Encounter in the Desert...

I remember, back in the day when Tanya decided to get her first dog.  We had just moved into a one bedroom apartment, and it was one of those 'make-or-break' moments that define a relationship.  I told her straight up and down, 'Tanya, there's no fucking way are you getting a dog', giving the limited space we had in our apartment.  And what did she do?  Of course, she got a dog.  She wanted one, and Tanya usually gets what she wants, so it was me or the dog.  It wasn't a big decision for her when she came home with Cosmo.  And me, well at the time I was dispensable, but that crossroads was a big one in our life.  Tanya got sick with severe colitis very soon after, and Cozmo became my sole responsibility, my first dog.  I would never leave this family.  But there was something wrong with Cozmo.  Was it him, or was it me?  In time I came to realize it was him, and we spent a lot of awkward times together to try and figure it all out.  It was both of us, really.  Damaged souls.  Ol' Coz left us last year and was very lively and happy til the day we made that difficult decision to let him go.  His body just could not keep up to his insane crazy-Cozmo mindset and he was beginning to  hurt himself doing the things he used to be able to do naturally.  At 13, it was time for our family to move on and we made the natural decision to let him go.  I can say though, that since my first defiant stance against it, Tanya proved so right in this, that we should always have dogs and I believe we always will from here on out.


We moved to Vegas with Zuma, the 9.5Lb black and white Pomeranian and Clancy, the red dog, a Shepherd/Collie mix.  It was a whole new world for all of us, into a two bedroom apartment on a ground floor.  We were used to the house and the backyard where the boys could run free.  But the new reality is so much more restrained.  No more running free (well, sometimes), and no more patrolling in the house to loudly announce what is going on outside.  I have become the Window-Nazi, checking each and every hint of anxiety before it becomes a full blown, barking alarm.  Crate training has become absolutely necessary when we're gone, and they have relented to that.  I get them out four times a day at least, two of those are walking walks for exercise.  And at least every second day I take them out on an adventure to let them run free to get their energy out.

Last week, I took them out on one of these adventures.  Zuma has become wary of my adventures now.  He lulls around a bit when we get outside.  He WANTS to go outside, he just doesn't entirely trust where that will take him.  Hell, I don't usually know where that will take him.  And on this day, we would cross lands unknown to all of us.  Y'see, I like to explore.  I like to get a feel and a taste for the land, what kind of ground it is, what kind of rocks, what kind of foliage, how dense is it, what kind of animals live here.  All these questions.  I feel its an activity we should do as a pack, so I always bring the dogs with me whenever I'm exploring.  Vegas and its surrounding area is vast with unexplored territory, and this is why I am writing this blog.  To entertain YOU, of course, but to mark it in my own journal as well.  The landscape here is strewn with with millions of particles of a black volcanic rock of all sizes, kinda like Aero bars filled with bubbles.  And then there are the sandstone rocks which once composed the ocean's bed.  All these things I need to know about, and so I must explore in depth.

We were aimed for Vivaldi Park, which has trails that run alongside the Executive Airport.  We'd been there before so I knew it was a good place to let the dogs go and watch some cool airplanes take off and land.  But we missed the park by a long shot and ended up driving along the Volunteer's Highway, to a wide expanse of undeveloped desert which had already been earmarked for development with paved roads and cul-de-sacs already in place.  I thought this was a good place for us to get out and explore the desert off leash, so we parked the rented KIA Soul and away we went.  I realized quite quickly the ground wasn't too dog friendly.  First off, the amount of broken glass is astounding.  Contraire to the old way of thinking, the desert does not pick up after you and whisk away broken bottles.  Secondly, there were thousands of tiny little golf-ball sized cactuses rising from the dirt everywhere.  The dogs didn't seem too affected, but I had to get them out of there and decided to stick to the pavement to view the landscape from its defined edges.  We ended up in a dead-end cul-de-sac where there was a bunch of dumped garbage, not the eating kind, but rusting bedframes and metal and plastic and stuff.  I was marveling at the amount of plastic garbage stuck to the underbrush all around when suddenly, my eye was caught off guard by movement just above the landscape.  I noticed a dog... a coyote, completely still, and watching us not 20yrds away.  My mind snapped and when I focused in on his frame my eye caught three more, then five.  They were spread out from left to right across the landscape in front of us ranging about 30-40yrds away.  A chill went up my spine and I grabbed a rock and called to the boys to come, let's go!  They knew that they'd been spotted and started moving away but kept they're eyes turned back on us as we moved out of their area back to the car, which wasn't far off.  Once our pack was safe, I turned the car around and saw that two of the coyotes were now on the road where we had just been and were coming our way, following our tracks.  I drove into them slowly to get a closer look and they made their way off, one to the left and one to the right.  The one on the right didn't go far off the road and we were able to drive right up beside him, maybe 30feet away from us.  What a beautiful animal, perfectly camoflauged against the grey desertscape, a svelt body, a big bushy tail tucked into his hind legs and slitted eyes, watching us.  He was Clancy-sized, but a killer not a domesticanine.  The boys hadn't even seen him yet, so I pointed him out to them, and then they started barking.  Zuma warned me and Clancy was super excited to see another dog.  The coyote was unaffected by their dog language and slipped away into the desertscape. 

The threats of the desert.  Water is the big one.  I've learned very quickly to have lots of water for all companions, dogs and humans alike.  The sun alone will kill you if you are not prepared.  And the wildlife.  All this time, I'd been watching for the things on the ground that could hurt the dogs, it never occured to me that there would be packs of wild dogs within city limits that would be dangerous.  Or, as I learned this past weekend, there are plenty of predators in the sky that could easily pick up a pomeranian and be gone!  This is the desert.  Eat or be eaten.  Protect your pack!