An entirely hypothetical blog post.

Imagine you went for a walk in the woods with your dogs.  We're talking  a hypothetical walk with a couple of hypothetical dogs named ...saayyy (ummmm) Windy and Troy.

You (hypothetically) noticed on your lovely, snowy walk that someone else had walked along the same trail.

You were curious as their tracks kept stopping and veering briefly to one side or another.

Then, with a hypothetical gasp, you realized what the track-maker was up to.

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Perhaps you should scroll back up and have a closer look at the first two photos again, and see if you can figure it out too.  I'll wait here.  You go look now.

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Ahhh good, you're back.  

Did you see it: dead centre in each photo ?

Did you figure out what the nature-lover was up to ?

Here's a closer view.

A snare.

Clever way to garrote those pesky bunnies.

Setting snares for Snowshoe Hares is quite legal here in Nova Scotia: the offence would be if you damaged, destroyed or messed with someone's snares. 

So ... hypothetically speaking, what would YOU do if you came across eight or nine such things while out walking in your quiet wood ?

  

Sooki -- the day after the night before.

Sooki thanks you for all your good wishes.

She wants you to know that she is feeling mildly "stoned" (her words not mine).

She says that though her face and paws do hurt today, she knows she'll feel better tomorrow.

In fact, she believes that by the weekend she should be up to a re-match !

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Sybil here:

I have told Sooki there will be no re-match if I have anything to say about it. 

While in her fevered mind she is scheming to ensure that her next kill will have a different outcome, she fails to realize that ALL Porcupines have quills.  

I told her that the woods are the Porcupine's home and we shouldn't be going into their homes and killing them. 

We have agreed to disagree on this matter.

A post with a viewer warning.

Before the blizzard blew in today, I thought I'd take Wendy, Trey and Sooki into the woods to flag some of the new trails that I'd explored yesterday.

Though it was already windy and snow was falling, it was lovely and calm deep in the snow-covered woods.

It was very overcast so I had brought my compass.  "How are those two things connected?", you ask.
In the winter the sun low in the sky passes behind my house, so by heading toward it, I can find my way out. Without the sun as my guide, I could get lost, or as I like to say "get temporarily mislaid".

Once in the woods, Wendy and Trey love chasing and looking for the ball.  Doesn't matter where it goes, I can always count on Trey's terrific nose to sniff it out.

Sooki has no interest in balls.  She revels in tearing around in an apparent random fashion her nose to the ground, the bell on her collar tinkling gently, always letting me know where she is.

We'd been walking and ball-tossing, and tying ribbons on trees for a while, before I realized I could no longer hear that tinkling bell.

I stopped and called her.

Sooki is a good girl and always comes when called, and when she didn't, and I still could not hear her bell I got worried.  When I stopped I heard a small "squeak" that seemed to emanate from the rubbing tree trunks above me.  Then I heard it faintly again.  I looked up and saw nothing that might have created the noise.

After five minutes of pacing and calling, something caught my eye.  Not far away.  Maybe 50 feet off one side of the trail in the brush, the snow looked odd.

"Why would the snow be pink ?" I wondered vaguely.

Suddenly every fiber in my being reacted with a JOLT !  Beside the "pink" snow stood Sooki.  But Sooki wasn't pink.   She was RED and her face looked so BIG !   WTF ??

In a flash I realized what had happened: reached for Trey, and clipped on his leash.

Sooki was walking timidly toward me.  She hadn't been lost.  She hadn't been far away.  She had been nearby, quietly killing a porcupine !!!

The tiny squeak I had heard, must have been Sooki's coup de grace.

She hadn't even cried out in pain as hundreds of quills pierced her tongue, mouth, nose and chest as the poor unfortunate porcupine tried to defend itself.

Trey could not figure out why I was hanging onto him, and then as I leashed Sooki too, I hurriedly started heading out of the woods.  After I felt safe that Trey wasn't going to go after the carcass, I let him off his leash and concentrated on getting poor Sooki home.  Blood was foaming from her mouth and covering her legs and dripping onto my boots.  I was grateful that I didn't take too many wrong turns on our way out.  Sooki was now clearly in agony, and trying to rub her face along the snowy ground which turned pink in our wake.

Dear Wendy let me hold her collar, and she pulled me up the hill that leads out of the park as I gently tugged Sooki behind me.

Once finally home, I YELLED to Kait, "CALL THE VET -- WE HAVE AN EMERGENCY !".

Before you scroll down, let me tell you that Sooki is back home now and will be fine.

Are you ready ?

You sure ?

OK, you were warned.

Just a short walk ... or not.

Today dawned c-cold, but clear and bright.  The dogs and I hadn't had a decent walk in days, so I bundled up and took them for a short walk in "my" woods.

At first I followed my own marked trail, but when I reached its end, I wandered on, skirting dead-falls and jumping over semi frozen puddles.  My rather vague plan was to see how far I could get into the woods in the hopes of locating any cross-trails.

Our explorations were not along human-made trails.  At best they were critter-trails and at worst, they were not trails but semi-frozen water courses.

Suddenly I came across someone's long-abandoned campsite: complete with tent, sleeping bag and a generous supply of empty beer cans !

I knew the campers could not have carried their gear through the tangled bush along the route that I had just taken, and that meant that they must have come from the other direction.  Woot !  And there it was: their marked trail.

So we followed it, and it lead to another, more established ATV trail.

Though I hadn't brought a compass, I knew that the low sun indicated the direction of home, so I didn't feel lost, even though I didn't know exactly where I was.

After walking for a while, a vague disused trail veered off to our right, and we took it.

(Yes Trey, I DO know where I'm going ... sorta.)

As we followed it, that trail became more clear.  Some trees had been cleared out of the way and boot prints in the snow told me that I wasn't the only one who hiked in this area.

And apparently at one point someone had set up a sweet little camp set up in these woods.

That trail opened up and I followed it until it lead back and actually crossed one of my other marked trails.

At that point Wendy took over as if to say: "Don't worry, I can take it from here.".

How cold was it ?

In Nova Scotia the average daytime high temperature during January and February, is just below freezing: minus 1 or 2 Celsius, or 30 Fahrenheit.   I'm OK with temperatures like that.  Sadly, winter has barely begun and is already far far from "average".   Like many places, we have had more snow than usual, and now the temperatures have turned bitter cold.

With temperatures of minus 15C, with a wind chill of MINUS FREAKIN' 25 C,  I am sorely tempted to  remain in bed until this frigid spell passes.  

The only problem with that plan is ...

Wendy, (Kait's dog) Sooki, and Trey.  Oh and Clara the cat.

the three dogs that have their hearts set on a romp in the woods.

And so preparations need to be made.

On the bottom half long johns, jeans, rain pants ....

On the top half, T-shirt, long-sleeved T-shirt, hoodie, winter jacket, ear muffs and scarf.

To round it all out I had warm socks, boots, gloves and water proof mitts.

I look a tad spent from the exertion of dressing, but nevertheless, we did have a marvellous time in the woods.

And "yes", it was worth it.