A mountain lion eats an elk

We live in glorious and beautiful mountains that we share with a variety of wildlife. Some are big predators who can hurt our dogs so we work hard at training them so that we can keep them as safe as possible.

More than a month ago, a mountain lion killed a young bull elk in our forest. When I first saw the carcass, I thought that the lion was finished with it and had moved on. The carcass was gutted. Meat only remained on the neck, head, and legs. On the first night and following morning, coyotes feasted on it, seemingly proving me right that the mountain lion had moved onto more hunting.

It turned out that I was very wrong. A mountain lion arrived on the scene soon thereafter. I don't know whether it was the same lion as originally killed the elk.

My trail camera emits a soft red glow when taking photos, and the lion noticed it right away. These two photos are in rapid succession.

After checking out the camera, the mountain lion started working on the area of the carcass with the most meat remaining - the head and neck.

He'd occasionally stop and look at the camera.

I think that after the photo above, he decided to move the carcass away from the crazy glowing camera. First, he pulled backward.

Then he gazed into the distance, perhaps planning his route.

More pulling...

A hard look at the camera again...

Look at that strong body he has...

Finally, he got serious, and he picked up the head.

...only to drop it again, and then try to dislodge the carcass from its spot with his front limb. I bet the carcass was frozen to the ground.

More pulling...

And then he passed directly in front of the camera, dragging the carcass. This is the lion's fur.

Almost an hour later, the mountain lion returned to where the carcass had been before he moved it and licked his chops for the camera.

Then, a long time later, a bobcat investigated the spot where the carcass had been. Doesn't he look tiny compared to that mountain lion?

That whole scene explains why our Duo doesn't wander around by themselves and why we expend energy training them. Of course, nothing can totally protect them from ferocious predators but we try to strike a balance between giving them a fun life and keeping them safe.

Fortunately, I wrote this post a while ago... because, with my new medicines and lots of rest, I've managed to evade the evil migraine monster for two days (so I'm taking it easy again today, trying to keep it at bay). Thanks for all of your support!

Wordless Wednesday: Happy Snow Day

Dogs and wildlife

As many of you know, I love being out at sunrise and sunset. One thing I love about it is the "magic light" for photography. I find the light to be almost mystical, with the spotlights of sun surrounded by the darkness of the forest.

So, Shyla and I do our morning outing around sunrise, and the Duo and I are out around sunset. I'm so happy that R can now walk far enough to join the sunset hikes.

One downside to these times for being outdoors is active wildlife. For us, the most common issue is coyotes. Because there are many coyotes and their habitat overlaps with where humans love to be, they worry me more than mountain lions. As soon as we get close to a meadow, I get both dogs on leash, and I scan it for coyotes.

The other day, like many days recently, I spotted a coyote right away. Do you see him lying in the snow in the photo below?

As Shyla and I hiked that morning, the coyote started trotting in parallel to us. Shyla was on leash but expressed absolutely no interest in charging after the coyote, a fact that made me very happy.

As we hiked, the coyote stopped frequently to check us out - while keeping a pretty constant distance from us.

Finally, he went behind a boulder and started barking. At first, it was much like a dog bark and then it became a yip/howl. We stood a distance away, and I recorded his song. However, I discovered that I moved the camera around so much during the video that you'd get sea-sick watching it so I won't share it here.

After his song, the coyote retraced his steps back toward where he'd started. I'm not sure what the display was all about - except perhaps to tell his pack-mates that we were in the meadow.

Neighbors are saying how much more often they see coyotes in the meadows this year than in the past, and I think that the reason might be that there are two new houses on the edges of meadow. It appears that the coyotes' normal secretive routes through the sparse tree groves and boulder-strewn areas in the meadow have been blocked by the houses and outbuildings. For the foreseeable future, I think my dogs will be staying on leash in the meadows. Perhaps the coyotes will figure out new secretive routes as time goes on.

