Thankful for a Blizzard

During the drought in 2018, the summer was scary with fears of forest fires never leaving our minds. So, yesterday, I actually felt thankful when it snowed several inches per hour to give us at least an 20" snowstorm. Due to the wind that came with the snow, it was technically a blizzard. I have seen the news reports hyping this storm - but let me assure you that it was just a normal March storm for us. This happens almost every year, and experienced mountain folks know how to handle it.

Because I am crazy about riding my bike outdoors,  I actually tried to ride my Meriwether fat bike during the storm. First, I tried the trails behind our house with Shyla. It was impossible to ride with powder up to my knees. So, we walked for a while and then headed home.

For newer readers, by way of explanation, I am really determined to ride my bike every day because it is the *only* thing that staves off spine pain. I have two long sections of my spine surgically fused so keeping the pain at bay is a daily undertaking. I feel so lucky to have discovered the power of cycling for my spine pain because it is so much better for me than taking medicines.

My next try at riding today was on our driveway, which the Runner had just cleared. It's reasonably long so I thought that I'd ride up and down it a few times. It was good at first... and then the wind kicked up. With the snow pelting into my face, I literally couldn't see far enough to avoid running into trees. So, my rational side won, and I headed inside.

I love my Meriwether fat bike! This is my 10th season of fat biking in the snow!

After my riding attempts, we all stayed indoors for a few hours by the fire, watching the snow pile up outside the windows. When the crazies hit our bored puppy around sunset time, we headed out to snowshoe for a while. This was the first really big snow storm that Hachi has been able to play in. The snow was taller than his shoulders but it was dense so he didn't fall in too deeply.

The dogs were off leash so we practiced some recalls as they frolicked around us. Hachi is a determined puppy - he wants to win every recall race! Do you see the look in his eyes?

As a dog born far to the south of here, I suspect that he was flabbergasted by the snow!

After this day of pelting snow, I'm hoping for a day of sunshine and blue skies tomorrow! And I'm dreaming that this snow leads to many wildflowers in May.

Wordless Wednesday - Big Snowstorm Today

From a past big snow storm - my girl who runs with such intensity...

Our lovable mountain puppy

Hachi is rapidly turning into an amazing mountain dog.  He can run like the wind in the snow.

He dances like no one's watching in mountain meadows.

He can leap like super dog!

Most of all, he is an incredibly affectionate, sweet, and playful dog soul. 

He does have a couple of quirks due to spending the formative first few weeks of his life on the streets. I've found it to be difficult to write about those because I simply want to cure them. We have been working very hard to help him to understand that he's safe and can trust us to take care of him now. He doesn't have to fight to get enough to eat or assess whether people and dogs can be trusted.

Fortunately, he completely and utterly trusts his canine and human family. He can chill out and be a silly puppy while his siblings and humans take care of him.

Our hearts are filled with joy to have this amazing boy as part of our family.

Amazing Bond

Many mornings, Shyla and I take our puppy to a nearby meadow to play. The most recent game has been fetch the stick. Shyla is so fast that she wins all the sticks.

Hachi chases after her.

And Shyla lets him catch up. The best part is that Shyla understands that she needs to encourage Hachi. Look at her face and her eyes - she wants him grab the stick and play with her.

I've never seen such a playful expression on Shyla's face before now. Hachi has been so good for her - he's brought out her inner puppy and her mothering instincts at the same time. I'm not sure that Shyla ever really had a chance to be a puppy when she was young. So now is her chance!

Although Hachi has a few lingering issues from living on the streets as a small puppy, our trio has bonded completely.

The fact that they choose to snuggle like that warms my heart!

Black Dog Sunday

Our Black Dog seemed to feel better this week. He and I had some time on the trails together - which is something that we both love! He waved to you!

He was back at the vet as they tried to figure out why he wasn't feeling or acting quite right last week. His urinary tract is the focus right now, and I think that we're making progress. As of now, most cancer possibilities have been ruled out. That is great news!!!

He's in the midst of an 8 week course of antibiotics for his recurring UTI. Fortunately, the antibiotics don't seem to bother him at all. So, the only tweak for now is changing his dose of a supplement that fine tunes his urinary pH. With that small change, he seems like a new dog!

He and his sister had an absolutely wonderful time playing in our fresh snow! And I loved seeing it.

Happy Days! We are going to keep seizing the days of our wonderful trio of dogs, doing our best to be out having fun whenever we have a winter wonderland for romping!

I'm dreaming of...

We've had what feels like days and days of gray sky, and flat light, which I hate as a photographer. But it's still fun to take photos of Hachi.

And Shyla loves to leap, no matter what the sky is like. Look at her levitate!

But, all of this dreary weather is making me dream of the desert again. This is a photo that I took on Shyla's Mesa next to a favorite campsite in Utah last spring. I'm currently taking a photography course where we are asked to find our favorite recent photos, and prepare them in software as if they might hang on a wall. This was my latest attempt.

I can promise you that my instructor will have lots of constructive criticism. If you see anything that you'd like to point out could be improved, please tell me! I love constructive criticism! Seriously!

Where do you dream of going on dreary days? For me, there's no doubt that its the southwest desert of the US.

Nature and Feline Friday: A Mountain Lion in Stalking Mode

More than a year ago, I found some most fascinating footage of a mountain lion stalking prey on a trail camera. I recently ran across it again, and I was mesmerized once again. I just had to share with you.

The mountain lion appeared at a water hole that was dry due to a severe drought. He clearly thought that prey was nearby and moved incredibly slowly and meticulously for about 30 minutes. He took each step painfully slowly, avoiding making any noise at all.

It took him almost a minute to get from that first position almost into his pouncing position. As he moved each hind paw forward, he'd inch this front paw forward so that the hind could land where the front paw had been an instant earlier. It looked like a method to prevent him from accidentally making noise with his hind paws since he can't see where they are landing.

Then, he maintained this very uncomfortable-looking position for quite a while. I believe that he was ready to pounce on an animal. He held his tail up and off the ground the entire time.

He left the view of the camera a couple of times but kept coming back, always using his silent deliberate gait.

When I checked the cam well after the lion had been there, I spent some time exploring near the water hole to see if I could find signs that the lion had made a kill but I didn't find anything.

Here's a video of this mountain lion's time near the dry water hole. Although it may appear to be in slow motion, it is not. Rather, he was moving with such stealth that he moved very slowly. Enjoy - I have never again seen footage like this, and I doubt that I ever will!

Thankful Thursday - Another Puppy Trick

One of my favorite tricks to teach our dogs is specifically for photography. I like to teach them to rest their chins on the floor either on or between their front paws. It's also fairly easy to teach so I started on it with Hachi.

He knows how to touch things with his nose. He'll touch almost anything that I ask him to touch. So, I started by asking him to touch a rubber disk target with his nose. I placed it on and then under his front paws. When he touched it, he was in the position that I was aiming to teach him to adopt on cue.

After he got good at touching that disk, I removed it. He immediately tried to earn a treat by putting his nose where the disk had just been. Bingo! I clicked and treated him for doing that. He did that repeatedly without me giving any verbal cue yet but with me using an informal hand signal.

In the very last stage, I added the verbal cue which is "head" (I don't know why I chose that word instead of "chin" when I taught my first dog this trick a couple of decades ago - it's funny now!).

Here's a video of the process. You'll see that the big dogs are on a bed behind Hachi. Shyla started creeping forward. Then, I thought that it was hilarious that she began putting her chin on the floor when I said the verbal cue to Hachi. I picked up the camera so that you could see her at one point in the video.

It lets me get fun photos like this one.

And his one...

And because his head is so still, I can focus in on his beautiful eye!

It's so much fun teaching Hachi new things!

Thanks to our friend Brian for hosting the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop.

Wordless Wednesday - Silhouette at Sunset

An incredible evening sky and an incredibly cooperative Shyla!

A Bluebird Winter Day

I took the Labraduo out into the fresh snow together yesterday. Their bond showed up strong and true.

It was the kind of winter day that I love - blue skies, feathery light snow, and our pups.

I love this pair like crazy.

