Mountain lion along the San Pedro river (no photos)

I'm in love with my pups.  I just want to stay home all day and watch them.  They sleep a lot and they sleep with the big dogs who all seem to have gotten used to them, but the one dog that seems to encourage play (as long as they don't nip at her face) is Minnie.  When I'm in the garden and the pups are awake, both like to follow me in the backyard.

Hans is growing big and Gretel seems to remain a runt. Her legs are not as long as Hansi's. Hans is easily a third bigger than Gretel. They are inseparable.  Hans goes where Gretel is., but Gretel seems quite content being by herself.

My day began with a quick sunrise (5:36am) walk with the dogs.  The stock pond is quickly drying up, but I sat there for a good 20 minutes to allow Minnie to swim around.  The shore is now down four feet and the big boulders in the center of the pond are now above the water's surface.

I spent the day getting a tire on my car, only to discover I was missing the special wheel lock unique to that tire size by Honda.  I had to go to a special auto shop in town to get the wheel put on with standard lug nuts.

And then I wanted a second walk with the dogs along the river.  Susan joined me and we agreed to just go slowly for a mile. We met at 5pm. We waded in the water, throwing stick for Minnie, when, near the cow mandible which is still embedded in the mud, we clearly saw a mountain lion hop over a debris pile to get across the water, with a second smaller cat behind it.  I instinctively grabbed Susan's backpack to hold her back.  Oh shit, a mountain lion! We both saw it and saw its distinctive rounded tail end and lean, sable-colored body. Sweetie saw the lion and took off in a chase, causing me to scream for her and then Zeke to come back.  Zeke did come back.  The lion ran up a tree and Sweetie tried to go after it.  Here is where Sweetie decided it wasn't worth it and came back to me.  Sadie and Minnie never got into the action.

We were both dumbstruck.  So after all these years living here, we have finally seen a lion in the area. It was too fast for me to get a photo of it.  We think it was a mother and a juvenile who were eating a kill, but we didn't stick around to investigate.  Susan was so excited to have seen a lion that she called her daughters right away.  One lives on Long Island, the other in Los Angeles.  I was just trying to get my heart beat back to normal.  We returned back the way we came, along the river, the dogs totally oblivious to the potential danger, and continued to enjoy the water.  We stopped at the Casa to talk to Annette, the birder here from California staying here for a week.  She got excited about the news.  Susan and I agreed that telling everyone where we saw the big cat will cause hunters to want to come out and shot the animal, so we're staying quiet.

It was a near record high today and I'm sure the big cats were thirsty.  I'm going to be a bit more cautious moving forward walking so late in the day anywhere.  I enjoy the cool shade in the late afternoon with the dogs by the river, but getting torn to shreds by a hungry cat is not how I want to leave this world.

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