Rural Country Life verses predators

I am starting to hear about goats being killed in the night in my neighborhood.   I am guessing Mountain Lions.   One person says, I lost two goats last night and the next thing all the neighbors are talking abut pets and farm animals they have lost.   I listen incredulously at the cavalier attitude about animals and why it is happenning.    Yanni wants or wanted goats.    I said I really don't want any farm animals here until we have the ability to put them up safely at night.    I suggested we move all cars out of the barns and set up proper stalls so that we could bring animals in and close up at night, he did not like that idea.  

There is a reason early settlers almost wiped out mountain lions, wolves, coyotes, bears and some of the Birds of Prey.   It is hard to live with them.    When I was a kid in the 60s I lived in a rural new development in the East Bay, Fremont to be exact.    We never saw coyotes, let alone the bigger more interesting and menacing predators.   The reason they were wiped out or pushed back to less desirable land is because they are hard to live with.   When humans want get ahead (or survive) they need to take action.   Predators can make a tough life even tougher to raise a family, to have neighbors, build towns and roads.   Large predators keep you one step behind because you are spending too much time protecting what is necessary to survive.

Fast forward to this century, we are all elated when we spot a wolf in California and outraged when we discover a beautiful white wolf was killed.    We want to “live with the wild animals”.    I agree, I think it is the right thing to do, but what are we willing to sacrifice to do that?   What can we do to make it safe for all of us including our animals and children and our neighbors?  

Leaving food out encourages wild animals.    Dog food in a pan outside or in the garage encourages rats, mice and raccoons and perhaps a bear or two.   Sloppy garbage habits encourages coyotes and bears.   Cats free ranging at night encourages coyotes.  Chickens out in the open encourages birds of prey, fox and others.  Lastly goats and sheep and horses encourages the big game animals.   We don’t think of the goats we use to keep our grass mowed as bait to lure predators in, but they are.    Most wild animals do not have a taste for human food or domestic animals until we teach them.    Once they taste it they find it is good and easier than wild game.   Catching a goat in a fenced area must be far easier than to actually have to hunt a wild deer especially if the lion knows there are more where that goat came from.  

We can go back to shooting all predators on sight, problem solved.   I think coyote are currently fair game anytime.  If you really want to live with wild life stop leaving all types of food out.   Garages, heavy duty chain link kennels with covers and concrete floors, barns are ways to keep animals in.    The early settlers moved all livestock inside.    It is because of the early settler's eradication efforts that we have this false sense of security today.  Why do we think it is possible to leave our animals outside and live in harmony with all living things?   What are you willing to sacrifice?    I have a neighbor who has a small herd of sheep and goats with 2 emu and 1 llama and 2 large guardian dogs.    Even they bring everything in at night!! 

I love all wildlife and I love living close to wildlife but I don't like feeding and encouraging them so close to my home.    It means there is no room for error on my part.    If I were the neighbor of people who left food out every night which was causing Mountain Lions to frequent I would be pissed.    Do we really want Mountain Lions to learn to live with us as coyotes and rats have??   Stop leaving your animals out at night, it is not fair to the neighborhood to be encouraging large predators who will then acquire a taste for domestic animals that far are easier than wild prey.    If you can’t keep your animals in get the proper guardian animals or don't have them and buy a weed eater!!   The problem will only get worse if we / you don't.

 

I live in a cartoon

I do live in a cartoon. The Pig is giving Yanni fits. Every night just before the sun goes down he and his rifle head out the front door.  He is wearing camo shorts and a wife beater with his leather old Greek man sandals.   Last night he comes back after about an hour and says "I need your help". He wants me to hold the flashlight and follow right behind him while he walks and when he says flash the light, I am to flash the light. OK, how difficult can this be?

So we are walking and he says "flash the light" and I do. (By the way this is a super good military flashlight that you can see very far pin point distances.) Nothing. So we walk some more and do this exercise a few more times and then I flash the light and before I know what happened """KABOOM""" I almost fell down. The pig was not hit. I said "OK, I am done with this game" and headed back to the house.

I can laugh about this now but wait until we are skinning and gutting and cutting up a 150 lb pig at midnight and disposing of the excess so the dogs don't have a party in the morning. I might feel a bit different.

