Friday Funny

We are happy here in the Rockies today. Shyla didn't have any seizures last night, and it was a glorious autumn day that we enjoyed immensely. She's up to a higher dose of anti-seizure medicine but seems as energetic as ever, sprinting with huge enthusiasm through golden aspen groves.

I captured a couple of funny photos from our outing this morning. First, I told Shyla that I was going to toss her a treat. Look at those eyes!

Really? You're going to toss me a treat?

Then the snarf made me laugh out loud.

And thank you so much for all the support. I'm sure that our story will oscillate up and down until we figure out the seizure issue, and your words always lift my spirits.

Happy Friday!!!!

Another One... and Moose Evasions

The worries continue. Shyla had another seizure last night. Now my regular vet wants us to get to a neurologist as soon as we can. As of now, that'll be early next week.

I am trying to keep my equilibrium but this sudden onset of almost daily myoclonic seizures has pushed me off-balance. It has also cut into our sleep, which contributes to feeling out of sorts.

The silver lining is that Shyla seems to feel absolutely fine the rest of the time. She's started a medicine, and it doesn't seem to be slowing her down.

Thank goodness that Shyla doesn't seem slowed down by her seizure issues because we are suddenly surrounded by unpredictable moose. I'm fairly certain that it's mating season. Yesterday, we saw three big bull moose and one cow moose. The cow moose hung in the background so I never got a photo of her.

When we saw our first pair of moose, they were about 30 yards above the trail and didn't appear to be focused on us. So, I leashed Shyla and started to push my bike past them. The male started trotting along parallel to us, but staying 30 yards away. His reaction to us was enough for me to decide that Shyla and I had to bushwack away from the moose. We managed but we got tangled in trees, branches, and bushes lots of times with my bike and a leash involved in the bushwack!

I went out to ride on my own a little later. As I finished the ride and was almost home, I ran into three moose together, two on one side of the trail and one on the other side of the trail. I snapped one photo, and then I decided that I'd take the long way home to avoid trying to deal with the moose traffic jam.

At this point, I was running behind schedule due to all my moose evasions. I climbed back up a hill, went down a very steep hill, and then took a trail spur that I thought would avoid any moose. Ha - I was wrong. As I hit the trail to home, I heard a loud snap in the forest. Look who I saw through the trees!

Fortunately, this bull moose didn't seem very focused on me so I hopped on my bike and blasted home. He let me go. Moose really scare me even though they are incredibly cool animals. I honestly think that our Wildlife Department made a serious miscalculation when they introduced moose into our state. Already, mule deer populations are down in some parts of the state - perhaps due to food competition with moose.

I'm so glad that I've worked hard training Shyla so I can be 99% sure that she won't aggravate a moose - although her presence upsets them, even if she's walking calmly next to me.

Oh, how I hope that Shyla is okay. She's won my heart - that's for sure! She's my partner in so many adventures but most of all she's an amazingly loving dog.

Wordless Wednesday - An Autumn Day

The King slept while we girls headed out into the forest

Zooming past the golden leaves

High Stepping

A leaf mostly red but still with a little green

Feeling More Optimistic plus a Moose!

All of your kind and generous words comforted me immensely yesterday. Moreover, through lots of research by me and a friend, I feel like I understand a little better what these "myoclonic seizures" are and where they may lead. Although there are terrible possibilities which we will need to rule out, it is most likely that they are the start of epilepsy. They may never become full "grand mal" seizures but they are not to be taken lightly. We are starting a medication tonight to try to prevent them, and we'll probably be heading to a specialist in the near future.

This morning was cold (40°F) and rainy - a combination that shocks my system at this time of year but that makes Shyla insanely happy. She can run as fast and as far as she wants without getting hot! In contrast, I had on fleece mittens and winter clothes but I was cold anyway. Ah well, at least Shyla was super happy.

Overnight, some aspens "popped" into their autumn attire. I can't wait to see them in full sunlight.

