A pair of mountain lions appeared in front of my trail camera. They were on the edge of a large meadow probably hunting for deer or elk. They were very curious about a scrape. As they sniffed it, they began rubbing their heads together. It was a sweet sight in our apex predator.
I think that this pair was a mother-daughter team. The daughter is probably a year or older. Check out the video to see this bonded pair.
There's so much good in a day at Lab Valley.
One of my favorite things is that we can see the sunrise from our windows. We usually wake up before it's light. As I sip my coffee by the windows, the sky gradually gets lighter. Some mornings, like this one, an incredible sunrise lights up the sky.
Lab Valley has lots of cool birds but a recent sighting was the best yet. During a hike, we saw a small bird, tinier than a robin, fly out of the grass and onto an aspen branch. At first, I thought that it was a song bird. Then, I saw his head swivel like an owl. I pulled out my camera with a long lens, and we discovered that he was a Saw-Whet Owl. It's hard to tell how tiny he is in this photo - but he's smaller than a soda can.
We are so grateful for this place that we call home.
I love when my cams see multiple mountain lions at the same time. In this video, a mother mountain lion checks out an area with scrapes left by male lions. As she's checking it out, she gives a bird-like chirp to call her kitten (at about 1:07). The kitten is big - almost full grown but he comes when called. What a gift to get to see them!
The video is short. Please check it out if you have time.
Last week, Shyla had a vet appointment, and we decided to bring Hachi to do some training with him outside the vet hospital. The first plan was that the Runner would do that while Shyla and I were inside the hospital. However, it turned out that Hachi was horrified that Shyla and I disappeared into the hospital for 30 whole minutes. He was too worried about us to do any training.
The next part of the plan was that the vet would prop open the door to the "reactive dog" exam room at the end of our appointment so that Hachi could try doing some training near the door. The reactive dog exam room has direct access from outdoors so that the dog doesn't need to go through the reception area.
As soon as Hachi saw us emerge from the hospital unscathed, he leaped up and down, and then he showered us in kisses. He was so relieved.
He seemed so happy and good after greeting Shyla and me that we went forward with approaching the exam room. Much to our surprise, he pushed through the only slightly open door, and he sniffed all around the empty room while the Runner gave him treats. It went better than we ever expected, especially since it was the exact room where he was very scared during an actual vet appointment back in the summer.
We love our Hachi.
We are still waiting for our first real snow of the year. As I thought about the recent warmth and dry weather, I realized that we had a really big storm on this date a couple of years ago. Our Black Dog was starting to slow down but he and I went out to play in the snow. The snow drifts were as tall as him!
Happy Black Dog Sunday!
Deep in a gulch, there's a forest path used by all sorts of wildlife. It is fun to see each species travel past the cam. A mama moose and her calf passed it more than once during the summer and fall, and it's amazing to see how fast the calf grew! Other starring species include bears, one of whom had a couple of cute cubs.
Check out the video if you have time.
I am thankful for every star in the sky and for the glorious desert landscape.
I am always so happy when my trail cams see mountain lions out in daylight. In this case, it was a pair of mountain lions.
You'll see a pair who seem very comfortable with each other. My first guess was a family unit. If you watch closely, you'll be able to see faded spots on the first lion who left the cam's view. That's a sign of a kitten. I think that the other lion was the mother.
Check out the video. I was overjoyed to get this footage!
Hachi seems more comfortable in his own skin than ever before. He gives us the feeling that he's open to learning things that we'd put on the back burner.
 |
| Relaxed Hachi in the Desert |
One of the first things that we'd love for him to learn is that strangers are not as scary as he thinks. That's an overwhelming task from the point of view of his humans. He thinks that all but about 6 people in the world are potential threats. That leaves billions of people for him to learn are not scary.
In my mind, I finally figured out a way to think about it. My mantra is now "one person at a time", meaning that we will work with him on getting to know a single new human at a time. We decided that a very experienced dog trainer should be that first person. She can teach us more about how to introduce him to strangers and how to respond when things go badly than we know now.
 |
| Happy Hachi on the Slickrock |
Our first session with her was at our place because that's where Hachi is most comfortable. We started out with "parallel walking" along our driveway. In this, we began with Hachi behind her on a leash with the Runner. They gradually caught up until the trainer, me, and the Runner/Hachi were walking side-by-side.