Now I am a live and let live sort of gal except in the case of pigs. When they are sleeping and rooting right up next to the house they are exciting once and even twice but when they tear down your tomato fences to get at one green tomato it is time for them to be dead or be scared off the property.   

I also have to admit I love living where my dogs can be dogs but it is also great to live where a man can be a man or at least pursue the tough guy things he likes to pursue.  

It is legal to hunt on your own property and we do have a permit to do this.    The reason you need the permit is because when you take the pig to the butcher to be processed properly they will need to see some sort of proof that you are allowed to have killed a pig.

PS:  Unless you have had first hand experience with these guys please do not tell me how dangerous they are or how lucky we are to come from an encounter unscathed.  We encounter them every day and we know exactly how they are.    We do have a permit to hunt pig on our property.    I doubt we will ever catch one but ya never know what happens in a cartoon.

My Name is XXXXXXX and I am Available.

My human died, I am old, well I don’t think I am old but some call me a senior, so I guess that means I am old.  When my human died my world turned upside down.   Does anyone truly understand the bond a girl like me had with her old world?  I went from my safe calm environment to a shelter.   The shelter was extremely stimulating in all the wrong ways.   My daughter was with me but she did not understand what I was going thru.   I was slowly going crazy inside.   I did not shut down as some dogs do.  I became hyper stimulated.   Finally a Rescue Group pulled me into a Foster home.   I was hoping for a connection.   I was hoping for someone to bond with and allow the demons to leave while I looked in their eyes.   The foster home was not much better.   They were well intention-ed but I was an afterthought in their life.   They fed me and put a roof over my head and saved me from the grim reaper but I needed more.   I needed this growing disease in me to stop taking over.   I was so revved up from my life changes  and the shelter that it was very hard for me to find outlets to release energy.    I was overly stimulated 24 hours a day.   They would let me out in the back yard from time to time and the neighbor dogs would be on the other side of the fence taunting me.    I couldn’t handle it.    I was going crazy inside I had to react or I would explode.   I began to bark and when there was no relief I would scream.    My foster home had dogs they loved.   Dogs who looked in their eyes and I felt the love all the way across the room where I watched.   Would I ever have this again?    My daughter and I were there so long.  I thought I was going to die of a broken heart and broken spirit while this anxiety took me over.    My daughter was more resilient.    We were from similar roots and environment but she was weathering this storm better.    It was so hard when I lashed out at her.   Everything and anything made me react badly.    Eventually we were transported on a long journey to another Foster home.   I was hoping against all hope that there would be a set of eyes for me to focus on.    I needed relief so bad.    I felt the love in the new home.   I smelled good smells and there were other dogs more like my daughter and I.   There was a feeling of hope and promise there.   I was still struggling.    I could not shake the demons that were inside me.   I was not making the one on one connection I was longing for.    I was being labeled as a very annoying troublesome dog.   I would hear things like “I know why the previous foster wanted her gone, she disrupts the entire household”.     No one knew I was sad and heartbroken and everything had me so over stimulated that I was beginning to lose myself.   I was beginning to forget my past and who I really was.   I wanted to be free and hoped every day for a chance to run away.   If I could run fast enough I could leave this world behind and find my human who left me.   My foster was getting better and better at keeping me confined which was not helping the feeling that I wanted to explode.   My head was hurting all the time.    Now I sit here in the crazy moment with no relief and losing my mind.   This is no fault of the humans who have tried to help.   This is because I am a dog and I cannot tell you my plight.   This is because many dogs move thru the system seemingly very well with minimum effort.    It has been many months since I lost the safety and security of my old home.   I am emotionally unwell and I need help to get past it.    Time does not heal that which ails me.    I need the bond and security that comes from looking into the eyes of a human who cares to heal my spirit.    My name is XXXXX and I am a senior and I am asking, no begging for someone to help me find my peace.   

© Ciera Reflections

To Skype or not to Skype, that is the question.

 So I was recently asked to Skype.  

