Beauty and Love

I've realized, once again, that beauty is not skin or fur-deep. Seeing beauty comes from the soul.

I first met Shyla about six weeks after K's death. That's the soonest that I've ever invited a new dog into my life after a death. In retrospect, it probably was too soon but the stars aligned in such a way that I knew that Shyla was meant to be with us.

However, for my heart, it wasn't easy. Shyla was an almost-adult dog who lacked life experience and had many fears. Because she wasn't a tiny puppy, I irrationally thought that she "should" be like K. Indeed, I was reduced to tears more than once as I wished with all my heart that Shyla was K. That's a terrible admission to make to anyone - but it's the heart-wrenching truth.

Of course, I cared for Shyla immediately and wanted to help her. However, that's different from having a deep bond with her.

Today I realized that I haven't compared Shyla and K even once in recent memory. I will miss K forever but this incredible young dog has stolen my heart. She has her own soul, mind, and personality - and our bond has grown to a level that I didn't think would ever be possible again.

One of the awful things that I said in those first weeks after I met Shyla was that she wasn't as beautiful as K. In retrospect, I realize that my perception of beauty depends on the depth of my love. Now, in every sense of the word, Shyla is beautiful to me. I see it every time I look at her. She melts my heart.

I've seen how sweet she is with people, both me and others. She has an intuition about what I need - she naturally knows when to rest her head on my knee, lean into a hug, or snuggle with me.

She goes to my Physical Therapy appointments with me, and she has become a clinic favorite. Employees and patients both adore her for her sensitive and loving spirit. I even get asked to introduce her to specific patients who might enjoy having their appointments lightened up by meeting Shyla. She's still working on being comfortable with strangers so her "intuition" about what specific people need is not perfect yet. But, I can see that it will grow strong with time and more life experience.

As you may be able to tell from these photos, Shyla and I watched the sun rise into clear skies together this morning - one of my favorite things in the world. It was very cold and a winter wind buffeted us. My fingers rapidly became blocks of ice as I tried to capture Shyla's beauty with my camera. The snow swirling around Shyla in the photo above and stuck to her face in many of the photos is from blowing snow, not fresh snowfall.

The amazing thing is how Shyla and I both love to be outdoors in our mountains, no matter what the conditions. I never needed to teach Shyla to love the mountains - it was part of her soul from Day One with us. Her name means "Daughter of the Mountains", and it suits her perfectly.

Today, as I pedaled and she ran on the snowy trails, we enjoyed our harsh but gorgeous mountain trails together. And, every time I looked at Shyla, I saw incredible beauty.

P.S. My internet has been very erratic since our storms so I apologize in advance if I can't post or visit blogs.

A Spring Snow Day

It snowed and snowed and snowed. It was still like a blizzard yesterday evening for our hike.

Finally, this morning, we had some sunshine, and no snow falling out of the sky. It was 0°F but the sun made it feel warmer. We had at least a couple of feet of fresh snow - moisture for our forests and meadows. Simply glorious.

The snow had coated everything, in a very sticky way, making sculptures all around me.

Shyla was feeling playful, and "hid" under the snow, with her eyes barely peeking at me.

Then, she suddenly leaped off of her perch, landing gracefully in the snow. It makes me cringe to see the next photo despite her gracefulness, out of fear of her hurting herself. But, I guess that she knows what she can do.

As the snow started to solidify under the warm April sun, Shyla galloped on the packed trail at top speed.

I haven't taken any action photos of R lately because his elbow has been sore. He's been taking it easy, with no off-leash romping. We do a little training together each day, and that's when I can unleash him briefly.

This morning, he decided to taste the snow that was on his nose during training.

He has a typically quirky habit. I usually have him stay a little distance from me while we are working on his training. Every now and then, after he thinks that he's done a stellar job at something, he charges me to get his treats RIGHT NOW! It makes me laugh!

See, he still has some Cracker Dog in him!

He's getting really good at waving, so I hope that I can show you that soon. I'm teaching him to wave as a rehabilitation exercise for his elbow that had surgery about 4 years ago and flares up every now and then. Waving requires him to use its full range of motion and it helps strengthen the fine control muscles around it.

I think that he's getting better and will be back in action soon!

Wordless Wednesday: The Never-Ending Snow

Shyla Zooms!

Shyla and I had only a short time on the trails today, for it was an in-town training day. We are still in the midst of storms, and it was gray and foggy. To brighten up our day, I had Shyla wear my red neck warmer!

 Within seconds of going out the door, she started to accumulate snow. Snow beard...

 Snow snout...

 The fog only grew thicker while we were out. Without her neck warmer, she might have blended in!

It was incredibly hard snowbiking. We got a lot of snow yesterday and overnight - probably 18" but it was hard to tell. Another foot is in the forecast.

Although I was as slow as a tortoise on my bike, Shyla ran so fast that her neck warmer rose up over her head, making me laugh!

After our trail time, we met our trainer in town. I am scared to say this - but I am started to think that Shyla has turned the corner, for real. She's had many good outings in a row, and she voluntarily approaches and meets almost anyone. If she does get scared, she looks to me for direction, and she recovers her composure very fast. Her "zoom" in circles around me worked amazingly well today when things scared her. It makes her so happy to zoom!

Today, one friendly and kind person wanted to meet her but did everything wrong (in terms of scaring Shyla). The person talked really loudly and with a harsh tone, she bent down to look Shyla straight in the eyes, and she even clapped her hands right next to Shyla's head. A few months ago, I would have fled to avoid a bad experience for Shyla. Today, my trainer and I let Shyla work it out to decide whether to make friends or not. After a tentative approach, Shyla ended up snuggling with the person despite all the potential scariness! I would have never believed that Shyla would be at this point so soon a few months ago.

