...and two steps back.

[Deb's Yarrow and Schatzi]

Yesterday was a busy day.  After having a decent night's sleep, the weather was a bit warmer and I took Yarrow and Sadhu to walk around town.  We were gone much longer than planned, stopping and chatting with others walking their dogs.  Yarrow is quite timid around strange, large dogs.  She sits behind me with her head between my legs, as if my legs are fence boards she can safely watch from behind.  It's good for her to just sit there and experience the calm exchange of conversation after dogs have settled down. 

After arriving home we had unexpected, but welcome company.  She came bearing fresh ginger cookies, but it was apparent she had come to visit with Yarrow.  This was a nice visit.  My friend (whose 'kids' are three Airedale terriers) brings her energy to a calm, quiet place to keep Yarrow from getting wound up.  I so appreciate that.

Then it was lunch time for baby girl, time for a little quiet digestion, then off into the nature trails.  As we arrived back home, company arrived once again!  This time a lovely neighbour who my cats are in love with.  As dear as this older neighbor is, she encourages Yarrow to jump and bark and get wound up.  Not the kind of energy I want to foster indoors.  This neighbor is also a lifelong dog owner and, well you know, the last thing I want to do is offend her and the wealth of advice she brings me on how to raise a puppy. (sigh)  We do things differently.

Up here the days are very short at this time of year.  By 5pm we have dusk, and living in bear, cougar, coyote and possibly wolf habitat, it's not advisable to start out for a walk with a young pup and a one-eyed, 13 year old golden boy.  This time last year there was a cougar under somebody's deck and in July there was a grizzly one block over.  Locals tell me that you can't be guaranteed that the bears are all soundly hibernating right now... black or grizz.

Anyway, poor Yarrow, perhaps overstimulated from the long and busy day, most likely from having missed her last walk before dark, was like the Tazmanian devil all evening and fussed all night long.  Being a light sleeper, I tossed and turned as well and had her out twice through the night.  Now the sun is up, she's sleeping soundly and I feel like a zombie.  Today I'll make it my mission to keep her day to the simple schedule of eat, walk/play, sleep.  Some kennel time will be good for her.

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

You live in a town that reminds me of 'Northern Exposure' does anyone remember that cult series? It looks very interesting. Personally I love wild life. My sisters live in Vancouver and one day one of my sisters looked out the kitchen window to see a cub with it's mother standing upright looking in her window!!!! Cougars are another kettle of fish....I look forward to hearing more from your neck of the woods soon.

[F, Calla & Luca]

I am sorry to hear about Wabush, so sad.

[Deb's Yarrow and Schatzi]

Good. That's how responsible farmers deals with coyotes. 

I had intended to wait until next fall to get a female pup.  But I have no doubt my Wabush had a hand (paw) in bringing Yarrow into my life at this time.  She is good medicine for my heart.  Just what I needed.  The breeder had a large litter of females and contacted me to see if I would like to take one now instead of waiting.  Without hesitation!  The really strange coincidence is that the breeder is in the village of Gwynn, less than 10 minutes from where we lived in the village of Bittern Lake, where I lost my Wabush!  And they are the only registered  breeder of Bernedoodles in western Canada!

 

[BG and Gavin]

They shoot them.  The farms are up the escarpment about 5km of rugged terrain away from us and Gavin is not allowed off the main road anywhere in that area.  I feel sorry that you lost your dog that way.  It must have been horrible :(

[Deb's Yarrow and Schatzi]

We have bear bells and my last dog wore a small brass yak bell from Tibet... because she was cool like that.  On occasion I have found myself feeling uneasy and without bells and, like you I sing. The Wheels On The Bus or something equally annoying and pathetic will do so nothing will want to eat me.

Do you know how the farmers try to keep the coyote population down?  I don't want to scare you but that's how I lost my beloved dog, Wabush.  Coyotes had dragged the a baited sheep carcass from the farm across the way over to our property.  It was full of poison intended for the coyotes.  My sweet dog's end was horrible and traumatic for me and my daughter.  It was the worst thing I ever experienced.  I had no idea it was even legal to poison wildlife.  No creature should ever have to experience that. The vet said it happens all too often that dogs are the unintended victims.  I suppose asking local vets might be the way to find out if it is a danger in your area

That was the day we were loading the truck to move here. The couple who bought our lovely old farm house lost their dog the same way about a month later.  They are the ones who discovered the evidence incriminating the neighbouring sheep rancher.

