Dog training and mountain lions

A day at the vet... So, we got started early, Shyla and I, heading out into the sunrise. I will never cease to love seeing a her fur turn red in the sunrise light.

A little later, her fur was a more normal, chocolate, color.

I knew that she'd be getting x-rays during her time at the vet today so we practiced her "relax" cue. She fell asleep - I'm not kidding. Relaxing, when at home on the trails, is no problem for Shyla!

I've learned from our veterinary misadventures over the years that it's important to teach my dogs to lie on both sides. Shyla is the first of my dogs who switches sides by rolling over on her back. She ended up covered in pine needles after rolling over.

She was an in-patient today so that the vets could get to the bottom of her limp. The vets and techs said that she behaved beautifully and was a super happy girl. That makes my heart sing.

We don't have a diagnosis for the cause of her limp yet - a board-certified radiologist needs to look at her confusing x-rays. My vet did say, however, that the abnormalities do not look like osteosarcoma or any kind of joint malformation. Bone cancer was the elephant in the room for me... as I'm sure that you can all imagine.

While Shyla was at the vet, R and I spent some quality time together. Well, he might say that I was torturing him. We rode up to Hug Hill, and then we played some "leave it" games. In the photo below, R was restraining himself from eating the fancy cookie!

R always takes the strategy of not looking at the cookie. I am reminded of the test where a child is put in a room with an oreo. If the child can sit in the room and not eat the oreo for several minutes, he/she is rewarded with multiple oreos. Some kids take the same strategy as R, not looking at the forbidden treat.

After playing with R, I visited trail cameras. Yet another mountain lion has been making the rounds. I had photos of this big cat on many cameras. First, he passed a camera on a path very occasionally used by humans. Indeed, some fast-moving humans came up behind him just minutes later. I wonder whether they saw him?

Then, hours later, he walked past a camera miles away on a barely perceptible animal trail, pausing for an instant just in front of it.

Then, he walked onward. Look at his distended belly. He had eaten a big meal very recently.

I adore the long and graceful tails of these animals.

And, he departed, heading for a more major path.

We've had a true flurry of mountain lions recently. I don't remember ever getting so many photos in such a short time. This guy continued his rounds for the next 12 hours, and I captured photos of him acting goofy, wriggling on his back, in the middle of the night. I'll save those for another day.