Three days ago my doorbell rings. It's my neighbor bringing me flowers. I asked her what the special occasion was. She said that the special occasion was that her husband bought her flowers for Valentines Day but they were going out of town and wanted someone to enjoy the flowers while they were still looking beautiful. I happily accepted. While she was here, she apologized for ringing my doorbell so late the other night. I told her that I was sick the other day and must not have heard the door bell. The dog usually barks, but I must not have heard him either. She said that she came to to check on the dog. She had heard a woman screaming, heard yelping, and heard a pack of wild coyotes howling. She heard the woman scream, "you let him go". She wanted to warn us to be careful. Sure enough, three days later I was sitting at my table eating dinner, listening to the radio, and enjoying the vase of beautiful flowers when I noticed the dogs ears perk up. I then realized that the howling I was hearing was actually not part of the music on the radio. I turned off the radio to hear a pack of wild coyotes right outside my patio howling and my dog was now howling right along with them wanting to run with the pack. I finished my dinner and called my mom. I told my mom that I was officially scared. She said, "you are officially, what"? I said, "scared". She said, "scared, what are you scared of"? I said that I was scared to take my dog outside to go potty. She asked why and I told her about the coyotes. She said, "oh, a pack of wild coyotes can be very vicious". I finished the conversation and hung up. I started devising a plan as to how the dog could go potty before bed without getting eaten for dinner. We have survived the bobcats, the mad deer, and the bears. The bears like my neighbors outside garbage can and stay away from mine since I keep it empty until garbage day. Now we have to beware of the wild pack of coyotes. I decided that the dog was going to have to hurry to go potty instead of lallygagging around. Maybe I forgot to tell him that. I put him on his leash. We went out the front door instead of the back door that leads to the patio. I stayed on the porch. He lifted his leg a couple of times but before he could do all of his business he saw something around the corner and started growling. I decided that was good enough and we quickly went back in the house. At 3:00 a.m., the dog decides that he has got to finish his business now and can't wait until morning. He wakes me up with his incessant crying. I put my coat and boots on, get his leash, and go out the front door again with the temperature at 3 degrees F. He lifts his leg a few times and then finally decides to do his business. I'm now settled back into bed. The lights are off. It is perfectly quiet. I'm trying to go back to sleep. The dog starts barking at something right outside the window by where he likes to sleep. I figure that the coyotes have come back. I'm glad that we missed them by about 20 minutes. I watched a short video clip on how to keep coyotes out of your neighborhood. It said to make sure that you don't leave out any food, dog food, or garbage. That is not going to work at my house, because there is a scamper load of bunny rabbits that like to hang out in my back yard. When the coyotes are hungry, they are going to stop by for an easy meal feasting on juicy rabbit. As long as they are not feasting on me or my dog, we should be fine.Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Call of the Wild
Three days ago my doorbell rings. It's my neighbor bringing me flowers. I asked her what the special occasion was. She said that the special occasion was that her husband bought her flowers for Valentines Day but they were going out of town and wanted someone to enjoy the flowers while they were still looking beautiful. I happily accepted. While she was here, she apologized for ringing my doorbell so late the other night. I told her that I was sick the other day and must not have heard the door bell. The dog usually barks, but I must not have heard him either. She said that she came to to check on the dog. She had heard a woman screaming, heard yelping, and heard a pack of wild coyotes howling. She heard the woman scream, "you let him go". She wanted to warn us to be careful. Sure enough, three days later I was sitting at my table eating dinner, listening to the radio, and enjoying the vase of beautiful flowers when I noticed the dogs ears perk up. I then realized that the howling I was hearing was actually not part of the music on the radio. I turned off the radio to hear a pack of wild coyotes right outside my patio howling and my dog was now howling right along with them wanting to run with the pack. I finished my dinner and called my mom. I told my mom that I was officially scared. She said, "you are officially, what"? I said, "scared". She said, "scared, what are you scared of"? I said that I was scared to take my dog outside to go potty. She asked why and