Category: Nature

Posted on

Bear saves us again

Thankfully, we needed none of the above.

BUT, they are the only photo, albeit after the fact, that I have of the “adventure”.

Sunday morning…6:15 a.m….we all blasted out the front door to enjoy a bit of cool before the forecast record breaking 101F day! It was 67F at the time, which is still a bit warmish for morning, but in “all is relative” world, felt grand.

Bear and Auggie went their respective ways and I headed for the well head and sprinkler duty. I got water going and then I noticed that Bear was standing at the edge of the turnaround, looking intently to the northeast. When a beardog looks intently, a beardog’s person MUST also look intently!

I walked to Bear and looked in the direction that he was focused on. I saw Auggie leap. And I saw a fluffy black and white tail about 3 feet from Auggie.

And since the only fluffy black and white tail that I knew was “safe” was on alert next to me… GAH!! Skunk. And Auggie was stalking the skunk.

I roared to Bear to go inside which he did immediately and I think, happily. I ran in and grabbed the 2 bottles of Skunk-Off, the pepper spray and a large towel. Back outside Auggie and the Skunk were doing a kind of dance of face to face with the skunk stamping, then turning with tail high. Auggie was cautious but giving chase when the skunk turned away. When he got a bit close, the skunk turned to face Auggie and stamped the ground.

They did this dance thing with me on the chase and calling to Auggie and throwing sticks between Auggie and the skunk to startle and stop Auggie. Seriously, I absolutely NEED !!! to buy a GoPro video cam !!!

We did the run, dance, stomp, tail in the air thing ALL THE WAY out onto the state land with me all the time thinking that Auggie was going to get sprayed. Finally, the skunk went one way and Auggie the other way and then Auggie rolled over for a stomach rub and I threw the towel over him…

At one point, I thought I detected a spritz of skunk, but Auggie had no smell on him. He snuggled into the towel and dripping sweat, I walked back to the house.

Inside, still no skunk smell – hoo… I say HOO-RAH!!

Bear was waiting and I gave him high praise and extra breakfast and an extra Greenie and told him that he saved the day! Without Bear’s alertness, I never would have seen that Auggie was challenging the skunk. And I do not for a moment think that would have turned out well.

Beardog SAVES THE DAY!

“I could have taken that stinky ole skunk….”

EDIT: Sunday Evening:

We broke the all time record of over 100F in June in Montana. First time, I’ve seen 100F since I moved to Montana in February 1994.

Posted on

Scenes from Thursday morning

So the skunk visitations continued and even at our “normal” going out time of 7:00 a.m., I kept a watchful eye. This morning I had my camera set to take some video so naturally, no skunk. But as I was waiting and watching, I caught my neighbor’s motion sensitive light go on so kind of wonder if Skunk took a slightly different route this morning.

At any rate, it was another clear and sunny morning: beautiful, but the moisture situation continues on the unusually dry side and NOAA says:

Northwest Montana, however, will likely remain drier than usual for this time of year with no significant systems on the horizon to make up for the recent precipitation deficit.

Rats!!

Still, nothing to do but enjoy what we have and so we did.

Posted on

In my front yard

15 minutes ago: 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning.

Trotted up the driveway, ate some bugs out of the grass – I’m guessing bugs because they eat bugs – got a drink of water from the front porch water bowl and then trotted around the garage and out into the woods.

I saw as much as I did with time to get the camera and set for low light…because Auggie was on a window sill watching intently so I looked to see what he was watching.

It is a beautiful skunk and they do eat pests and small rodents so we will hopefully stay out of each other’s way.

Posted on

Tom’s “come hither” does not succeed

Tom spies the hens…

He does his best “Come hither” !!!!

Oh, dear.

The hens run away from Tom.

This repeats the scenario I’ve seen in years past. At some point a “Tom” must succeed as invariably there are turkey chicks.

But on this day, this Tom’s “come hither” does not succeed.

Posted on

Day One post fox encounter

It is always hard to let go.

I know the statistics for outside cats.

Gus and Bob both beat them. I hope Auggie does also.

When I got my first cat, Gus, I thought he’d be an inside cat. But he made it VERY clear from early on that he wanted to be outside.

Bob came to my house as an outside cat.

Auggie, as did Gus, made it clear that he wanted to go in an out.

So.

Gah!

It is hard. Especially so after an encounter with wild things.

I love the darn critters so much and yet I also want them to LIVE…and so I’ve let Auggie be an in and out cat and every time he goes out, I hope he comes back unscathed.

So far, so good.

We are in for the night…well, Auggie is in. Bear and I will go out twice more…on leash.

Day One post fox encounter.