It's okay with me to leash my dogs in the meadows. I believe in figuring out how we and the wildlife can accommodate each other and share the natural world. I can still enjoy sunrise and sunset without my dogs romping in the meadows. Recently, the sunset light has been glorious, and we've been soaking it up.

To close, I want to thank you all for your supportive comments yesterday. I am still in a migraine-induced haze today, and I've decided to try to limit my computer time and rest more for a little while. I need to break this cycle of migraines, and there's a remote chance that will help. I'm going to try to keep my posts shorter, and I may not visit blogs quite as regularly. I apologize in advance but it should be temporary.

Twist of Fate

The past week has been trying, in many ways. Although I haven't written about it here, my health has been the biggest issue. On the good news end of the spectrum, I think that my shoulder is healing very fast. I actually forget that it's not healed at times - and then I make a "normal" movement which immediately reminds me that I still need to be careful. I'm awed by how fast it is getting better.

The toughest thing over the past week has been that I've had four migraines (in one week). The most recent one was last night, starting with a terror-inducing light show in my vision. I don't know why the visual auras scare me so much, but they do. Then it moved through the other migraine symptoms, including a throbbing headache, which I still have a trace of now.

This morning, I was ready to quit trying to be happy - to just keep my head under the covers and do nothing at all. But, alas, I have a young dog who sees me as her source of fun and games, and she does not permit sleeping late! She smothers me in kisses and brings slippers and shoes to me when I lie in bed beyond her wake-up time - a very clear message!

After Shyla got me out of bed, I put on my very dark glasses and trudged out the door with her, my head hurting with every footstep. I'd taken my meds, and I was hoping that they'd kick in during the walk. In the meantime, Shyla was bursting with zany happiness. It was impossible for me not to smile as I watched her.

Indeed, I very gradually felt the pain in my head letting up a bit. I could notice Shyla's beauty rather than cursing my head.

Of course, even though I feel a little better now, something seems to have gone awry in my brain to cause all these migraines. Some of you remember the discovery of nodules in my lungs a few years ago - that ultimately led to a diagnosis of sarcoidosis, an autoimmune disease.

Unfortunately, my doctors are pursuing the notion that sarcoidosis has "attacked" my brain, and that's why I'm having a sudden onslaught of migraines. I had an MRI yesterday, and the images seemed to support that notion but I'll get more information from experts soon.

Everyone has their own unique way of handling crises. At the beginning of a crisis, I have a bad tendency to invent ways of blaming myself for it. In one of my most serious crises years ago, when I learned that I couldn't have kids because of endometriosis, the self-blame game dominated my seriously flawed thought process. My crazy logic was that I'd been working too hard and had somehow caused the endometriosis by tiring myself out too much. Needless to say - that's impossible.

It took an insightful person to point out that "self-blame is a way of claiming that you have control over what happens to you" - and she went on to gently suggest that accepting that I don't have full control is a better strategy. That advice changed me forever. It's part of why I make a point of seizing each day - because I don't know what will happen tomorrow.

I had to give myself that talk again today when I noticed self-blame sneaking into my head, and it worked. Now, I'm going to focus on how to stop these runaway migraines. And, I'm going to hope that it doesn't require extreme medical measures.

I don't know what will be involved but I do know that the part of the cure always involves our beautiful outdoor world, whether the doctors order it or not.

I wonder where this twist of fate will lead me?

Black and White Sunday

At some moments, I wish that all of life were black and white, with no uncertainty built into it.

But then I realize that it's the uncertainty that makes life surprising and intriguing. None of knows what will happen tomorrow, and that is how it should be.

I wonder if life is more black and white for a mountain lion than for a person.

I still need to tell you the story of the mountain lion who returned to feed on the elk carcass that I'd staked out with a trail camera. I promise to do that this week.

A winter day - and a bobcat

Tumultuous clouds that have hovered nearby for days finally hit their mark today.