Shyla just wanted to run and run and run.

As we rode toward home with me hurrying because I was freezing, Shyla did zoomies in circles around me - and I was riding as fast as I could! What an incredible athlete she is!

It turned out that we came within a short time of crossing paths with a big bull moose who the Runner saw drink out of our bird bath and then mosey out of our clearing, using the same trail as Shyla and I were using to get back into our clearing.

Unfortunately, my trail cameras are generally pointed low because few of our animals are so tall. Thus, the one in our clearing photographed only the legs of the moose as he departed.

Just the other night, a big bull moose sauntered in front of another trail camera and stood in the most unflattering way. Try to ignore his hind end (ha, ha - too much detail there!), and look at those antlers. Until the past month, we've had only young bull moose in our neck of the woods. Now the big guys are here too! I really wish the moose in this photo had turned around so his head was toward the camera!!!!

Moose mating season is either underway or starting soon. I've recently captured photos of a bull moose and a cow moose hanging out together. The cow moose laid in a watering hole for almost an hour, just soaking! I have video that I'll share soon.

Let me end with something other than the moose's hind end - here's another photo of Shyla in the amazing autumn colors today!

Ah, how I love this girl. She came into our lives almost unexpectedly, and we've traveled such a journey with her to help her overcome her fears. Now, she's a fountain of love and affection with those she knows well or those who she immediately identifies as good people. We are the luckiest family in the world to have had her land with us. We will do everything in our power to keep her healthy and happy!

Our Daughter of the Mountains

I am feeling worried about our chocolate girl. I started reading about all the possible causes of myoclonic seizures, and some are terrible. I knew about them already but seeing them written in black and white made them more real.

I'm trying to talk myself out of a funk by looking back at our time at one of our favorite places in the world - the high mountain pass where I met the pack after a long mountain bike ride in August. As I go through the photos, it is very clear that we've packed a lot into the time we've had with Shyla so far.

She leaped into mountain lakes many times this summer.

And she learned to nail the landings.

She's become so confident about her leaping and swimming that she's beating R to the ball a lot of the time. Just a little while ago, she would hang back and let him do the retrieving.

During our time in the San Juan mountains this year and previous years, we saw myriad gorgeous sunsets. This photo is Shyla, with a very typical relaxed look on her face, in the light of the setting sun.

And here, she's zooming toward me from a dropoff to the west of our campsite.

She's an amazing dog who has brought so much love and sweetness into our lives. She pours all her energy into anything that I ask her to do, like this recall in the mountains.

I hope that we have many more visits to the campsite with this mind-bending sunset view with our Shyla. Hopefully, there will be a relatively benign explanation for her myoclonic seizures and a way to control them.

Thanks for reading my ode to all the happiness we've found in the mountains with Shyla!

Labraduo Sunday

It was going to be Black Dog Sunday, until last night happened.

First, the good news. We continue to be so astounded with R's physical abilities now about 5 months post surgery. We both were scared right after the CUE surgery, thinking that we'd made a bad choice because he was in so much pain. Now, he can do so much, playing with utter abandon, and rarely limping. I'm so glad that he had the surgery!

On the flip side, Shyla had another myoclonic seizure last night. I am starting to believe that we are heading into a bigger issue than we had hoped. It makes me really sad.

Life is never purely happy or purely sad, as our current situation shows. I will keep trying to seize the days that our Labraduo is feeling good to have lots and lots of fun!

Shyla's Fun Nosework!

I've written many times here about our progress in helping Shyla cope with her fears. Now, four years later, I truly do believe that it is "coping" rather than "overcoming". The fears still linger in her heart but she's learned how to manage them so that she do the things she loves.

Nosework has become a passion for both of us. We've done most of our basic training at home or in campsites after Shyla is very comfortable in them.  Recently, we've started taking nosework on the road a bit. For Shyla, that doesn't mean that I take her to a bustling city street and expect her to be able to do nosework (not possible yet). Instead, I take her to new places in our fairly rural area. (I can never take photos while she's doing nosework so these are just some fun new photos of her).


