Wildlife Studies for Blogville

The new Mayors of Blogville, Murphy and Stanley, have asked Shyla to serve as Director of Wildlife Studies. She was so honored to be asked and accepted this position!

In her role, Shyla hopes to help everyone to learn more about wildlife and how dogs/humans can coexist with the wild animals.

We have lots of experience with this. We have a bobcat who walks past our house, within about 10 yards of it, several times per week.

Unlike us, the wildlife have to live outdoors, regardless of the conditions. That's why we try so hard not to let our dogs make the wild animals' lives any harder by chasing them or bothering them.

We think that dogs, humans, and the wildlife can co-exist, so long as the humans work hard to keep their dogs under control around wildlife. On many occasions, our trail cameras have picked up photos of dogs who are allowed to roam unsupervised. The next photo is of a pair of dogs that my cameras have been picking up all over the forest. We've been told that these dogs have survived their travels just fine - which is a big relief. We also hope that no wildlife have been hurt by them.

We had a few years, before Shyla was born, when we found the remains of multiple dogs out in the forest near our house. One was a definite mountain lion kill. We knew that particular dog quite well but his humans persisted in letting him roam despite our pleas for his safety. After he was killed, various parts of his body kept showing up on forest paths, and it was so upsetting to us. He was a HUGE malamute mix - and a true sweetheart.

We adore that we have wild kitties that live in our area even though they pose a threat to unsupervised dogs and domestic cats. Here's one of the biggest and most muscular male mountain lions my trail cameras have ever photographed in our forest. Most of these big cats live in the forest away from homes, and no one ever sees them in person.

Last, but certainly not least, we have bears in our area, like many of you do also. The bears are my favorite animals. Many people are afraid of them. While I think it's good to be cautious around them, attacks by black bears are far more rare than the media would lead you to believe.

Shyla and I had one close encounter with a mother bear and her cub this summer. You can read about it in this post. Since Shyla is now in a position where she should give advice about this kind of thing, the bottom line is do not panic, leash your dog, talk calmly to the bear(s), and depart the scene calmly and confidently. Choose a departure route that does not come between the mother and her cub.

We did all those things when we met the mother and her cub, and I even got one photo of the cub who was about 15' up in a tree. He's a handsome dude, don't you think? It was one of our most memorable days this summer.

So, as Director of Wildlife Studies, Shyla will tell you about our adventures with the wildlife in our area, and we'll try to help you to understand the lives of the wildlife a little better, including how to act if you are lucky enough to meet them face-to-face!

We are so honored that the new Mayors of Blogville have asked Shyla to fill this important post in their administration! Thanks!

P.S. We are sorry that this post is so late, but our internet stopped working today!