Springtime and R's training

For now, it is springtime. Bears are roaming our forests, hummingbirds are buzzing high overhead, and the Pasqueflowers are opening up to the sunshine.

Shyla and I were out early, with me riding atop the crust of the snow in the sub-freezing temperatures of the very early morning. Amazingly, in sunny spots, the snow has already completely melted down to dirt. In the forest, however, there is still deep snow.

We saw the sun rise, and it cast a reddish light on Shyla.

And, we loved each other's company.

After our ride, I spent some time training the black cracker dog. This photo shows R's serene side.

The serenity flees when we start our training. R absolutely adores our training time. That's what positive training does - it creates dogs who view training time as one of the best times of the day.

We are working on a wave, with R's left paw. He had elbow dysplasia surgery as a puppy, and this movement is great for maintaining his range of motion and muscle strength around the weakened elbow. He has definitely learned this trick! However, it's tough to photograph it well because he always twists slightly away from me as he waves.

You'll notice that R's mouth is open in the photo above. The reason is that, in typical R cracker dog style, he's modified the trick to suit him. Presently, he barks every time he waves.

And sometimes he barks when he's not waving out of pure joy for life!

Barking in sync with waving should be an easy habit to break (it just started today). Tomorrow, I'll reward only the waves when he doesn't bark. For today, I just laughed along with him every time he barked. I love his enthusiasm!

I think that R will be back to running and romping pretty soon. I've been stretching his elbow through its range of motion a couple of times every day, and we're giving him regular glucosamine injections. We haven't seen him limp in a whole week. Good news!

See Beautiful: Resilience and Strength

It is "See Beautiful" Friday, a bloghop that I love participating in.

My idea of beauty may not conform to the "normal", as you'll see from my examples of beauty from the last month.

This was the start of a beautiful series of photos of a species that was pushed to the brink of extinction by bounty hunting for much of the 1900's. Can you guess what animal it is from this photo?

Now you can see the whole beautiful animal. He's a mountain lion (a.k.a., cougar or puma), sniffing at the base of a tree that I've monitored for almost three full years now. Lots of animals, including multiple cougars have marked the area under the snow that this mountain lion was sniffing.

He didn't stay long. He seemed to know exactly where he was going. I was able to follow his tracks today, and he was on a mission. He was following a route that many mountains lions have followed in the past. It's not a trail - the only way that I know that the lions love this "route" is by tracking them in the winter.

Much to my delight, he stuck with the standard mountain lion route so I captured more photos of him at another site. I am referring to "him" for no particular reason. I don't know the sex of this lion.

After a quick sniff of the ground, he was on his way, again following the standard route.

Mountain lions had bounties on their heads in Colorado until 1965. Yet, a small population of secretive cats survived and have multiplied. I suspect that their persecution selected for the most secretive cats, which is why we almost never see these resilient and strong animals, except by motion-activated cameras.

When I checked the second trail camera that the lion had passed, I saw that a coyote had lazed in the sunshine in this spot before the mountain lion came through. That may have been why the mountain lion sniffed the spot. The coyote is another persecuted species who is thriving despite some humans' best efforts. Coyotes define "resilience" in my mind.

Continuing with the resilience and strength theme, we presently have a few brave wild crocuses ("Pasqueflowers") who are thriving despite our wildly fluctuating weather. This morning, the Pasqueflowers were hunkered down under the stress of low temperatures and light snow.

Then, the sun came out and the Pasqueflowers stood tall with amazing resilience and strength.

Last, but certainly not least, my girl Shyla is the definition of resilience in my mind. She is learning to trust and to stand tall. She has known fear intimately - and thus has earned the right to be called courageous. Her strength humbles me.

All month long, I "saw beautiful" in the resilience and strength of the world and beings around me.

Springtime and tomorrow

Spring is here, for the moment. Warm air, hot sun, and flowers starting to bloom.

K and I mountain biked up to Hug Hill this morning. It was about 30 degrees when we started and over 50 degrees an hour later. K loves the cool part of the day and romps speedily around me as I ride my bike.

Her energy and joy were undeniable this morning. From a distance, it is impossible to tell that she's sick. It's only when I look her over closely that I see the toll that cancer is taking on her.

Our forests still contain huge snow piles, and K visits each one. She lies in the snow, wriggles on her back in the snow, and even eats snow cones.