After Hachi seemed comfortable with that, we played a game called "treat-retreat", where the trainer tossed treats toward Hachi. After he'd eaten all the treats off the ground, the Runner helped him to "retreat" away from the trainer. Hachi could pick up treats about 10' away from the trainer without reacting.
And that was all that we did in the first session. We liked the trainer a lot. She didn't push Hachi too hard. That is the most important thing in helping Hachi get over his fears. We've seen it again and again.
 |
| Watchful Hachi |
We'll keep on working with our Hachi. This is all part of the bigger picture leading toward him being able to go to the vet without being knocked out by sedatives. The vet is a stranger who he's afraid of. Perhaps our "one person at a time" approach will eventually help him to generalize enough that he can be near our vet without being terrified.
We love our Hachi.
Our Black Dog was so intense as a young dog. His breeder said that he had the least intensity of any pups in his litter. We frequently joked that it must have been quite a litter to have in your house.
His intensity manifested in a lot of ways. One of the most frequent was in barking when he was excited. He barked and leaped in the air at the start of almost every morning run that he and the Runner did. He barked before his meals. He barked before all training, including the exercises that he and I did together. One neighbor who lived more than a mile away said that she knew when R and I were just about to do his "crawl under the chairs" exercise because she could hear his joyful barks. She said it with a smile.
He also loved to vocalize when I was taking his photo. It may have been him who taught Shyla to howl for the camera.
My best friend... Her face is getting grayer but our bond is getting deeper.
As Shyla has gotten older, we have become more in sync with each other. She can read my mind and I can read hers. Just like with all the dogs before her, the depth of our bond makes me want her to live forever.
Mountain lions!!! They are my favorite wintertime wildlife. After spending some time tracking one today, I remembered that I'd never shared the forays of lions over the summer.
For years, I've monitored a series of lion scent posts that are packed into a small area. Usually, if a lion visits one, he visits all of them. That was true of the biggest male lion who came through back in July.
Other animals visited the scent posts too. My favorite was the diminutive bobcat who scraped where the lion had been. Bobcats are the most audacious of all of the animals.
Check out the short video!
The bond between our dogs makes us so happy. They play joyfully. They enjoy each other's company so much. It is frequently Shyla who instigates play even though she's a lot older than Hachi. We are so glad that she loves her brother.
While we were in the desert this year, I kept remembering recent years when I'd dread going home because our area had become too congested with people for our pups to have off-leash play time. Now, they can play at home too, and no one can take that away from us. That made heading home a lot happier than in recent years!
All fall, we've had a bull elk living nearby. He's the one who bugled a lot near our house and who shepherded his harem through our valley. He also loves visiting a couple of wallows in a nearby valley.
It seems that he's taken a dislike to my trail cams. He attacked two of them in the past few weeks. He moved the first one so far that I thought that it had been stolen. I eventually found it. As for the second one, he snuck up from behind it and damaged it pretty badly.
Check out the video of this guy going after my cams.
During our time in the desert, the Runner found a deer antler. He decided that he wanted to hide it on our favorite secret slickrock to see if anyone found it before we returned. Hachi had other ideas. He watched where the Runner hid it and immediately stole it from its hiding place.
It is a big place. A bit later, he was way below us. Do you see him?
He was heading for the edge of the slickrock. He knew that there was dirt down there so he could cache his treasure. For his sake, I won't show the photo of where the treasure is buried. I wonder if Hachi will find it again when we return?
Overall, Hachi is doing great. We can feel how open he is to learning so we're taking full advantage of it. He's been visiting the vet hospital parking lot and even the door to the exam room where he's gone in the past. He's been practicing his vet routine with us. And, he's meeting a new trainer early next week to work on getting to know a stranger (the trainer!). We are so optimistic.
On the morning that we departed for the desert, we had the most brilliant sunrise in a long time. I loved seeing it over our meadow. It reflected off my greenhouse, making me smile.
The silhouettse of the treeline was glorious!
Memories of our Black Dog still cut both ways for me. They make me sad because I miss how much fun we all had when he was alive. But, I can't help but smile at the way he embraced life.
Happy Black Dog Sunday.
Shyla and I have been playing games like this one for close to ten years. At the beginning, I had to be so careful not to scare her. She was afraid of almost everything - and I didn't want to be included on the list of scary things. By steadfastly being her trustworthy human, I eventually earned her trust. Now, she loves games like this one, knowing that there's no "wrong" way to behave. We're just a pair of girls having fun together.
