Shyla Saturday - A Silhouette

The sunrises and sunsets in our mountains can be mind-boggling. This sunset happened last fall in the midst of a train of brilliant sunsets. I showed you another photo from the series but not this one. I think that this one is my favorite.

Shyla is my partner in photography - I couldn't make an image like this one if she didn't love doing it with me. Her expressive silhouette against a beautiful sky is my favorite kind of image.

Happy Silhouette Shyla Saturday!

Screaming in the Forest

Some days, it is tempting to find an isolated corner of the forest and scream.

Well, a mountain lion has beat us to it. One female lion has chosen her spot for screaming under the sprawling branches of a Ponderosa Pine tree. She spent many nights of February caterwauling under that tree.

My reading says that female mountain lions caterwaul when they are in estrus. The odd thing is that I believe that this is the same mountain lion as we heard caterwauling back in January. Estrus is supposed to last a week at most. Then, there's supposed to be a couple of month delay before they go back into estrus if they didn't get pregnant. So, I'm puzzled by her behavior.

Perhaps her life is too stressful right now so she is blowing off steam by screaming.

Enjoy the video. Be sure to have the sound on to hear her sounds.

Thankful Thursday

In light of all that's happening in the world, I am endlessly thankful for the peacefulness of the world where we live. It seems that we will be staying home for a while, waiting out the pandemic. We will still be going out into our forests and mountains daily because that feels very safe.

I hope that all of you are staying safe. I'm glad that we have our online friendships in this tough time. I am very interested to hear how each of you is doing and whether you are hunkered down at home like we are.

We will be joining the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop.

Wordless Wednesday

A Fox in the Bear Den... and the First Cub Sighting

In March of 2016, a bear sow was quietly raising her newborn cubs in a den in a heavily forested area. It was still very snowy, and the cubs hadn't set a paw outside the den yet. The cubs were likely spending all of their time attached to teats on their mom's abdomen. That's a warm spot!

Then, their snoozing was interrupted by a visitor.

It was a very curious red fox. The fox stared at the opening to the den as the sound of a bawling cub broadcast that there was a young animal in rocky crevice.

Then, believe it or not, the fox went far into the den, with only his tail still visible outside the den. It's not a big den. The fox must have been face to face with the mother bear.

The fox eventually retreated, without a bear cub in his jaws.

Things were peaceful at the den until a few weeks later when the cubs decided that they wanted to explore the world outside their den. Mom did not want them to leave the safety of the den.  Each time one made it past her, she grabbed the youngster in her jaws.

She dragged the escapee back into the den. Look at the tiny cub paw in the next photo.

On that day, I counted 45 unsuccessful escape attempts by the cubs. Finally, on the 46th attempt, a cub made it out to explore. That was the beginning of the fun for the cubs!

Here is the video!

The Hachi Chronicle

Poor Hachi. It isn't an easy time for him. He's having a hard time with being handled - whether it's clipping his toenails or even just putting a collar on him. We are counter-conditioning daily, and we can see it working within each session. It takes some time for it to carry over from one session to the next. That hasn't happened in a helpful way yet.

Our vet had us try reducing his medication (Paxil) just in case the dose was too high for him and causing this distress about handling. So far, I think that reducing his Paxil has made him worse but it'll take another week to be sure. One thing that has gotten worse since reducing his Paxi is his fear of R. Hachi has returned to barking intensely when R starts blindly wandering toward Hachi. (Fortunately, R scarcely seems to notice.)

On the up side, he's playing well with me and his sister. The two of them frolicking is a highlight of every day. Their favorite game is chase, and there's often a stick involved.

You would think that the dog carrying the stick would always be in front. But no... This game has rules that I don't understand. Shyla stole the stick from Hachi but she's still chasing him.

These games show that Hachi is in his absolute physical prime. It is amazing to watch him run and leap like a super dog.

I am so glad that eight year old Shyla can still easily keep up with him. Shyla is very fit and is naturally very athletic so they are a good match!

So, just like life, this week's report is partly negative but also partly positive. We love our Hachi.

Black Dog Sunday

Our Black Dog has his sparkle back.

He doesn't mourn what he has lost - like all of his vision. Rather, he playfully trots through life full of happiness.

This treat started on his nose, and he launched it when I said the word. He can't catch them anymore but he still loves this game. After he launches a treat, I find it on the ground so that I can hand feed it to him. Yep, he has me wrapped around his dew claw.

The smallest moments with R can touch my heart as they show his innocence and hopefulness. For example, I came into the house after being gone one day this week. I said hi to him (so he'd know who I was). His tail went "thump, thump, thump..." and then after about 10 seconds it went into an unstoppable frenzy of thumps.

When I looked over at him, I realized that his eye was sparkling in a way that I hadn't seen since before his surgery. Even though his eye is blind, it still expresses so much emotion. It is still a window into R's soul. On this day, it was filled with pure Black Dog optimism and joy.

We love our Black Dog more than words can express.

Happy Black Dog Sunday. Every one is precious.

Shyla Saturday

As I look through my photo library from the past year, it tells the story of Shyla as a big sister who was helping raise Hachi slowly but surely.

When he was a puppy, she seemed to know to hang back and let him win. Whenever I called the two of them to me, Shyla would let Hachi get an early lead.

Shyla's approach seemed to build Hachi's confidence for playing with her. I think that it might be a big part of why he trusts her so much now.

Shyla no longer holds back at all with Hachi. She races full out when they play chase and she uses her full strength when they wrestle. I suspect that all of her maternal behavior over the past year built a well of trust in Hachi.

