Lots of elk around the cabin

Along around six TB got all worked up about something outside the cabin. He seems to find all this natural stuff endlessly fascinating/threatening so he can go off about anything from a coyote in the yard to a bird in the eaves. But he was giving me a full-on All Hands to Battle Stations freakout so I leashed him up and we went out to see what the problem was.

And to my surprise there actually was something any self-respecting dog would want to bark at. A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that the elk seem to have returned, well, this morning it could have been elk steak for everybody if I were that sort of hermit. He immediately tried to give chase and I was happy I’d resorted to the leash. He truly hasn’t got the sense god gave a butterfly: what was he going to do, herd them*?

Anyway, a little later we went on a nice longish walk through the wash between rainstorms** and on one leg he alerted to a big shaggy fully-antlered bull in the wash that had seen us first and was sort of sidling toward the mudhills on the far side of the horseshoe turn. TB again attempted to give chase and the bull upped his pace just a bit as if to humor him. I’ve been carrying a rifle lately since starting to layer up against the morning cold and again there was a shot that could have been taken. But I’m really not a hunter so I just enjoyed the sight. They are beautiful animals.


* BTW, I finally succumbed to the temptation to type “corgies herding cattle” into a Youtube search window, to confirm that people actually do (attempt to) herd cattle with corgis. The videos I saw suggest they do this more for comedic effect than because that’s a logical breed for the chore, but the people appear to be trying to take job seriously even if not all the dogs are.

** Cold and lots of rain overnight: I got woke up by a positively scary rainstorm.

About Joel

You shouldn't ask these questions of a paranoid recluse, you know.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

3 Responses to Lots of elk around the cabin

  1. Ben says:

    “what was he going to do, herd them*?” Well obviously he planned to assert his territorial rights by chasing those smelly, threatening intruders away from “his” hermit.

  2. Zelda says:

    Elk steaks sound good in this cold weather, Onions, homemade bread, a can of beans. Keep that gun handy. Ian has a refrigerator.

  3. Erik says:

    Elk are some pretty cool animals to see. I have in the past camped/hunted in the Colorado Rockies for years and have seen plenty of them. Love it.

    Sorry, but you triggered a memory from many decades ago which I shall force you to read. 🙂

    When I was really young, my dad told me the story (one of his many stories that has made me question everything 🙂 ) of an animal called the Cuscus. It was a small animal about the size of a squirrel. It would lay in wait for a person to walk through the woods….and then attack. It would attack by chewing around the ball at your ankle….the ball would fall out and then you would fall and be victim to the feared Cuscus! This all makes sense when you are like 8 years old. 🙂

    I suspect this is what your puppy has in mind for the several hundred pound Elk.

    FYI…The Cuscus is actually a real animal….but certainly does not fit the story as told.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *