There are always two sides to every
story. Below is the way I saw the events
of what had happened while camping:
This year has been so busy and the
winter months seemed to have drug on into the middle of May. Thus, on Father’s Day weekend, the Mlinar
clan was finally able to go camping. Awww-the
beauty is something which feels as if it is the first time discovering the
various locations away from the hustle and bustle of city life. Now, I know some of my readers live in cities
that are the size of the entire State of Wyoming and then some, but for a
Wyoming girl, 63,000 people in one location is too many! So our camping trip was much needed to
re-energize the Mlinars’. While camping,
we decided to see if we could spot any moose near Lake Owen, which sets west of
beautiful Centennial, Wyoming. I’d love
to report we saw some but no. Instead,
we were able to observe a small family of foxes. They are rather cute little things. We were able to observe them interact with
one another for quite some time. They
were curious and even posed for me some.
The baby kits even took a time-out to play a little tag with one
another:
Ol’ little Stich is quite the
protector. While we were watching the
baby kits, he was going to show the invaders who the boss was. Apparently, he believes he is 9 foot tall with
an attitude equally as big. Not bad for
a guy that weighs possibly 3 ½ pounds-soaking wet! Soda on the other hand looked on, acting as
though there was nothing there.
Apparently, he carried this behavior on at our camp as well.
Saturday morning, I was up at around 5
A.M. because I was hoping to spy a moose down by the river by our camp. Plus, I thought I had heard something outside
our camper fall. I figured since I was
up and I could not see a moose walking in the willows that I’d take the dogs
out to go potty. Then, I planned on
slipping back into to bed until everyone else was up. Well, it sort of happened that way.
Soda and I walked outside the
camper. I had Stitch in my arms and put
him onto the ground. This grey thing
went running fast towards the direction of the creek. I thought for a moment it was a coyote
because it appeared to be similar in size.
None-the-less, it was gone.
Stitch and Soda didn’t even make a sound. I am not sure they even noticed it. I could have just been thinking I saw
something too-it was early. As Soda was
sniffing around the fire pit, Stitch and I was walking a bit away from
him. All of a sudden, I notice two
pointy ears pop up to the left of me.
Sort of made me nervous because I wasn’t sure what it was or if it would
attack. We were camping in the
forest. I attempted to throw a few
sticks in the direction of the animal to scare it off. Though, it didn’t budge…I turned looked at
Soda, who was still sniffing around the fire pit, and Stitch was searching for
a magical spot to conduct his b’sness.
Dang dogs weren’t even noticing or paying attention to what I was
seeing.
After attempting to scare it off the
second time with no luck, I decided I should return to the camper with both
dogs. I would have hated to explain to
our kids what had happened to the dogs that morning. Plus, I was a bit tired. So, to the camper I went, but I decided to
grab a pillow and a blanket to lie on the couch. With any luck, I may be able to see a moose
down by the river after a quick morning nap.
Suddenly, I woke for no apparent reason.
The camper still remained quiet. I popped my head up to see if a moose was by
the river yet. To my dismay, I again
spotted what I thought was a coyote rummaging through the fire pit….oh wow-that
was no coyote, it was a fox-a big male fox.
I have never seen a fox that big before or that color.
I looked at Soda, who
was fast asleep-still, and Stitch, who was also fast asleep. These dang dogs-a wild animal not more than
50 yards or less from the camper making noise in the fire pit and neither one
were moving. I sprung from the couch and
tapped Jimmie on the shoulder and pointed to the window. So cool!
He informed me the fox was molting and that is why I thought it was a
coyote at first. An opportunity like
this I did not hesitate to take a ton of pictures of him. However, sadly, as a result of failure to
notify us that there was something around our camper, I fired both Soda and
Stitch from being the family protectors.
This is Soda and this is the way it
REALLY occurred:
My name is Soda Gene and I was born
somewhere between Soda Lake, Wyoming and an area I found my human aka
Jimmie. Although, I think Jimmie is
somewhat deaf because I sat whining outside of the vehicle a good five minutes
before he realized the sound was NOT coming from his little brother, who also
occupied the area. Though, I will vouch
for Jimmie that he is a great guy. The
minute he opened the vehicle door that cold November afternoon, I knew I was
going to remain warm the rest of my life.