I thought to myself I don't think I am set up to do that.  I knew my business workstation could not but I turned to my right and looked at the applications on my Mac and low and behold there is something called Facetime.   So I turned it on and there is a little window on my laptop watching me in real time and presenting me back to me.    So I said "eeuuuu that is awful".    It reminded me of the time I first heard my voice on a recording and was shocked only much worse.   I resisted the urge to turn it off and remove the application never to be opened again.  So I said to myself let me make this tiny window a bit bigger, that must be the problem, but alas, it was the same scary person looking at me that I did not recognize at all.   So after sitting and contemplating this phenomenon all the while watching this stranger in front of me that was actually me, I decided to try it on the big dog 27” Mac Thunderbolt with the best resolution and real life colors blah blah blah screen, because obviously if it is scary on the laptop, well, making myself bigger is bound to turn me into a movie star!   Right?   Well think again…..

So I sat back and had to think about this whole concept.   Is this where we are headed?   Is this part of the one world, no borders concept I keep hearing about?  Is this the next step that will remove more of the touch and feel and fresh air of relationships but in doing so bring us closer to other countries thousands of miles away from the safety of our own reclusive office?   Is it possible to be close and yet so far?  Yes, I do realize that FB and email and other networks have already brought us close but this is pretty big step. The beautifully sexy eloquent woman who is really a pot bellied, beer drinking, farting, middle aged man will become so passé.   

We as in My Company, used to do business on the phone and fax.  We entered our orders on dos workstations and still did a lot of our accounting manually.   This was a good way to me because I gave good phone and I knew numbers.    I could always make friends and make sales while I was at it and I knew the company finances because it was all in my head.   I remember well when our biggest clients started to send faxes and we were to respond back via fax.   I thought to myself aahh, smart, the big corporate guys are trying to take the personal away so it will become all about cheapest price….   Ok, we are lean and mean, we can do that.   We could deflect any blow corporate America would send us right back at them.    We could quote cheap and buy cheaper because we were the best.   So this fax game worked well.     They then turned to email.   You would think email would be the very same thing as the fax, sell cheap, buy cheaper.   Well no, email enabled the buyers to add more and more vendors so they could make a few clicks and send a mass email to a private much larger group of vendors.   This invisible competition made the market stiffer and stiffer.    It became a contest of fastest and cheapest quotes.   So now not only did we have to be cheap we had to get to the buyers FAST.   This meant short lunches and no breaks.  The volume increased and the pressure to buy fast was on, as soon as a price point was met the purchase was made.   As usual we zigged and zagged thru the race like a Cheetah after its prey and consistently came out ahead.   Over the years many things have happened to make our business scary but interesting.   This is what happens when a scrappy little sales company is chasing business at the biggest high tech corporations.   Cell phones had a hand in ruining personal relationship because the reception was so bad, but it enabled us to work 24/7 which has its benefits in customer satisfaction.   Our buyers started working from home and then our buyers started working in other countries.   This was particularly upsetting because there went all of our great relationships to some strangers in Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, India and who knows where.  These people did not know how amazing we were or how to speak our language.   Now we are ruined….oh woe is us….  Much to my surprise and a bit of chagrin the foreign call centers were people just like us.   They had senses of humor and were also under pressure and stress just like us.   

I worked at a bank when I was young.   I dressed for success every single day.   I was in the heart of silicon valley.   My customers were today's high tech giants only they were young and scrappy in blue jeans working out of their garages.   Yes, Steven Jobs was a customer among many others.    For the last 30 years tho I have been removed from customer face to face and have been able to wear jeans and a pony tail to work.   I could even smoke a joint which I did while my mind was sharp enough to handle removing a bit of the edge.   Today never,   I do not have enough of an edge left to get high and be productive.  Since I have a home office I can work on my laptop from bed, or at my desk in my pajamas. I could walk off and make breakfast while checking back and forth for business. I can see that this Skype thing is eventually going to set me back 35 years to the days of banking when I had to be presentable.   I am going to totally miss my whole work from home in my pajamas, messy hair, no makeup, I think I will go make some toast, routine. 

So I have decided to leave it on, Facetime that is, in all its glory, or rather my 55 year old morning, glory and see if there is ever a side of me that is presentable for the big screen.  So far it is a work in progress.

