Mountain Biking with the Labraduo

I had two days of the Labraduo joining me for my sunrise bike ride. I had never seen how R's fur turns color when the sun barely peeks over the eastern horizon. He has a reddish glow!

The same is true for Shyla's chocolate coat. It looks almost fake because it glows so brightly. This bright glow lasts for only about 10 minutes after sunrise.

After the sun was a little higher in the sky, we played some games. As I looked through my photos of them, I noticed a very funny thing. When I called the Duo to run to me, they almost always simultaneously licked their noses with their tongues. I've read that "tongue flicks" are a sign of stress but I truly don't believe the Duo was under "stress". Perhaps it was a sign of excitement in this case.

Atop Hug Hill, they did the same thing. Their synchronization was remarkable!

The Duo played together, and they totally relaxed together in the warm sunshine. Shyla actually snoozed, which she'd never do without her trusty big brother by her side.

It's definitely a bit more stressful for me to keep two dogs under control than when I have only one with me. When mountain biking, the dogs have to be truly under "voice control" because I also have to pay attention to riding my bike and not crashing. But, it was good fun, and the Duo was generally very well behaved.

This morning, Shyla and I were on our own again. We look forward to the next time that the black tornado can join us!

See Beautiful: Our Wildlife

Today is "See Beautiful" Friday. As I am trying to recover from surgery, I've been sedentary compared to my usual lifestyle. Since my surgery, Shyla and I have taken an easy hike each morning. It's disconcerting to feel how incredibly fatigued my body is... but I managed to make it to one of my trail cameras yesterday.

From the trail camera, I was absolutely delighted to see that a tenacious bobcat had visited a spot that I've been monitoring for about four years. This bobcat defines "beautiful" for me.

The wildlife that inhabit our area are one of the most beautiful aspects of it. I took the next photo with a handheld camera about a year ago. I felt so lucky to see such a gloriously beautiful coyote bathed in warm sunlight. I had a very long lens so I was a good distance from him.

It seems that many mountain residents love the wildlife but there is still a faction who view our relationship with wildlife as adversarial. A photo of a coyote taken in our neck of the woods can provoke a lengthy discussion with lots of comments about how dangerous coyotes have become. My opinion is that the coyotes have not become more dangerous. Rather, more people live in the coyotes' habitat so there are more sets of human eyes to glimpse coyotes. Moreover, coyotes are more accustomed to seeing us.

I wish that people could accept that we've chosen to live where lots of predators reside - so we need to take appropriate precautions rather than trying to get rid of the wildlife.

Some of you might remember that someone shot and killed a coyote on our land a few years ago. When I called the Division of Wildlife about it, I was told that the only illegal aspect of the killing was that the shooter might have trespassed on our land. I learned that coyotes are considered "varmints" who can be shot at any time of year. Personally, when I look at the photos above, I see a beautiful animal and not a varmint.

Aside from our black bears, I love getting trail camera photos of mountain lions the most. They are so beautiful, with all the power and strength contained in their amazing bodies.

I love this photo because it's a juvenile mountain lion. Notice the faded stripe inside his front right limb and notice how big his ears appear compared to his head. I suspect that he was looking for his mom in this photo. Just today, I discovered that someone had stolen this particular photo from my blog, had blacked out my copyright watermark, and was using it as an ad. At first, I was nothing but outraged. Then, I realized that it might be a sign that peoples' attitudes toward mountain lions are shifting. Perhaps more people see a beautiful animal in the photo above rather than a scary beast who must be eliminated.

I believe that the co-existence of large predators with us is a beautiful thing. I "See Beautiful" whenever I capture photos of the predators who live in our forest.

Last, but certainly not least on Valentine's Day, the Duo is beautiful to me. In the past month, as R has been recovering from his surgery, I find the two of them snuggled up together almost all the time. Sometimes, they're sharing a sun puddle, and sometimes they're simply lying snuggled together on a dog bed.

It makes my heart sing to see such a beautiful bond between them.

Tiny steps

As I slept on the night before surgery, a bobcat walked along the side our house, within feet of our bedroom windows. Perhaps he read that I'd said such nice things about him the other day.

