the sun, and his eyes are specialized for nighttime vision. Thus, the sun might have been too bright for him.

He checked on me again. At this point, I realized that I could see the rise and fall of his chest. I watched closely... He and I were breathing in almost the same rhythm.

He seemed to contemplate the situation, looking like his thoughts had turned inward.

Then, he looked at me again with those squinted eyes. I decided that I'd disrupted his life enough for one day. I hopped on my bike and left him alone.

I was riding an "out and back" route, which meant that I passed the same area again on my return. I watched closely as I approached it, and there was the bobcat on the trail again! He trotted off, this time into some yellow leaves.

I was beginning to worry that this cat was too unafraid of humans. Although almost no one else visits this part of the forest for most of the year, hunters go there in the fall. I didn't want this beautiful cat to be shot because he didn't hide from hunters. So, I made some yelling noises and walked directly toward the cat. My hope was that I'd be showing him that us 2-leggers can be dangerous and unpredictable.

He turned and walked away into the gold grass.

Just before he disappeared, he stopped and scanned once more with the white underside of his tail showing.

Then, he was gone...

I felt very lucky to have "met" a bobcat in the wild. At the time, I wondered if there was a large prey item that he was feeding on near that spot on the trail, explaining why he didn't want to flee when I arrived. I plan to look around when I return there again to see if I can find anything.

Thank you, Mr. Bobcat, I loved seeing you.