I told her about the coyotes. She said, "oh, a pack of wild coyotes can be very vicious". I finished the conversation and hung up. I started devising a plan as to how the dog could go potty before bed without getting eaten for dinner. We have survived the bobcats, the mad deer, and the bears. The bears like my neighbors outside garbage can and stay away from mine since I keep it empty until garbage day. Now we have to beware of the wild pack of coyotes. I decided that the dog was going to have to hurry to go potty instead of lallygagging around. Maybe I forgot to tell him that. I put him on his leash. We went out the front door instead of the back door that leads to the patio. I stayed on the porch. He lifted his leg a couple of times but before he could do all of his business he saw something around the corner and started growling. I decided that was good enough and we quickly went back in the house. At 3:00 a.m., the dog decides that he has got to finish his business now and can't wait until morning. He wakes me up with his incessant crying. I put my coat and boots on, get his leash, and go out the front door again with the temperature at 3 degrees F. He lifts his leg a few times and then finally decides to do his business. I'm now settled back into bed. The lights are off. It is perfectly quiet. I'm trying to go back to sleep. The dog starts barking at something right outside the window by where he likes to sleep. I figure that the coyotes have come back. I'm glad that we missed them by about 20 minutes. I watched a short video clip on how to keep coyotes out of your neighborhood. It said to make sure that you don't leave out any food, dog food, or garbage. That is not going to work at my house, because there is a scamper load of bunny rabbits that like to hang out in my back yard. When the coyotes are hungry, they are going to stop by for an easy meal feasting on juicy rabbit. As long as they are not feasting on me or my dog, we should be fine.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Frolicking in the Snow
It snowed yesterday, today, and is supposed to snow tomorrow and the next day. No hiking today. Instead we went to a park and frolicked in the snow. Aspen met a new friend named Gus. We saw his other friends named Laurel and Missy. He played with three other dogs but we don't know their names. We had tons of fun. Aspen loves the snow except when it balls up and freezes in his paws then he tries to bite off the frozen little balls of snow. We had fun in the snow now I'm watching the Time Traveler's Wife. I just finished watching Julie and Julia. When the weather outside is frightful a good video is always nice to watch.Friday, February 12, 2010
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Hiking at Blodgett
Today, the dog and I decided to try out a new place. We went to Blodgett Peak Open Space. We got a late start at about 4:00 p.m. It gets dark around 6:00 p.m. so we had plenty of time. The dog is always thrilled to try out new places. That means there are plenty of new spots to sniff. The trails were partially dry, partially muddy, and partially snowy and icy. There were some ominous clouds in the sky. It was about 42 degrees. I layered my clothes and wore a hat and gloves. Since it was mostly cloudy it made it a little chilly. We saw two bikers, one runner, one man with his dog and another lady hiker so the trails were pretty quiet. We stayed mostly on the main trail and tried a couple of side trails. It did actually snow a tad bit on us for a couple of minutes. The most eventful thing that happened on this hike was that the dog wanted to pull me down the steep part of the trail that had snow and ice. I had to take him off his leash while we went down the steep part so that I could pick my way through the ice. We then lost the trail under the snow and came to a dead end that went into some thick brush. This is when my son called on my cell phone twice to get his bank account number. It still amazes me to be able to take a call while hiking in the mountains. We looked for a couple other ways out but couldn't find the trail out. We back tracked not looking forward to going up the steep part with the ice. Fortunately, after back tracking, we found another trail and was able to avoid the steep icy part. This led us back to the main trail. It was a little annoying because the dog was now back on his leash and decided he wanted to run back to the car. I had to keep slowing him up especially through the snowy and icy parts. It was a beautiful place. A good hike for the end of a busy day. Not too strenuous but a pretty good work out, beautiful mountain scenery, and beautiful scenery looking over the city. We will be going there again. There are some other side trails that we want to check out. The dog did have to have a paw and belly wash when we got home. I'm always glad that I keep a couple of old towles in the trunk to keep the back seat from getting muddy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)