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DH took his dog, Ritzie, to camp in the LT Murray Wilderness area in the mountains south of Thorpe, WA while he participated in Field Day 2013 this weekend. They were supposed to return today. I received a call from that area's repeater station operator around 9:50 AM to tell me DH was on the radio and had a message for me: "He'd lost Ritzie this morning and had been looking for her but could not find her." I quickly set up a place to meet him so we could return and look for her together. It took me just over an hour to get there, and another half hour for us to reach his campsite. I took Bigun in hopes that he might catch the scent of whatever might've drawn her away. We started following his nose.
As he led us away from the camp, DH was telling me how Ritz never went more than ten yards from the tent all day yesterday, except for the time they both went out for a walk, so he did not think anything of putting her out to relieve herself this morning. As I listened and we searched, I noticed fresh cat scat -- very large cat, and very fresh.
We followed Bigun's nose beyond any distance Ritz could make on her own, and I came across more scat, some older. I became very nervous about scouting further out. We circled back, taking different routes. More sign. She'd been wearing her red coat, so we felt certain we would see her, but there was no red anywhere. DH seemed to think if we just kept looking we would have to find her, but it had already been seven hours, by the time we searched another three. She was gone, and with that much sign in the area there was no way she went that distance without help.
My poor DH is feeling so awful and there is nothing I can do to help take away this pain. He is a city guy, and I don't think it has ever truly hit him before now that wilderness areas are not just pretty. He knows now, but our poor Ritzie pays the price.
In memory of Ritzie
I missed this...I'm so sorry! I hope in the past few weeks you and your husband have been healing.
DH and I kayaked the southeast end of Lake Sammamish yesterday morning and saw one heron in flight, a perched mature bald eagle, four flying bald eagles, and one immature bald eagles. Fish don't have a chance over there!
Yikes, I almost hit a bald eagle with my car today! Or actually, it almost hit me.
Was driving up to Ely on the forest road, and saw the eagle perched on and eating a dead deer by the side of the road. It started flying up just as I was driving by, and we missed each other by inches.
OMG, would I have been arrested?
There seem to be a lot of bald eagles in my area (NE MN) - they're often seen eating deer (or whatever) that have been recently hit by cars. Makes me feel guilty to drive a car at all - if I have to go that route I try to drive midday when most other species aren't wandering around near the roads.
Kind of gross, though - our National Symbol is a carrion eater. Maybe that itself symbolizes something . . . ?
When I was going out to my car this morning, there was chatter in the big tree across the street. I walked over to it and looked up, but there are so many leaves all I could see was one little critter chasing another, lickety-split.
They were running up and down the tree and jumping from one branch to another so fast that I couldn't focus on them. I had to stand there for a couple minutes to determine that they weren't chipmunks like I originally thought. They were little baby squirrels. Cute as could be - squeaking and making noise. One even fell out of the tree, but got up, shook off and continued the chase.
It brought back good memories of the squirrels (and feeding them) on the back patio of the last apartment.
Found a lovely butterfly this morning laying in the grass unable to fly any longer... it's poor wings tattered. Made me feel so sad. I placed it on some blooming flowers; maybe it will remember a sunny Spring day, when it could flit around feeding on nectar
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Never heard of squid attacking a diver before. 