It was an added bonus to get Mlinarized.
Apparently, my ribs were protruding a bit when I arrived to join the
rest of the Mlinar clan in Cheyenne. Momma
Mlinar was not too impressed to be able to see my ribs. I will get to her though in a bit. At the moment, she is a little irritated with
me. Geesh, a dog can only do so much!
So there I was not even a year old and
my collar had grown into my neck. It was
quite painful and I had some difficulty breathing at times. I tried my best to get that thing off of me
but was unsuccessful. I have no idea
what happened to make me live for so long in the wild outdoors of Sublette
County but I am so thankful to my human, Jimmie. While I was living as a free and wild spirit
in Sublette County, I learned to build my own bed at night and learned how to
be extremely quiet especially while hiding from those terrible wolves and
rascally coyotes. Man, those coyotes are
really good at messing with a guy even one that is somewhat bigger than
them!
The morning I discovered my human, I had
heard something moving that didn’t sound like the typical coyote or wolf. So, I followed the noise and found this odd
looking brown thing. I was not too sure
what it was but I could see two figures in there. So, I began to talk with it. I yelped a few times, explained my case, and to
no prevail was unsuccessful talking with the human I could see through the
clearing. Thus, I began to whine my case
even louder. This time, the human opened
the door. I am pretty sure he saw me so
I jumped in as he got out. The room was
so warm, small but warm, and it smelt very good. I won’t lie, I was a bit hungry. Deer and elk gut piles and field mice are
sporadic finds in winter months. Plus,
those dang rabbits are really fast!
The other human, who answered to Matt,
he was eating something that smelt way better than what I had been
devouring. Though, I did not want to
make eye contact with Matt or even Jimmie.
After jumping in the warm room and sitting between the humans, I stared
straight forward. There was no way I
would leave these two by themselves in the wilds. I don’t think they would have survived
especially when the hunting was as slim as it is during the brutal winter
months of the area. Funny thing is, as
we were driving east, every-once-in-awhile, my belly began to rumble and to explode. I giggled to myself because Jimmie was
blaming Matt for the odor that I was producing.
Heeheee-ironically, both humans stuck their heads out the window as if
they were dogs. Oh man, what a sight.
For roughly an hour and fifteen minute
we rode in that warm room and stopped briefly at destination that I had never
been before. We met up with more humans
and then Jimmie and I headed even further east.
This was quite the journey for me and the nice thing was that I didn’t
have to walk. I sat where Matt had sat
in the warm room, riding to a final destination three maybe four hours later. At this location, we were met by another big
human aka Momma Human and two miniature humans.
The two miniature humans were just a bit bigger than me. Though, it was Momma Human that fed me some
great grub and took me for walks around a lake where I could chase geese,
ducks, squirrels, and pounce on mice. Momma
Human didn’t get mad and fire me until one particular camping trip.
Hey, a guy can’t be perfect all the
time. It appears that as I have aged, I
am unable to smell certain things like I use to. Plus, I hardly ran into those red smaller
creatures that Momma Human referred to as a fox. Apparently, she is mad that I was unable to
smell the fox when it was searching through our fire pit when she and that
little squirrel that I cannot eat but Momma Human refers to as Stitch the
Chihuahua. Momma Human and he were out
sniffing for a magical spot. Geesh, all
the smells in the air and that is what she wanted me to chase. You’d think a human would be happy that I noticed
it enough to run it out of our camp!
Plus, it was fast like those pesky rabbits! Oh no, Momma Human was not buying it. I think it is because I am yellow and not
small like that little needy squirrel that I cannot eat but who is constantly
mooching off of her. She and I go back
into my camper and she tells me I am fired!
Whatever the heck that means?! All
I got to say is that I better still get my bones and especially the table
scraps. Otherwise, I am going to BBQ me
a squirrel that I cannot eat!!
Doesn't the squirrel that I cannot eat look delicious? Add a little ketchup...