Today at work we do conferences and screen shares with teams around the world.   I am getting used to that and it is helping to bring us closer to the people we do business with daily and if you are in sales that is always a good thing.     We are going to come full circle back to the days of face to face with customers and I guess I need to be ready.    When will we/I need to Skype for business?  I know many of you already do.   I have always loved being amazing in business behind the safety of my computer.   Now it may be time to come out and I can thank Bri Gitte my new FB friend for gently giving me that shove.  I am not sure if I am happy about that or not.   

Epilogue: I no longer give good phone, in fact I never use the phone and if I do it is poor reception and I have become a bit bitchy in my old age and I cant keep that out of my phone voice,  Also, I no longer know numbers because I have not had to know them for a long time.  I just push buttons and the answer is there.   If it wasn't for dog shows I would never wear a dress or suit.   Make up?  What is that?  I am rusty and out of practice.   I would like to kick back and coast or better yet retire but I suspect I will continue to be pushed on by the machine being steered by Lady Luck.   Thank goodness she has been with me and hoping she continues to want to hang out.  

©Ciera Reflections

Lost Chop

Thursday night was like any other night except my mom who lives with me was out at a training session with her dog.    She doesnt usually come home till about 830pm.    So around 720pm I let Daphne and Chopper out to do their last potty and go for a short walk.   Chopper went running down the stairs as we both saw car lights entering the driveway.   Oh my god I thought she is home early, this does not bode well for us.  Chop immediately thought to himself "lights do not belong here at this hour" so he started to become aroused and ran to a better vantage point growling and barking.    I quickly hustled Daphne back in the house and ran down calling Chop back to me.    Meanwhile the gate is opening and the car is coming up and Chopper is getting more agitated.   He starts to run down and greet the car but came back to me as I shouted for him but ran right by me so he could meet the car in the driveway, and meet the car he did right at the precipice where the car starts to level out after going up.   This precipice is also a blind spot for drivers.   It was here that he was sucked right under the car and out the back and raced down the hill barking like mad and straight into the darkness.    I started screaming his name as he faded out of sight.   There was only two ways he could go and one was under the fence that crosses the creek and off the property or curve around and be somewhere on the property.    I was worried because the creek is low right now and easy for him to leave. 

 I raced back to the house to get my flashlight, jump in the mule and started driving all around the property looking for him and calling him.    I called Yanni to come over asap and bring a flashlight.     By the time he got there I had felt that Chop was no longer on the property.    The creek section is the only real place the dogs can get out and it is hard to keep closed up due to the water levels and debris that comes thru in winter.  Normally the dogs don’t care about it but apparently an adrenaline inspired LS was drawn straight to it.    So we headed out beyond the property to search and knock on doors.    How far could he go, how long does the adrenaline burst last, was he hurt, are the coyotes in the neighborhood now, were all questions in my head which was causing me to freak out more.   It was also raining.    We searched until about 11pm to no avail.    Yanni went home because he had dogs to care for in the morning.   He promised to be back at dawn to keep looking.  

I didn’t sleep a wink and kept going to the door see if Chop had come home and if not I would holler for him.   He was not coming home, I knew that.   I also knew that injured dogs might go and hide and sleep it off.   So I figured there was a chance we would not find him until he roused and started to wander.    I hoped he wasn’t so far away that he could not find his way home.   I hoped he was not curled up in a ball dying.   I kept thinking to myself how I would get so mad at him for being an LS, how many times he has been a bad boy but I also remembered how proud I have been and that he is my sunshine.    We were so bonded to each other and I was going to be crushed if something happened to him.  Morning came none to quick and Yanni was here ready to start the search again.   I started making flyers and hanging them up.    I was convinced that someone was going to find him and call me or take him to the shelter or a vet.  I faxed all the vets my flyer.   I posted more flyers around my area.    I contacted both shelters and the Sheriff and Animal Control.   My sister ran the FB campaign.   She had every Nevada County group alerted.   I actually got a call from a woman who told me her story with a happy ending.   The hours passed, Yanni kept searching, the rain kept falling, my partner Ron was also on his ATV and searching the area.    I was alternating between searching and working and being a command center of sorts.   