This week, kind friends let us have access to the many outbuildings at the historical ranch where they live. It was a perfect opportunity to see if Shyla would be able to focus on nosework when in a novel place. Six months ago, I would've thought it would be impossible for her due to the stress of being in a new place. Now, I know how she loves focusing on her "job" of searching for hidden scent sources so it seemed like a reasonable challenge.

When we arrived at the ranch, I let her sniff around a bit, away from where I'd hidden the scent sources three hours earlier. She seemed timid but okay. As soon as I put her nosework harness on her, she completely focused on her "job". I didn't see any difference in her demeanor from when she does nosework at home.

I made a video of some clips from her searching. Within each search, I had multiple scent sources hidden. Part of Shyla's "job" is to ignore any hide that she's already found and "find another". She has become awesome at this aspect of the game! Generally, my job as her handler is to supervise her and then reward her when she finds a scent source.

Here's the video which you can watch here or at Youtube.

Happy Saturday!

See Beautiful - The Alpine Edition

My reaction to worries about my dogs' or my health is to go do something that we love. Yesterday, Shyla and I took advantage of a rare completely storm-free day to get high up into the alpine world.

We climbed up to the Continental Divide, and peered to the west at the gorgeous view.

On the very high exposed ridge, the wind was howling out of the west.

We quickly descended into a basin contain an alpine lake! The wind was calm there, and no one else was around except for some marmots who had Shyla's attention.

As soon as I let her, Shyla hopped in the lake. Its water level was very low compared to most years. She could wade way out. I could almost hear her saying "throw it, throw it"!

So, I did, and she leaped through the freezing water to retrieve it. I cannot imagine swimming in such cold water but she loved it.

We lingered in high altitude solitude for quite a while. We played games on the soft autumnal colored tundra.

And Shyla sat atop boulders to survey the marmots and pikas.

But, all too soon, we had to start our trek downward. But, first, one more funny photo of the power of the wind on top of the Divide. Shyla was almost falling over in it!

The last part of the hike was all downhill through very rocky terrain. Downhill makes my spine scream in pain but it's worth it to go up so high. I wish that I could run like Shyla. Alas, my docs outlawed running for me... thank goodness for hiking and biking!

Happy See Beautiful Friday. To me, there's nothing more beautiful than the high mountains and seizing the day!

Carpe Diem

We seized the day today to spend some time up very high above the trees.

And, as you can see from Shyla's wet fur, she also got to go swimming in a high mountain lake! Carpe Diem.

Wordless Wednesday - Galloping through Rainbows

Both photos are from late in the day at our favorite campsite in the San Juan Mountains. It had rained that day but suddenly the sun shined and rainbows appeared!

A double rainbow - what does it mean?

Galloping through the rainbow arch

P.S. We had a quiet night last night with no visits by the monster. Hopefully, that will be the norm. Thanks for all the good thoughts and wishes.

A Monster Visits

Unfortunately, we were awakened very early this morning by Shyla having what we now know is a "myoclonal seizure". This was her second seizure. My vet asked me to video it if it happened again after her first one in mid-July. The video was definitive in showing that it was this rare kind of seizure. I'll spare you watching it.

It went on for about 3 hours, with Shyla's hind end jerking each time her leg muscles contracted. Then, the jerks gradually got smaller as time went on. She was fully conscious and responsive but she looked very scared and upset. I was so relieved when it finally ended.

I'm tired after being up with her, watching how scared she was, and then taking her to the vet. There's no clearcut veterinary "fix" because so many different things can cause this kind of seizure. Googling it is scary - it can be an extremely serious disease. However, for now, it is not impairing Shyla except rarely so we will seize each day and hope that Shyla has a mild form of it. The vet did some tests today, and we'll see if anything is obviously "off" enough to cause the seizures.

