Sunrise and mountain lions

I'm trying to climb up high fast enough to see our December sunrises during Shyla's hike each morning. So far, the clouds have been the story of the sunrises...

It was amazing how fast my state of mind changed after I learned that the vets truly don't think that Shyla has bone cancer or a bone infection. All of a sudden, I was whining about an 8 week recovery. I realized that I needed an "attitude adjustment" this morning. It's something that will heal, and that is awesome news! It could have been catastrophic news.

My vet verified that the recovery process still has 8 weeks to go. To figure out how fast to increase Shyla's activity, our vet said to quantify Shyla's normal level of activity. Then, I should incrementally increase her activity (both total hiking distance and off-leash time) by 1/8 each week so that she reaches "normal" by the end of the recovery time. That makes sense to me.

Since the recovery will go on for a long time, I decided to start teaching Shyla some of the non-strenuous parts of agility before the agility course is literally hidden under the snow. The teeter-totter is quite scary for some dogs. I teach it by propping both ends of it up so that it is like a solid ramp to start with. I am teaching Shyla to walk back and forth on it so that it becomes familiar. The lower end of the ramp is only 1.5' off the ground so it's not a big jump for her.

Soon, I'll change the "props" on both ends so that the teeter-totter tips by 1" or so as Shyla goes over the fulcrum. Then, I'll gradually make the tipping action bigger and bigger. By this technique, K learned to love the teeter-totter in short order despite being a slightly fearful dog.

In other news, it turns out that the mountain lions are enjoying the early morning hours just like me and Shyla! But, they get themselves to remote terrain by the time the sun rises. A big male visited a scent post that I've been monitoring for three years continuously.

He arrived and spotted the soft red glow from the camera.

He walked over to check it out.

He turned back toward the base of the tree - which has been marked by approximately a zillion animals in three years.

He paused at the base, sniffing the scents.

Then he did something unique. He circled the tree.

Finally, he scraped the ground with his huge hind paws, and doubtless left a few drops of urine to announce that he is the undisputed King.

Then, he departed. He followed a "standard" mountain lion route. I've followed their tracks in the snow along this route on many occasions. It doesn't go on any trails. Rather, the route skirts the trails, keeping the lions out of sight of the trails. Over the course of his journey through our neck of the woods, he visited a couple of other trail cameras but I'll save those photos for another day!

A male mountain lion will be aggressive toward mountain lion kittens and even their mothers so I wonder if there was any interaction between this guy and the female who we've been following. Based on how fast he moved through the forest, I'm guessing not.

I do believe that the sudden influx of mountain lions has to do with the huge elk herd (about 150-strong) gracing our neck of the woods right now.

Lions love elk and so do I, but for different reasons!