My company Christmas party was this evening.    Yanni said I should go to take my mind off of it.    I think he meant for himself too.   So far I had not cried.   I was careful to not talk to anyone who was not directly involved in the search about this.    I did not want sympathy I wanted my dog.   I did not want to hear “I am so sorry” because that meant it was over.    I did not want it to be over.   So we went to the party.     A sat across from Yanni because I did not want anyone else to see my dark circles and morose countenance.    That may have backfired on me as every time I looked in his eyes the tears started to come.   We were both in the same place.   He was as heart broken as I was.   He was as sleep deprived as I was.   In spite of everything the evening was very nice which is hard to imagine as I spent so much time choking back tears while sipping champagne.   Yanni who never drinks was even drinking.    I am not sure that alcohol helps, as it seems to magnify emotions.   It was finally time to leave so we headed back home and Yanni again left to take care of dogs in the morning.   I went to bed for another almost sleepiness night.   

This morning I woke up feeling a dread that no one should ever feel.    I feared the worst.   I started crying and the phone rang and it was Yanni telling me he was on his way.   Ron called me too to tell me that Big John’s dog was hit by a car and hid in the neighbor’s barn for 2 days until the found her.   I decided it was time to let a couple other people in to my grief.   I wrote to Jason and I wrote to Lynn.   Jason because he is my dog family and Lynn because she is the great and powerful Lynn, at least, to me she is.  Lynn called me immediately and asked if she can come over and help.   I felt so bad for wanting help and so relieved that she offered, I said yes please.    This was not a time for my usual “I can do it” attitude.    About now I felt a genuine rush of hope coming back to me.    I decided to re-vamp the flyer and post more of them and also knock on doors and give them to people.   I offered a $500 cash reward to anyone finding my boy in their barn or under their house or anywhere.    I came outside and the sun was shining.   This was a good sign.  I posted more flyers and talked to a few more neighbors.   As I was posting flyers on the road neighbors were stopping to talk to me.    I heard another story about a small dog that was hit and hid under the furniture in the house for 2 days before she would come out.    I passed the flyer to people who were driving by asking them to search under their houses and outbuildings.   Someone told me a blind Springer Spaniel was also missing and to be on the lookout.     Another car stopped and a woman got out and said “Lorelei” and I nodded.   She said “I’m Denise, do you remember me?”.   Oh I did remember, she was my PT from about 15 years ago when I had back surgery.   We reminisced for a few minutes and then she told me about her missing blind Springer.   She and her neighbors were looking up the road.   We both agreed to keep an eye out for both dogs.  So now we had 2 groups looking for 2 dogs, this was good.   Right about now Lynn was driving up with Dave who was also willing to help.     We drove back to my house so she could park.   

She got out of her car and started asking questions about the whats and wheres and whens of the events that had transpired.    She went back for her phone and called a psychic.     This was a real psychic who has actually helped in a recent case of a missing child.    Lynn gave her my name and Chopper and the psychic went to work over the phone.   She said it is a park like setting, there is a creek and homes and some culverts.   She said he got out by the creek and was around the homes for a while but then he was one the move.   She said he was alive but hurt.   The information gave me more hope.   Lynn and I started to search the neighbor’s properties that are in the path that we thought most likely that Chopper went.   One woman came out to tell how the coyotes were out on Thursday night.   Oh that was nice of her.   About now, Yanni came back from searching and started to scold us for searching areas he had already combed over.   He said Chopper is not here or there or there.   He explained that we need a plan and we need to stop overlapping.    Lynn suggested I get another dog to come with us, not so much as one to search but because if Chopper was scared he would be more likely to come out for one of his buddies.    I opted to bring the Schipperke.   So back to the house I went and rounded up the Schipp to put him on a long line.   He was none to happy about this as he is used to beating to his own drum.  I came back to hear Yanni finalizing his plans for us.   I wanted to tell him that no, Chop could not possibly be there and that I wanted to search over here but Lynn touched my arm and told me let’s do his plan and then we can do our plan.  Yanni then decided to tell me the coyotes had got the other neighbors cat on Thursday night.   Yanni and Dave got in the mule and went down to the left and we gathered up Bodie and got in the car and went to the right.   

