Cruelties of nature

It felt good to sleep in after a week of 0400 reveilles.  I didn't even get up till 8am to make coffee.  The dogs didn't balk.  I had plenty to do in the kitchen alone.  My plan was to take the dogs down to the river later in the afternoon, after taking Zeke and Minnie to a local vaccine clinic at Jem's Feed off Moson Avenue nearby.  I usually take the dogs into town at the Tractor Supply Company when they hold the twice-monthly vaccine clinics on Sundays.  This feed store is locally owned and very popular with the neighborhood.  There were even chairs for people to sit in!  Dr Moffutt was doing the exams.  She's one of my favorite veterinarians at the Sierra Animal Hospital.  The only thing I didn't like was the rabies vaccine was done on carbon paper (that's so 20th century!)

 Susan ended up joining me for a short 1.8-mile stroll north of the Hereford bridge at 5pm.

The unmarked trail here is very obvious for the first mile.  Then the river bends sharply to the west and the flora becomes dense.  This is where we turn around, as Susan doesn't like bushwhacking through the tall grass.

Today we walked on the east shore, then crossed over to the west shore when we saw cattle grazing nearby.  We are lucky we did, as two angry bulls came running toward the river, but then turned around to rejoin their herd.  We spotted a dead baby Great Horned Owl and later a broken egg on the trail.

 

We met a couple from Bisbee walking the trail as we were heading back to our cars.  We seldom see people here walking to look at birds, but apparently they also walk the river quite often, just to get away from townlife.

Today's river walk was short and sweet.  To make up for the short mileage, I went out again at 11pm with Zeke for another 2.6 miles around the neighborhood.  (I totally forgot about the full moon rising earlier.) I was a block away when I heard something in the road make a sound.  What was it?  I couldn't tell because it was in a deep shadow.  I had to use my flashlight app to shine on it.  It was a little sparrow.  What was it doing out at night in the middle of the road?  It tried to fly off, but it let me capture it.  I took it home, placed it in a hamster cage I keep for such emergencies, and continued my walk.  It wasn't until later that I noticed its injured eyes.