I am so happy!

When we got home, we had a celebratory beer! Of course, it had to be an Ellie's Brown Ale, "Lab Tested". Look closely at the can - it looks like Shyla is their mascot!

More seriously, as you can see from this photo, Shyla has also completely gotten over her dislike of picking up metal objects!

As my trainer says, it was a good day, a very good day, and we'll take them one at a time. But, I am so full of hope for Shyla's potential. This girl astounds me!

April Snow Brings May Flowers

By yesterday afternoon, the 4-6" of fresh snow was melting in the April sun. Tiny plants were poking through the meadow's snow. I cannot remember the name of this plant but I do know that it's a neat case of mutualism - the yellow is not pollen or blossoms but is a fungus that lives on the leaves of the plant and attracts pollinators to the plant.

The snow was also melting from the aspen branches and buds.

So, yesterday, within hours of waking up to a snowy world, it felt like spring again.

Then, the world turned wintery again by this morning. The promised snowstorm, that is supposed to stay around through Thursday, had arrived. Shyla sat in a "stay" while I readied my snowbike.

It was snowing so hard that our tracks filled in as fast as we made them.

Shyla's enthusiasm was contagious even though it was very hard to get any action photos of her in the near-whiteout conditions.

The storm is turning out to be bigger than predicted because it has stalled over top of us. It has snowed hard all day long, with at least a foot and probably more, covering our world. Perhaps you can see the snow-covered world (and me) reflected in Shyla's eye.

At the end of our snowbike ride, I could barely pedal anymore because the snow had grown so deep. Yet, Shyla looked very sad that we were heading indoors. Her eyes seemed to say "Do we really have to go inside? Can't we play more?"!

We are snuggled next to a fire but it's almost time for our evening snowshoe hike, all four of us together. Shyla and R are happy about that!

Last year, our wildflowers were anemic, primarily due to a lack of spring snow. So, as I watch the snow hurtling out of the sky, I think of our meadow filled with flowers, nourished by the moisture in this snow. Let it snow!

A howling concert!

Last night, just as the Runner was getting ready to take the Duo out before bedtime, we heard howls from right outside our house. Fortunately, I had a trail camera set to record video (with audio) pointed at the base of our bear-proof birdfeeding station. Be sure to turn on your audio (and prepare for your dogs' reactions) before watching! It's also available at Youtube.

We scared off the coyote by pointing a flashlight at him through the window before taking the Duo out. Coyotes flee at the slightest disturbance from us.

The coyote's concert occurred before a surprising snowstorm arrived. We awakened to 4-6" of wet snow this morning. It made glorious sculptures on the still bare aspen trees.

And, Shyla was an ecstatic pup! She looks more graceful by the day when she gallops through the forest.

You'll be seeing more snow photos here in the next few days. According to the forecasts, it will snow for the next three days with a couple of feet total of wet and heavy snow possible. It's okay with me if it's so gorgeous and it feeds our wonderful wildflowers!

Training Time - R joins in!

Every morning, after our mountain bike ride, Shyla and I do some training outside the house. Right now, we're working on several new things. One is "zoom", which means that she zips in a circle around me. The reason for teaching her this is to help her when we get "cornered" by scary things in town.

For example, a few weeks ago, we were walking along a narrow sidewalk with buildings on one side and traffic on the other. Lo and behold, a mother with a huge stroller and three toddlers teeming around her approached from the other direction. That screaming horde and stroller was plenty to put Shyla "over-threshold" into the terrified zone but there was more... The mother suddenly stopped and took a toddler's bicycle out of the back of the stroller. One of the kids hopped on the bike to ride along side the horde. That was the "icing on the cake" and would usually be enough to paralyze Shyla with fear. Moreover, we had no escape route, aside from standing on the very edge of the sidewalk to let them pass. Shyla was scared, without a doubt, but she survived by hiding behind me until they were far past us.

My trainer and I have noticed that Shyla does much better with scary things when she can keep moving. So, my trainer is having me teach Shyla to zip in a circle around me, so that it's a movement-oriented task that she can do when we get "cornered" like on the sidewalk that day. Shyla has already learned it really well. I call it "zoom", and she does it with gusto. I am excited to see if it helps her in scary situations.

During the our training time right after our bike ride, we also work on silly tricks. In the photo below, Shyla had just "rolled over", a new trick for her. Look at that intensity in her eyes!

We started this daily training routine when Shyla first arrived here, and I thought that R, who was usually napping inside the house, recovering from his run and breakfast, didn't even notice us. Then, I looked up toward the house windows while we were training a few weeks ago, and I saw R peering at us. I started wondering if he wished that he could have special training time too.

My motivation to start bringing him out to "the training area" was heightened when our vet asked me to teach him to do a "low five" and a "high five" as rehabilitation for the elbow that had dysplasia surgery when he was pup. That elbow has started flaring up more frequently in the past year, and apparently doing high fives will help keep his range of motion and strengthen the small muscles that stabilize the elbow.

R isn't ready yet to show off a high five or wave for the camera (but he's learning fast). However, we also do some silly training, and he's a superstar at "rolling over". He demonstrated today.

Here are his instructions.

You throw yourself on the ground and start to twist.

You propel yourself onto your back while sticking your legs up in the air.

You roll onto your other side while trying to find KB with your eyes.

Then, for some reason, you sprint straight at the photographer!

I feel a bit guilty that I didn't realize how much R wanted me to spend training time with him until now. Part of why I didn't start taking him to the "training area" previously was that R has an obsession with a bunny rabbit who hangs out near it, and I visualized him obsessing over the rabbit rather than paying attention to me. In fact, he doesn't even look for the rabbit because he's so thrilled to play training games!

I get his message loud and clear!

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.