I didn't bring a remote trigger for my camera so I'd set it to take a photo 10 seconds later, and I'd sprint around to Shyla to see what she did. This one was a "high ten". We both laughed after the camera took our photo.
After getting a great start in tracking mountain lions and videoing them near our new place, they disappeared late last winter. I stayed the course, keeping my trail cams in the same spots where I'd gotten video of them previously. Finally, last month, my cams picked up footage of two or three lions.
This video is from one spot where they returned. You have no idea how glad I was to see the long graceful form of a lion!
During the lions' hiatus, a human spotted my cam and messed with it. That's why it's set up oddly - to keep it out of sight. I may try moving it back into the open this winter.
The autumn colors in the desert were amazing this year. Most of the colorful leaves were in the washes, areas that are dry between rains but fill with torrents of water in storms. The trees and shrubs love these areas.
This was a wash that still had some water in it. The animals certainly appreciated it - I saw many tracks heading for this pool. And the reflections of the golden leaves shimmered on the water.
I was so thankful that we could travel to autumn by visiting the desert. It inspired my photography - because the colors made me want to figure out how to capture the desert beauty. I had so much fun exploring the desert washes to find good views of the colors.
In the summer, I found a very steep path in the forest. I spotted an area where I thought that a bobcat had marked but I wasn't sure. So, I put a camera near that spot to see what happened.
It did turn out to be a favorite trail of a bobcat. He's such a cute little guy. A young bear also liked the trail and seemed fascinated by the area that the bobcat had been marking. I suspect that this cub had run away from his mom to check it out.
Here's a short video from that spot. Enjoy!
Hachi is doing really well. Over our three years with him, we've learned that camping in our LabMobile stresses him out. Due to his anxiety, he tends to get a short temper with his sister. He explodes into a snark right at her face when he goes over threshold.
Not on our recent trip! We could feel that he was less tense than usual, and his behavior backed that up. He snoozed in the sun next to Shyla, and then he played with her on our evening hikes. I know that his face looks crazed in the next photo but it's due to pure and happy play.
We also were able to practice some of his formal training, like the Bucket Game, in our campsites. He could focus, relax, and do a good job with them. That seemed impossible as recently as a few months ago. Yay for Hachi!
We feel as if he's ready to work on more of his fears. We have plans to work on them steadily. I'll write more about that soon.
I like this next photo because it shows a very relaxed dog. His eyes were soft as he looked up at the Runner. His tongue was hanging out. He looks happy to me!
We visited a place in the desert where we had many joyful times with our Black Dog. He and Shyla used to chase each other across a mesa with a dramatic desert backdrop. They ran with wild abandon. Our Black Dog sometimes burst out into wild barking because he was having such fun. Then, his barks would echo off the canyon's cliffs. He'd hear the echoes, and he'd have to answer that other dog who sounded just like him. His wild joy was infectious.
Shyla loves to howl in the desert. Her voice echos off the cliffs, and she thinks that someone is answering her.
That leads to more howls and gives me time to make fun images of her howling! Believe me, I made lots of them during our recent getaway.
She is doing well. I did notice that she'd slowed a bit in the desert. I think that the rocky surfaces are tougher on a dog's joints than soft grassy surfaces like we have in the mountains. She'll be turning ten soon so I am grateful that she can still run with me!
Our break is over. It certainly gave us a good breather to gain perspective on all that we've done in the past year. We are both really liking our new house - it feels like home now, and that's a great feeling.
For a blog restart, I'd like to share a video from a forest path near our new place that is used by a lot of wildlife. Cats of all sorts tend to strut along the path. However, since late last winter, mountain lions have been rare in this spot. My cams used to pick up a lion every two weeks or so.
When I checked this cam, I was overjoyed to see that a mountain lion had used the path. As he walked down the path, it became clear that he had a big limp in a hind limb. I hope that he can recover quickly. He needs full use of his hind limbs to capture prey.
You'll also see a Mama bear with her two cubs. My cams have seen this family all over the area, moving from one chokecherry hot spot to the next. The cubs are almost always incredibly well behaved, trotting along behind their mom. I'll share some highlights of this family's summer sometime soon.
Enjoy the video.
On one of the last days when the aspen leaves were on the trees, Shyla and I had lots of fun doing photography. I cannot imagine a more cooperative model.