I'll employ the lesson that every one of our dogs has taught us - seize the day! I took this photo on one of our best days of the summer, high in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. What a happy and intense dog!

We love our Shyla. She hasn't had an easy life as she's had to learn to cope with her fears to live normally, and we truly don't want her to face another hurdle.

Waning Days of Summer - Labs Playing in a Lake!

Because it's approaching the end of summer, I am thinking about my favorite parts of summer. One is visiting lakes to let the Labraduo swim and retrieve. This year, Shyla found her confidence and was rivaling R in races to fetch balls out of the water.

A few of you met Shyla back when she was the most fearful pup I'd ever known. Some of you read about her fears here. In either case, you know that it was a big deal that she'd actually compete with R in a race.

She uses her tail during swimming more than any dog I've known before. When she grabs the ball and is turning back toward shore, she flicks her tail every time, creating an elaborate trail of water.

This year, Shyla watched R bring two balls back to the shore in his mouth. And she mimicked it. Here was her first successful carry of two tennis balls! I have to admit that I kept worrying that she'd choke on the ball further back in her mouth. Yes, I'm the worrier in the family.

These photos were all from our campsite high in the San Juan mountains of southwest Colorado where we stayed for a while on our most recent trip. There are myriad ponds/lakes dotting the tundra in that area. Most of them don't have trails leading to them so we had complete solitude while the dogs frolicked in the water.

We're hoping to sneak in at least one more visit to a mountain lake before it's too cold. I just saw a forecast that included SNOW for one week from today. That shows you how fast winter comes upon us up in these mountains. I have a lot of things that I want to do before it snows!

Happy Summertime to all my Northern Hemisphere friends!

Black Dog Sunday - See How He RUNS!

Today is a special Black Dog Sunday. The reason is that I am feeling so happy with how strong R has become over the past months. We are still doing lots of exercises to strengthen the muscles around his surgical elbow. The exercises are getting progressively more circus-like because the main thing that he needs to master now is using all the little muscles around his elbow to keep it stable. I'll make another video of his progress and exercises sometime soon.

The biggest thing is that he's not limping very much. Here's an example of how he played with Shyla during our recent vacation.

Shyla was chasing R, trying to get the ball. R could make tight enough turns to keep Shyla just behind him despite the fact that she's a faster runner.

Ah, how I love seeing this sight. After spending the first 4 months of this year trying to get his CUE (elbow) surgery set up and then every month after that doing 30-60 minutes of exercises with him per day, I simply grin when I seem him run so happily. It's all been worth it. And, he didn't even limp after this sprinting and chasing session!

Happy Black Dog Sunday!

Bathing Bears in August 2016

August is characterized by heat and gorging for bears. During breaks in eating a zillion calories per day, they like to take baths in pools of water.

The particular pool of water that I will show you today is so popular with bears that I try to stay away from it for long periods of time so that I don't accidentally scare any bears.

I love the way that bears roll around in the water and particularly like to clean their faces with their huge paws.

You'll see two bears separately visit the pool. I think that one is "Dot", a smallish female who has frequented this area for a few years. She is very sure of herself, even marking the "bear tree" that is next to the pool. The other bear must be a newcomer to the area. That bear is bigger than Dot but didn't mark any trees. Also, s/he was spooked enough to sprint away from the pool on two occasions.

Enjoy the video, either here or on Youtube!

Although no pairs of bears have shown up at the water holes, it has been a unique summer because I have captured numerous photos of pairs of adult bears traveling together. I have read about this occurring in other regions but I've never seen it here. I suspect that these pairs were mating pairs back in June, and are comfortable with foraging together later in the summer because food is SO abundant this year. That is pattern that has been observed by Lynn Rogers at the Wildlife Research Center in MN.

Here are a couple of examples for you.

Socks' Brother and an unknown bear

It's so cool that my trail cams can give us such unique views into these reclusive animals' lives! I've seen bears in person this year out in the forest but I've only seen their rumps as they sprint away from me.