The next morning, we had to be at the hospital before dawn had broken so I didn't get see his tracks in our trail. But, my symbol of courage had been there - as this photo shows.

This morning (one day post-surgery), Shyla and I went for walk in the forest. I had a sling on my arm and haze of confusion in my brain. Oh my, the pain meds can addle my brain in a huge way. For example, I forgot my gaiters and got snow down my boots!

Shyla and I didn't walk far but we had fun along the way. She kept stopping to check on slow-poke KB.

I was going so slowly that she finally turned around to watch me carefully as I caught up.

I expect that helping me recover will be a maturing experience for Shyla. It was during my recovery from a major surgery that I felt like K and I became much closer. K seemed to suddenly feel responsible for watching out for me - and we became a team - each looking out for the other. Today, I felt like Shyla was starting to see that I needed her as much as she needed me.

Then, we came home and relaxed by the fire. Because I have this icewater machine that constantly circulates ice water around my shoulder - the fire is very welcome for keeping the rest of me warm. R loves the fire too - he likes to lie on the hearth as close to it as possible.

The quilt made by my friend, Jo, is also very welcome - it keeps me warm and reminds me of a wonderful friend.

My main companion by the fire has been the other patient in our family - R - who is recovering from elbow dysplasia surgery. He is still puppy-like in many ways but also has developed the maturity to know when hanging out close to me is wonderful!

My post-surgery situation is as expected- I am drowsy and dazed from all the pain medicine. But, if I reduce the pain medicine, then the pain is overwhelming. So, there's no escape from the pain pills yet.

I apologize in advance because it might be a while before I can leave comments on your blogs. Typing is very tough, and I know that the start of recovery involves tiny steps forward, interspersed with some setbacks. Despite all that knowledge, I felt reasonably upbeat today, enjoying my Duo and the world around us.

A storm on the horizon

Our K had a love of rose hips from when she was a tiny puppy. She'd stop in patches of wild rose bushes to munch on the rose hip berries all winter long. Alas, I keep thinking of her this year because there are almost no rose hips in her favorite patches due to our long-term drought - she would've been very disappointed. Here's one of the few rose hips that I found.

I remember when K started nibbling on these berries as a playful puppy, and I asked my vet if it was okay. Her reply was that the only danger was that K would scratch a cornea on the thorny stems. Despite our usual bad luck with vet issues, that never happened! Using a macro lens loaned to me by a generous friend, I captured a close look at the details of those thorns. It's amazing how every thorn is different, and how the stem looks like a intricate sculpture when I look at it in detail.

Whenever I'm going through a rough patch, I think of K a lot. With my neck, arm, and hand pain these days, she's been on my mind. But, I've managed to re-focus on who I have here with me now.

I recently took my first close-up photo of Shyla's eye, like I used to do with K's eyes. I adore Shyla's eyes... they're different from K's but glorious in their own way. Notice the shadows of her lashes on her golden eye in the photo below.

R's eyes are harder to photograph up close because they're so dark. But, I love seeing the reflections of our snowy world and of me in them.

And, I love seeing the Duo together, with R so clearly the big brother, watching over his little sister, even though she's a pest sometimes.

Apparently, we're about to get a big storm, with some much-needed snow - up to 20" - but I'll believe it when I see it after this year of storms just missing us. We desperately need to break our drought so I am rooting for a monster storm. Shyla sprinted through our oddly thin layer of snow this morning.

This morning, the clouds were already hovering on our horizon and creeping closer to us, boding well for snow.

What a beautiful world!

P.S. A few new readers have asked about the origin of my spine problems. It's a hereditary condition that is causing my discs to degenerate at "break-neck" speed. I've had several vertebrae in my neck surgically fused and another few fused in my low back region. I usually can manage the pain through lifestyle adjustments but occasionally I go through phases like this one where the pain is almost intractable. This time, I have some carpal tunnel issues on top of the spine issues (hence, the wrist splints) so my nerves are being pinched in two places. Hopefully, if I'm patient, I'll recover without needing more surgery.