We had specific instructions to search the 3 houses to the right which covered about 20 acres.    These 3 house were directly to the left of my house about 70 acres away as the crow flies.   We drove to the first house where there were 3 Goldens make a ton of noise barking and growling.  We figured there was no way Chop would be there so we walked to the next house.    A red Border Collie came running out to bark and growl along the fence line as Lynn and I walked with a reluctant and sullen Bodie following.    So we kept walking to the 3rd house.   Here at least the dogs were confined.    I handed the leash to Lynn and walked in shouting “hello”.    The resident came out and I gave him a flyer and asked him to please check all his outbuildings and told him I have 500$ cash for whoever finds Choppy.   I walked back to Lynn and we felt we had done our duty and fulfilled our end of the bargain, which was to check out the 3 houses to the right when my phone rang.   It was Denise and she said Lorelei we saw your dog.   He is running down Angie Court and on to Long Valley Rd.    I turned around to head back to the car and as we approached the car I saw a black dog.   I said Lynn that’s him.   My eyes are not so good but how many other black dogs his size would be running toward us, sort of.    He was acting erratic and did a zig toward the Goldens and then zagged away.   The Goldens started barking and freaking out.    I started calling him and running toward him.   That was all it took.   He turned and ran the other way.   But, there he was.   We saw him.   He was not in a ditch.   He was not in someone’s barn dying alone.   He was alive and vibrant and running, albeit away from us. The crazy Goldens were now between us and the direction that Choppy went.    Lynn and I turned to each other and both said “damn, Yanni was right” and sort of laughed, it figures.    I called Yanni to let him know that we had sighted Chop and lost him but we were on his trail.    So Yanni and Dave stopped searching and headed back our way. 

I was finally able to rouse the residents in the house.  Between the dogs barking and us calling Chopper I wonder why it took so long.    The lady came out and said they are harmless and I said umm ok but can you lock them up anyway and may we walk thru your property?   She obliged and we walked in the direction that Chop ran but could not see any sign of him but with each footstep we were walking closer and closer to my house.    I was thinking this is good he may be able to find his way home.    I had also hoped that hearing my voice and seeing Bodie he may be waking out of the fear that was obviously still in him.  We walked until we got to a road.   One way led up to the log cabin directly behind my house and the other way went up a hill to one of my neighbors.   I pulled out my phone to take a look and there was a missed call from my mother.  I checked the message and it said “where are you where are you there is a little black dog with a beautiful collar at the door and I let him in”.   

Now it was my turn for the rush of adrenaline.    Yanni and Dave were just pulling onto the Golden’s property and driving toward us.   I told him the good news.   Lynn discovered her phone was missing.   She told me to go to my dog and they would look for the phone.   I gave my car keys to Yanni and Bodie and I jumped into the mule to head home.     As I drove up the driveway my mom was driving out of the gate with Choppy as co-pilot.   Boy was he a sight.    She turned around and we headed up to the house and Chop and I laughed and hugged and kissed each other.   Amazingly he appeared to be none worse for the wear.    

Lynn and Dave and Yanni arrived with Lynn’s phone and they all hugged and kissed Chop.   Yanni asked Chop if he wanted to come live with him.   We felt Chop all over and he had a few scrapes and some heat spots and swollen areas but did not appear to be hurt.    Lynn helped me by making an appointment for him to be xrayed at 4 pm.   His xrays checked out and in other news he has beautiful hip sockets.   (yay!)   The vet game me some anti-inflammatory and amoxicillin and sent us home.  Choppy is now snoring in the big crate.   I hope he wants to sleep in tomorrow.   I can use the extra sleep.  

 One lesson I learned is that no matter what never give up hope, it is hope that gives one the energy to keep going.   To me we found Chop due to many circumstances all coming together properly.    No one thing did it, all things made it happen.   From the blind Springer getting lost, to Bodie being a lure to Yanni insisting we search the 3 houses to the right.   Lynn brought renewed hope to me and Dave was able to drive with Yanni to the left.    We all called and called for him which may have roused him into running toward familiar voices even tho he was still scared.   

All in all this was Choppy’s craziest LS stunt ever.     I hope this is the worst because I am not sure how much more adventure I can handle.