Here were the two of them last spring, snoozing in a sun puddle together.

I am so grateful for Shyla's role as the glue in our pack. She loves both of her brothers and gets along with each of them beautifully.

She is a special dog.

Nature Friday - Bluebird Days

March in our area is the snowiest month. We get huge storms, including one in the early 2000's that dropped 6-7' of snow on us (it's hard to measure when it gets that deep). That's a rarity but 3' is not.

We're starting to see the volatility of March here. We've had a lot of snow recently. It is beautiful when it's fresh, especially on a bluebird day.

It paints our world white. We are still in the grips of winter.


Then, a couple of days ago, it suddenly got much warmer - even melting the snow in some meadows. And, best of all, it led to a few intrepid mountain bluebirds flying up to our high elevation. They just visit at this time of year, perhaps getting ready to claim territories for breeding. They retreat to lower elevations when it's cold or snowy.

I am rejoicing after seeing my first bluebirds up here the other day!

That is a sight that makes spring seem so much closer!

Thankful Thursday

Our Black Dog is doing so well. Seeing him get strong again has made us realize how much that spleen tumor had slowed him down, both physically and mentally, prior to surgery.

We took him to an oncologist this week. Her strong guess is that the first pathology report was absolutely correct in calling the tumor benign. However, given that the odds were only 1 in 10 of it being benign, everyone wants to have it tested once more. That's happening right now.

For now, we are assuming that it is benign. It's time to quit worrying quite so much. We are a very lucky pack to have more great quality time with our Black Dog.

Photo from late last winter

I will let you know when we get that final word on the latest test. But we are already thankful.

Few Words Wednesday

It snowed again, leading to a silent and beautiful early morning.

But then, as Shyla and lingered in a high meadow, we saw this. The wind was starting.


And soon, our world was like this. We could barely stand up straight in the wind.

Winter is beautiful but brutal high in our mountains.

A Winter Miracle

Four years ago, my trail cam was witnessing a winter miracle deep in our forest. I'd stumbled upon a bear den back in 2010, and a bear sow had occupied it starting in the fall of 2015. She spent the start of the winter quietly inside the den, not venturing outside for months.

Then, in late January, she had a burst of activity, taking a couple of little walks just outside the den in one day. That night, she never really settled down. My cam captured her looking around and moving restlessly in the darkness.

The next morning, the reason for her restlessness became obvious. Two cubs were bawling inside the den! They'd been born overnight.

I want to share that video - because it was one of the more inspiring ones that I've captured. I still have a cam at the den but the den is empty this year. So far, bears have occupied it twice since I found it, in 2009-10 and 2015-16. I am hoping for occupant in upcoming years.

Enjoy the video!

The Hachi Chronicle

Hachi is doing fabulously well with his brother and sister. He seems so relaxed around them, and he even watches R blindly blunder into the side of his ex pen without reacting at all. There were days in our past when his reaction would have been ferocious. Seeing him becoming so much "softer" toward his siblings is wonderful.

Playing with Shyla

We have run into a new issue. It started a few weeks ago when I was clipping Hachi's nails with the help of the Runner. Surprisingly, nail clipping has always been okay with Hachi. And it got even better after I spent time making him really happy about me touching his paws by pairing each paw touch with yummy treats. 

Then, about three weeks ago, we settled in for what we thought would be routine nail clipping. But it wasn't. Suddenly, Hachi was very tense about it, to the point that he made a growling sound and reached toward my hand with his mouth. He went no further than that but his message was clear. I hoped that it was a fluke but it wasn't. It happened again this weekend. So, we muzzled Hachi for nail clipping. He actually calmed down nicely over the course of the clipping.

Then, another handling issue came up. We needed to weigh Hachi. Just like the Runner has done countless times since we met Hachi, he picked up Hachi to step on the scale with him. Uh oh - Hachi again acted very upset about it. We muzzled Hachi to weigh him just to be safe.

The big question is whether this is a bad side effect of the higher dose of Paxil that he started about a month ago or a lingering effect of his annual vet exam that scared him so much a few weeks ago. That exam involved Hachi being handled so it is analogous. We will talk with his behavioral vet tomorrow to figure out how to proceed.

Chasing Shyla

Regardless of which thing was the precipitating factor, I know that our future holds lots and lots of counterconditioning to help Hachi be okay with being handled. We have re-started it already (I did a lot of it when he was younger), and I hope that we can make a difference.

If so many other things weren't going super well, I'd be really discouraged. Instead, I feel as if we'll figure out how to handle this hurdle with the main goal being to help Hachi not be so afraid.

No matter what, he's our dog and we are his humans. It's a deep bond.

Black Dog Sunday

Our Black Dog was smoothly sailing forward, walking a little further each day and re-finding his exuberance.

Then, yesterday, he had a set-back. We're not sure why or what it was exactly. He was hit with an upset tummy and the shakes. We checked everything that we knew how to test like his gum color (to assess whether he might have internal bleeding), his pulse, and his temperature. Nothing obvious jumped out as wrong so we let him rest rather than taking him to the emergency vet.

It seemed that he needed some rest and TLC from his sister. She melts my heart.

By this afternoon, he was eager to hike with the pack. He rolled in the snow numerous times and caught up on all of the canine gossip. He kept up with the others so I didn't need to turn back early with him. We were all smiling!

He seems to be back to where he was before that little setback. It scared us primarily because we don't know what to expect.

The bottom line is that our Black Dog is happy today, and we are filled with gratitude for each joyful day with him.