She happily galloped through the aspens, and I happily tried to photograph her. We laughed and had fun! These times with Shyla make me so happy.
Within another 48 hours, the temperature plummeted and the wind blew so hard that many people, including us, lost our power. The leaves all came down from the trees. Then, it snowed enough to stick for more than 24 hours. That marked the end of autumn and the start of winter.
Most years, I am super sad at the end of autumn. This year, I am surprised to find myself looking forward to the darkness and cold - because I need a rest.
We are going to take a short break. Hopefully, this break will give us a chance to catch our breath.
Teeny Tiny's mom is a bear who I've followed since she was a cub. It's been cool to see her go from a silly little cub to a caring mother.
I don't know how she ended up with only one cub this year. It's not ideal because a solo cub has no other cubs to play with. As I've watched the clips of his mother in a water hole with him, I've been so impressed with how she plays with him.
In this video, watch mama bear and her cub interact. It's really fun!
Autumn is ending, although I still have lots of photos of it to share. I am so thankful that I have a little greenhouse. It is filled with plants that would not thrive in our high altitude weather without the warmth of a greenhouse. My absolute favorites are tomatoes. We've been eating greenhouse tomatoes all summer and fall.
We've also discovered that home grown cucumbers are sweet and amazing! My huge crop (ha ha) has included two cucumbers so far. Growing them was an experiment. I am hoping to improve my yield next year!
Thank goodness, after a full day without power, it just came back on. Otherwise, the 15°F temperature predicted for tonight would have killed everything in the greenhouse. I have a small heater in there to help keep the plants from freezing on the cold nights of autumn.
I am also thankful for the valley that we call "Lone Ponderosa Valley". The Lone Ponderosa is in the upper right of the photo. It is where the ashes of our departed pups are buried. During the spring, summer, and fall, Shyla and I rode there daily. We'd bring a bottle of water to help the Columbine seeds that I planted over the graves last fall. The great news is that the plants are doing beautifully. We'll have blossoms there within a couple of years.
Mountain lions took an extended hiatus from my camera sites for the spring and about half of the summer. This was true both at my new and old places. Finally, around mid-summer, a female lion graced two scrape sites quite close to where we used to live.
She came out in daylight on a couple of occasions, showing us her fur and shape in glorious detail. Enjoy the video!
We had a very helpful appointment with Hachi's behavioral vet last week. We discussed how to get Hachi veterinary care despite his terrible fear of vets, strangers, and unfamiliar places. While we plan to continue to work on all of the elements of eventually taking Hachi to the vet without being sedated, sedation is the best strategy for now.
The behavioral vet's goal (and ours too) is to figure out a tranquilizing medication that we can give so that he can walk into a vet's office with minimal fear. Then, the vet will rapidly sedate him with an injection to his butt. Of course, we have to figure out the right medications by trial and error.
We tried out the first tranquilizing medication last week. The Runner medicated Hachi. Two hours later, they arrived in the parking lot of our vet, got out, and walked toward the door (all the while, the Runner was giving him yummy treats). Hachi was noticeably less scared than when he did the same thing the previous week without any tranquilizing medications.
The Runner thought that Hachi would have walked in the door but they didn't do that this week (we are taking teeny tiny steps on this journey). Now, we'll report to our behavioral vet, and she'll probably add in an additional medication so that he's even more relaxed.
In other news, Hachi is doing great with visitors to Lab Valley. He still barks when they first arrive but rapidly calms down. He's gone on walks with a number of visitors over the past couple of weeks. He seemed relaxed!
Hachi is such an intense dog. He's watching me SO carefully so that he can blast toward me when I call him. I love his intensity.
We love our Hachi.
Winter is here! We knew that it was coming this week with 20° lows forecasted for later in the week. Then, all of a sudden, the forecast showed a low of 26° for tonight! We still need to finish harvesting all of our outdoor garden beds so we went running out into the cold windy darkness to cover the garden with frost blankets.
I came back inside, cold and tired. There, on my computer screen was a photo of our amazing Black Dog.
Black Dog Joy warmed my heart.
Shyla and I have been reveling in autumn together. I love the colors, and she loves the cooler air. We do our trail ride, stopping frequently for photos.
I love the aspen groves where a range of colors glows. This one had green, golden, and even red leaves! Shyla struck her favorite pose in front of it.
But, most of all, Shyla loves to run. She looks so happy this fall!
Happy Shyla Saturday!