And I love our puppy too! He had fun playing in the snow despite the very cold air.

Happy Bluebird Winter Day!

Puppy Play!!!!

We are getting close to the end of Hachi's time in puppy classes. But we aren't quite finished yet. His age is a guess - so the teachers will evaluate from week-to-week as to whether he has become too mature for puppy class.

We certainly are noticing his growing maturity. He doesn't need to go out to potty as often, and I can't remember his last indoor "accident". He is learning so many important things, like "come" when called. It is incredible how fast our first two months with him have flown by.

Look at our formerly tiny puppy! He's now more than three times heavier than when we met him.

I still adore puppy classes. I smile continuously as I watch the insane energy of the puppies as they play. I no longer worry about whether Hachi might lose his cool and cause problems - he's learned so much that he's a really good class member now.

I wanted to share some clips from a particularly energetic puppy class recently. Hachi is now among the biggest puppies, and so the clips are from the section of the room where 14-16 week old puppies are playing.

Enjoy the video! I sure enjoyed putting it together.

Black Dog Sunday

Our Black Dog hasn't had the easiest week. I've mentioned his UTI... and after a relapse, it became a multi-month problem. He hasn't been feeling his best this week so he went back to the vet for more testing. We don't have any answers yet.

I was on the trails with him a few times but the photos are showing me that he was lagging a bit.

On a recall, both big dogs hung back and let Hachi rule the day.

Then, on the day that I took him out to play with his sister on the trails, they both seemed lethargic. Perhaps it was the warm sun that led them to snooze.

One trend continued... whenever I lose track of the boy dogs in the house, they are probably snuggling in the bedroom. In the evening...

And in the morning...

He's our sweet Black Dog. I sure do hope that he feels better soon.

Pictures of Intensity - Hachi

Our warm and sunny spell is coming to an abrupt end with a big snowstorm. However, during the warmth, I had tons of fun trying to capture Hachi's spirit as he romped in a mountain meadow.

His burgeoning intensity is what caught my attention more often than not. In this photo, I had just called him. Do you see how hard he was trying to get to me as fast as possible?

At the end of a different recall, he launched himself into the air, sailed a long distance, and then landed just in front of me. I laughed and laughed.

He seems to love impersonating a kangaroo. Do you see the resemblance?

And here is a final picture of intensity.

That photo also shows that he still has big paws to grow into!

Happy Saturday!

Nature and Feline Friday

It has been a real winter here in Colorado, unlike some of the mild winters that we've had in recent years. That means that many of our large mammals like elk and deer have moved to lower elevations where the snow is less deep so they can graze. When the elk and deer move, the mountain lions follow them. That means that we have far fewer large mammals appearing on my trail cameras.

The mammals who still appear frequently are coyotes, foxes (red and gray), rabbits, squirrels, and bobcats. Bears, of course, are asleep in their dens now. The den that I know about is empty - a very sad sight for me.

I love the bobcats because their behavior is so fascinating. I love seeing them check out spots that mountain lions have marked. My cams have captured some nice daytime video of them which I'm going to share here.

In the video, the first clip is from late last fall at a water trough that was out for wildlife. 2018 was an incredibly dry year, and our bobcats visited this trough very frequently. As you watch the first clip, keep your eye on the bobcat's tail. It is really cool how expressive it is.

The second clip is from deep in the forest at a site where mountain lions mark. People very rarely go there. As you watch that clip, see how carefully the bobcat examines the mountain lion scrape. Then, listen to the crows that go wild cawing because there is a predator present. The corvids (crows, magpies, jays) are the alarm system warning the prey species that a dangerous animal is around.

The third clip is from early January on a sunny day. It is from a site at the top of an expansive downward sloping meadow. The elk herd frequently grazes within view of this site. Mountain lions seem to watch the elk from the site and scent mark while they are there. This bobcat investigated a mountain lion scrape and then carefully sniffed an aspen tree before departing.

Here is the video... enjoy it!

Thanks to the LLB Gang for hosting the Nature Friday blog hop! And thanks to the bobcats for keeping me entertained while so many other animals are absent!