As snow plummeted out of the sky this morning, I searched for ways to procrastinate about going out into the frigid and wet air. Finally, I decided to set up a fun photo with Shyla before we started our hike. The caption could be "An idyllic day for a picnic".
After our short photoshoot, we hiked into the forest. As usual, I ended up very happy that we went for a hike. Shyla gave it a high five despite the intense weather!

When the snow let up just a tiny bit, it was gorgeous.

When the weather is so tough, I always think of our wildlife, and I marvel at how they not only survive, but actually thrive, in our world. I recently checked a faraway trail camera to find that a bobcat had posed in the snow on a 5°F night.

After he pondered the world briefly, he turned rapidly toward the pine tree behind him. It appeared as if he heard something off to the left and was ready to flee.

He was next to a bear-marking tree, although no bears have marked it for a few months now. The bobcat paused next to this important wildlife landmark, and then departed.

On cold wintery days, I feel happy that I have a warm house with a crackling fire and a wonderful pack to relax indoors for most of the day. Mr. Bobcat doesn't have that - but he doesn't seem to need it.

It was a good day, because I was able to focus on the good in my life, rather than the tougher stuff.

R can Run!!!!

With the craziness of this week, I forgot to tell you the most important piece of news. R finally went for his first run since his surgery. He and the Runner have run together for 5 minutes each day since getting permission from the surgeon earlier this week. Yipee!!!!

R is not yet doing any off-leash running so I probably won't have new photos of him running for a while. His surgery was very serious, and we are proceeding very slowly with his return to running. He was born with elbow dysplasia and had his first surgery as a pup. Then, as usually happens with elbow dysplasia, his elbow steadily degenerated over the past five years. Even early surgical intervention is no cure for elbow dysplasia.

For anyone who knows about elbow dysplasia, this will probably make sense to you. His ulna's coronoid process was fractured into three pieces and detached from the rest of the bone. Moreover, multiple other bone chips were floating around in the elbow joint space. He had no cartilage remaining on the end of his humerus (the upper forelimb bone). Needless to say, the surgeon labeled R's elbow dysplasia "Grade 5", which is as bad as it can get.

We are hopeful that the recent surgery that removed all the bone pieces and attempted to stimulate cartilage growth will give R more active years. If it doesn't, there is a completely new surgery, called "CUE" surgery, that essentially takes the pressure off of R's cartilage and puts it onto surgically implanted surfaces. We hope not to need this surgery because it has been done on relatively few dogs so far. There is no long-term data about how dogs fare with this surgery.

But, for the moment, things are looking good!!! And, in the spirit of a dog, I will smile about that and rejoice that R has begun to run again!

Happy Friday to all of you!

A Lion Walked Nearby

Shyla and I were out early, as usual. I love the quiet of the forest in the morning. Shyla looked like she was tip toeing through the forest!

Shyla played in the snow, carefree and happy.

Then we hiked to check a trail camera. It turned out that we'd been sharing the forest with a mountain lion on one of our morning outings recently. He left a scrape in the snow. In this photo, he's in the process of systematically kicking backward with each hind paw.

I know that many people in my area are not happy about mountain lions right now but I was thrilled to see the series of photos of this healthy lion. This lion was in the part of the forest where lions normally travel, and he passed through our area without anyone knowing it (except my trail camera). He was living a normal and secretive mountain lion life. I loved seeing his images!

After our hike to the trail camera, we headed home. I have the flu, including a jackhammer headache that hasn't wavered all day since I woke up. I think it's time for bed now...

We've had lots of pairs of dogs in our life, and this pair is the most affectionate with each other of any, matched only by the pair of littermates who were our first dogs. I love seeing how Shyla and R snuggle up together.

Non-wordless Wednesday

Traditionally, Wednesdays are wordless. However, I cannot be mute today. Your support yesterday was overwhelmingly wonderful. Just so you know, I plan to go through official channels to rectify the situation, and I will let you know how it goes.

You, my friends and readers, are why this blog is so special to me. I am honored that take the time to read my posts, and that you share your experiences and support with me. Thank you.