Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Dec 2, 2012 - 05:10am PT
|
I always wondered what Sophie would do if she encountered a coyote. Run like hell, I hoped. She's pretty fast and at 20 pounds that would be the smart thing to do. Go for backup.
But I was forgetting her terribeagle nature. This morning I looked out the window and saw a coyote a hundred feet from the house, moving through the trees. Sophie, about fifty feet closer, had not seen the coyote yet but she knew it was there. Nose to the ground, she was tracking it.
|
|
HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
|
|
I watched Oliver (50 lbs) catch a coyote on open ground several years ago. I don't know who was more surprised, the coyote, Oliver or me! As soon as they tangled Oliver got the dominant position and they quickly broke it off. Coyote took off. By then I'd caught up with O and grabbed him. O had a nasty puncture wound in his leg. Big vet $$. Not sure he learned his lesson. I've always wondered what happened to the coyote.
Oliver on a lazy rainy Sunday morning
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Dec 2, 2012 - 12:24pm PT
|
It's extra worrisome around here because Eastern coyotes are said to be larger, having stepped into the vacant wolf niche. We don't have lions AFAIK, but many other critters I don't want my dogs to pick fights with -- fishers, for instance, or skunks, owls, porcupines, bears. I hope for no more fights with possums either, though we know in one case how that goes.
Sophie ranges fearless in daylight, but stays close to the house when she goes out at night. Owls bug her, in particular.
|
|
Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
|
|
I can't wait to see the Christmas puppy pictures!
|
|
Anastasia
climber
InLOVEwithAris.
|
|
Bill was racking up in Yosemite at night in the Ahwahnee hotel parking lot. He had allowed Loki free and wham, next thing you know it she was gone, chasing something in the boulder field. You heard the fight and then Loki was running back. It was a Coyote and yes... It scared her shiestless. My dog isn't dumb, she ran to Bill and was shaking like a lief. Not a mark on her but whatever happened, she was schooled, and she knew that she encountered something extremely dangerous.
I don't know if it stuck with her, but we her owners sure as heck won't be letting her hang out off the leash again in such wild lands. We were lucky.
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Dec 2, 2012 - 01:32pm PT
|
When we first adopted Jack, our chow/newfie, he had been a stray living on the interstate and knew nothing -- not his name, where he lived, what to do. When we let him outdoors it was even money he would just run away, and come back an hour or day later having been who knows where. We tried always walking him on a leash but that's no way for a young dog to live; and we didn't want to build a fence around our house. After much discussion and trying different things we came to the tough-love decision that it would be up to Jack. If he ran off and never returned, that was his destiny and we'd be sad. Or he might figure things out, settle down, stick around.
The first few months under this theory were pretty nervous, we'd joke about whether we still had a dog. But gradually Jack did settle down, and his roaming range became smaller, until finally he worked out that we were his pack, and he wanted to go where we go. That was 13 years ago. Since then he's walked off leash in the forest three to five times every day, with (knock on wood) no harm so far except that one skunk. Nowadays he's pretty slow and stays close to his people, leaving the wildlife interactions for his overconfident kid sister.
When we go into town, though, that's full of bad danger. Always leashes for both of them there.
|
|
SCseagoat
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
|
|
Hey Apogee,,,,jus'wonderin'how Maddie is doing? Thinking of her, wishing her well....I'll think of her when I'm back home and running the Stupa Path for the Blessing of Dogs at Land of Medicine Buddha.
Hugs to Maddie!
Susan
|
|
SCseagoat
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
|
|
Well I'm a MOM AGAIN! It was a long labor....over two years but the best things sometimes do fall into place when they are meant to. I lost my wonderful lab just over two years ago. Around the time I was ready to adopt I was DX with ovarian cancer so it didn't seem right to adopt in case I wasn't going to be around. As my health rebuilt and I went into remission I started fostering for Golden Gate Lab Rescue, thinking if the chemistry and timing were right I would adopt. Well I just returned home from a trip to PA and they called and said they were in desperate need for a foster quick. Poppie was a rescued stray from Bakersfield that had apparently been poisoned and when the rescue vet started the spay she almost bled out (when they started the spay it wasnt apparent she had been poisoned but when they opened her her tissues were oozing blood). She required two more surgeries and blood transfusions but she made it! She'd been in vet boarding since mid November. I said "sure". Well I have to say for these two survivors it was love at first sight!
She even went to the snow with us today!
My new girl
Always in memory of The Bunkster...
Susan, New Mom
|
|
apogee
climber
Technically expert, safe belayer, can lead if easy
|
|
Thanks for asking, Susan.
Maddie is still acting relatively normally (for a 12 year old dog)- we just came back from a walk, where she joyfully (as usual) bounded through the grassy meadow as though she was a puppy. Yesterday, I had to do a bunch of business-related driving, and she rode shotgun with me- it was a long day for her, but she hung in there like a champ.
It's almost enough to make one forget what's ticking away inside of her. Almost. I'm watching her closely for the signs that the melanoma has spread elsewhere, but for now, she's not showing anything like that.
I just wish it would stay like this.....forever.
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Dec 7, 2012 - 09:39pm PT
|
Love the dogoat.
|
|
Rcklzrd
Trad climber
Durango, CO
|
|
Here's our boys on guard in the 'hood.
|
|
Bob D'A
Trad climber
Taos, NM
|
|
Our beautiful Eva in the Rio Grande near Pilar, NM.
You can see her red "Chuck It" right above her head...she loves that thing.
Eva and her "Chuck It".
|
|
nita
Social climber
chica de chico, I don't claim to be a daisy.
|
|
Hey, Miss Susan...Congratulations!!!
I'm SO Happy for you....
Cheers..
xoxo
nita...
Love all these doggies....
Apoogee...I hope your doggie hangs in there, and is happy for longer than you expect.
|
|
zBrown
Ice climber
chingadero de chula vista
|
|
Courtesy of Park Rat
|
|
drljefe
climber
El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson
|
|
|
Dec 11, 2012 - 06:32am PT
|
|
|
Bob D'A
Trad climber
Taos, NM
|
|
|
Dec 11, 2012 - 06:40am PT
|
Eva.
|
|
Bad Climber
climber
|
|
|
Dec 11, 2012 - 06:40am PT
|
Great mood piece, drljefe!
BAd
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!