I made sure to pause with my girl this morning, to give thanks for this day together.

Spring is my favorite season. I love watching the world come back to life. I watch every little detail including flowers, elk, mountain lions, bears, and even the catkins on willows. I'm trying very hard to focus on these wonderful signs of life and keep my mind off of the darker side of life.

Tomorrow, we will learn more about how K's cancer is progressing. She'll have x-rays to check her lungs, and we'll find out if the latest chemotherapy seems to have slowed the evil C at all. If it has actually slowed or stabilized the spreading cancer, K will have another round of chemotherapy. You can probably imagine how heavily the specter of tomorrow is weighing on me today. Maybe it will be good news - that would be a nice change of pace.

It's almost impossible for me to believe that K is so sick because she glows with joy and beauty when she's outdoors with us.

A new day

Yesterday was misty and cold. Pogonip filled the air and blanketed the budding plants.

The wild crocuses, Pasqueflowers, clenched their petals tightly closed to wait out the nippy weather. They gathered water out of the air on the fine silky hairs covering their stems.

In the thick fog, animals moved close to me on the trail as if the usual rules no longer applied. The entire hundred-strong elk herd paraded within 50 yards of me, with each of them stopping in a gap between the trees to gaze at me. I must have been almost invisible in the fog.

Deer also disregarded me, walking deliberately within yards of me in the misty world.

Today, the world dawned fresh and clean.

The same Pasqueflower as I photographed yesterday, closed up tightly, opened its petals wide to soak up the sun.

The elk herd and I crossed paths again but, this time, they were more careful to keep their distance from me. Notice that a bull near the right of the photo has only one antler. Antler-shedding season must be starting.

After thundering up the hill in a single file line, they paused before disappearing into the trees.

K and I had a rebirth as well. We were out shortly after sunrise. K looked at the new day quizzically, wondering what it held for us.

For the first time since K's toe amputation, I started pedaling along my favorite path in the forest with her by my side. I remember when we decided to have her infected toe removed - I specifically thought of my favorite trail and that we might never be able to ride it together again. The vets warned me that losing a "weight-bearing toe" could mean the end of her running days.

Today, K loped effortlessly along our favorite trail, glowing with happiness.

We didn't go all the way to the end because I'm still very slowly rebuilding her strength. As we paused to turn around, she stared into my eyes. She knew... We both knew that we have the gift of more time together in the forest. We hugged and celebrated!

Like the plants and wildlife who waited out yesterday's nasty weather to revel in today's sun, K and I weathered a 6 month long ordeal but now we can shine again.

Here's to the Power of the Paw!

A mountain lion's calling card

We've had some amazingly gorgeous spring signs here in the past few days. Our first Pasqueflowers, wild crocuses, have sprouted in the meadows.

The Duo and I have been making the most of the long days, enjoying the sunshine.

We saw a divine sunset last night with golden clouds radiating up from the Continental Divide with deep blue sky in the background. The clouds were a forerunner of the snowstorm that arrived today.

As we walked home in the fading light yesterday evening, I felt uncharacteristically skittish, wondering what animals might be watching us. Both dogs were on lead, and I had my pepper spray so I assured myself that I was being ridiculous. We arrived home without incident, and I laughed at myself for my silly sixth sense.

About an hour after our hike, one of my trail cameras captured a mountain lion in our territory. This morning, when I arrived at the camera and looked toward the scent post that an elk sniffed just a few days ago, I immediately knew that a mountain lion had been there and left his calling card. I saw the huge furrows, about 18" long, in the dirt, to the left of a bobcat's scat in the photo.

Here's the series of photos that I found on the camera's memory card.

As he passed the tree with the scent markings of many animals below it, his head went down as he sniffed.

He decided to leave his own territorial message and prepared to scrape the dirt with his hind paws.

He kicked back with his left hind paw.

Then, he scraped the dirt with his right hind paw.

With the scraped area ready, he lifted his tail to pee.

But, in the midst of it, he was distracted by something behind him in the forest and stared in that direction.

He decided that it was no threat and finished his business.

Tail held high, he walked away from the scent post.

The tail end of his visit...

He's the first mountain lion who I've captured photos of recently who doesn't have a big GPS collar around his neck. I wonder if he's a young male passing through in search of his own territory. In any case, I'm thrilled that I captured photos of this majestic animal.

I love my wildlife cameras!