Natual Phenomena Part 2

Lance is back


The annual Tour of the Gila runs next weekend. Last year, cyclist force-of-nature-Lance Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer and their team came in at the last minute, adding a little more glitz, a little more hype and a lot more people to the scene.

Who would’a thought he’d come back. His reason last year was to get back in shape from an injury before a big race in Italy. Not sure why he’s coming this year; the Sun News article, linked above, says he withdrew from a race in France and is preparing for races in California and the great one, the Tour de France. I’d rather believe that he and the team enjoyed the challenging courses, including the 9,000 elevation change (updownupupdownupppp) that was the course on the final day, ending in Pinos Altos. Not to mention the friendly people who were both thrilled to host the tour including Lance and Levi, and low key about having world-famous athletes hanging around the bike and the coffee shops!

Snow and coyotes

Did I mention yesterday’s blizzard in Part 1? Woke up this morning to 30 temp and more snow. Light, just a mist of snow, but snow all the same. A little after dawn, just as I was settling in to work, I looked out my office window to see a coyote slipping across the yard. Very exciting—first one we’ve seen here. Of course, we know they are around, as well as gray fox. We see their scat on a regular basis now, and occasionally hear the coyote neighbors calling each other around the hills of the neighborhood.

I went out to walk Nutmeg and could hardly get her past the trail. She hung back, her nose twitching furiously. At least I assumed it was the coyote’s trail. About half way around the block the Grant County Animal Control truck, with a big cage in the back, passed me, driving slowly. I thought to myself, “how dare they. Someone has reported that coyote and called out Animal Control. That’s pitiful. People let their dogs run loose (I don’t think I wrote about the local pit bull that got out of its yard a month ago and tried to attack Nutmeg when I was walking her; I yelled and growled at it, and it retreated enough until its owner came for it) but they’ll call the “cops” on a coyote…” and so my thoughts ran, getting me fair riled up! Until I turned on my street and there sat the Animal Control truck and the man out talking to a neighbor. So I walked over (felt like ‘marching’ but decided to ask rather than tell) and asked him what was up. Turns out, after all my building righteousness, he was after a big black dog that runs the neighborhood and killed another neighbor’s little dog this morning. Neighbors have reported this big black animal before but it has never been reported as hurting another dog. Now the Animal Control needs to capture it and take it in and so was looking for a good place to set the cage-trap. So possibly, it was the dog’s trail or the scent of his victim, that had Nutmeg twitching. Well, I sure hope he catches that dog. And I sure hope he doesn’t catch himself a little neighborhood coyote by mistake. Or if he does, he figuratively pats it on the head and lets it go.

The continuing dilemma of deer

The Sun News also reported on the most current thinking about the deer overpopulation. Apparently, the Game and Fish folks are thinking of trapping and relocating deer. They’ll be using nets to capture the animals. If you read the article linked above, you’ll note that they’re hoping that by reducing the deer numbers in this populated area, they’ll also reduce the predators that come in search of a meal. Note especially in the article that our present neighborhood, Indian Hills is specifically mentioned. Just in case you thought maybe I was buying into urban legends and imagining things :^)