[BG and Gavin]

We certainly don't have to worry about cougars, but at our cottage we have black bears occasionally and coyotes which I hear sometimes at night.  The farmers around try to take care of that population as they take down the livestock.  Their screams at night can be deafening and more than a bit spooky.  Our neighbour literally ran into a bear on her deck in October.  She came around the corner of the house and there he was.  She said she could have tapped him on the shoulder.  He regarded her casually and ambled off around the other side of the house.  We found scat in our yard from that bear too.  We saw one walking out the driveway next door two years ago.  I grabbed Gavin and put him in the cottage before he realized anything.  I sometimes get creeped out when walking the trails with him alone.  I tend to sing (that would scare off anything!!).  Many people wear bear bells when they walk to announce their arrival.  Maybe you should try that too?

[Deb's Yarrow and Schatzi]

The only reason I am not freaked out with learning that we are in bear country is that I have also learned that black bear and grizzly diet consists of roots, berries, insects and only about 15% meat - generally fish.  And that the people who have bad bear encounters are the ones who make poor choices like walking quietly through the bush, enjoying the silence and birds and hoping to see some wildlife.  The silence of nature is beautiful, but if you know you may be in the neighborhood of large, potentially dangerous animals, you have to be polite and let them know in some way, "Heads up! Humans coming through!"  As bears are foraging they can be easily startled. How the react if startled depends on how threatened they feel.  But, that said, nobody has seen a bear in town since we had a big dump of snow.  They appear to have gone to wherever bears go for their winter nap.

Cougars are more of a concern to me.  But it is some comfort that we have a healthy population of elk, white tail deer and mule deer.  Still, I watch Sadhu's body language.  He puts his nose straight up in the air when there is something unusual nearby.  And I keep Yarrow very close, which isn't hard.  If she had her way, she'd walk the trails with me baby penguin style.  She likes to stay between my feet.  When we get into open terrain, she runs with Sadhu a bit.

At night I am afraid of cougars, which I know little about, and coyotes and their relatives the coywolves and coydogs which we also had in Alberta.  They're so sly, and will go for weaker dogs

[Donna K & Quincy]

Your day sounds lovely, your night not so much. :>) Even experienced dog owners get carried away with a puppy. My brother has a dog who is an excited dribbler and of course I greet him all nice and excited forgetting that little tidbit of info, yep he peed all over the place. :>) I don't think I would venture outside at all if I had all those wild animals about. Bears and cougars may have no bad intent unless they intend to have you for lunch. :>)

[Deb's Yarrow and Schatzi]

If I had known about the grizzlies and cougars I would have opted to live in a nearby bigger city, and I would have missed out.  Kimberley is great.  It has such character and characters.  One of the first things we did was attend an evening chat with the author of a new book entitled, Living With Bears Without Fear.  The author knows what he's talking, and writing about, as he was superintendent of Banff National Park for 30 years.  

Then we had a super strong fence put up across the back and front.  There were bear tracks through the yard in September and bear scat near the front door!  Now we have this great fence, with each post cemented in place, that makes me feel like I'm living in an Elk enclosure.  It keeps the wildlife out, pups in, and we can still enjoy the view of the forest and deer.

I came away from the bear talk more confident than afraid.  I have my bear spray, which works on all species of predatory wildlife. You don't have to wait 'til the animal is near and spray them in the face.  All you need to do if you are being threatened is spray a curtain of pepper spray between yourself and the animal.  Bear and cougar sightings are quickly reported and posted at trailheads as well as on Facebook. 

I stick to the well travelled trails.  I want to know that I am not the only one out there. 

I'm confident in the daylight.  And I follow my intuition.  If something doesn't feel right, I change direction.  But dusk 'til dawn is another story.  People who have grown up in this neck of the woods say just don't go out walking after dark. 

I know people in neighborhoods in big cities who have to worry about another kind of wildlife after dark - the opportunistic human kind.  I'll take bears and cougars any day.  They have no bad intent.

This is an exhilarating place to live.

[Stella]

I have had black bears, coyotes and wolves on my property. When I walk the dogs in the dark before work I carry a marine horn in my pocket, and make sure we make plenty of noise as we walk down the road so that we don't surprise any of the wildlife!!