Mara's travails

[wondering]

Some good tidbits of news, Bill, especially the shortened hike you can do together and she can be untethered. Happy, happy!

[Isserley]

I can relate to broken sleep situation (I haven't slept full night for 7 months due to baby). I know it's not a consolation but the human body gets used to it with time.
What can help you in this situation are routines. She should have a daytime routine that will be stimulating, without a lot of napping and with enough meals and walks, and a night routine - calmer, quieter, without feeding (although she might ask for food at first).
Dogs also have a circadian rhythm, she has lost it a little now and needs your help (structure) to get it back.

[Bill Ryan]

I do need to answer some of your very kind posts!

Posted by Isserley (here)
I can relate to broken sleep situation (I haven't slept full night for 7 months due to baby). I know it's not a consolation but the human body gets used to it with time.
What can help you in this situation are routines. She should have a daytime routine that will be stimulating, without a lot of napping and with enough meals and walks, and a night routine - calmer, quieter, without feeding (although she might ask for food at first).
Dogs also have a circadian rhythm, she has lost it a little now and needs your help (structure) to get it back.

Yes, many thanks, and I really understand that. I'm working on it!

Posted by Matthew (here)
With seriousness had you thought of peeing round the boundary you want to contain her in? Smell paints is its own landscape.

Well, yes! In Farley Mowat's wonderful, classic (and sometimes very funny) book Never Cry Wolf, Mowat (a wildlife biologist) camped out alone in Northern Canada to observe wolves at first hand in their natural habitat.

He discovered so much about them that was new and unknown that it finally and definitively gave the lie to the myth that wolves were somehow dangerous, rabid animals to be feared who would attack a man as soon as look at him.

He set his camp right on one of the traditional wolves' trails. And then he peed a 'boundary' all round his campsite and sat back quietly to see what would happen.

The wolves padded along their trail, came to Mowat's invisible 'pee boundary', stopped, then did a whole careful, respectful detour around it until they regained their well-worn trail.

• https://avalonlibrary.net/ebooks/Far...Cry%20Wolf.pdf

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
I've found a local walk we can do which is a 20-minute, 2/3 mile (1 km) round trip, with 250ft altitude gain up a steeply sloping open field, with no hazards of any kind — so she can do all that without a lead, roaming around where she wants to. We do that every morning, and now that this is the only real exercise she gets, she greatly looks forward to it. (Before that, we were often doing many hours and miles and thousands of feet height gain on rough ground in the high mountains. So it's a pathetically small substitute — but in truth, still more than many town dogs might enjoy.)

And here's the video.

It's a little over 3 minutes, extremely shaky (I'm walking on rough ground at the same time), totally amateur, and definitely needs image stabilization. But you can maybe flick through it quickly and see that Mara is having a very fun doggie adventure all of her own, and one would never think that she can hardly see a thing. As I mentioned, many town dogs would never be so lucky to have freedom like this.


https://projectavalon.net/Mara_in_the_big_field.mp4

[wondering]

Wow, so wonderfully amazing, Bill, one would never guess! What a champion dog...

[Bill Ryan]

Several members have been so extremely kind as to ask me for an update about how it's all going here. The answer is — better than I'd ever have hoped just a few weeks ago.

Mara is gaining in confidence (and so am I). Every day now, without fail, we climb up the big sloping field, where there's zero danger and lots of open space. She's starting to really run around now, and usually gets to the top of the field before I do.

I can leave her Home Alone for a good 4-5 hours, which is a great asset. And yesterday and the Saturday before I went on a couple of long high mountain hikes with my friend Gilberto and his two super-athletic children, with Mara staying all day with Myriam, Gilberto's wife, where they were both totally happy. So, many things are kind of returning to as near-normal as I could wish for.

Here's a little 45 second video, starring Mara happily galloping up the big field. The audio not only features my heavy breathing (it's quite steep! ) but also a little cowbell that's now fastened to my trekking pole so that Mara can always hear where I am — an innovation that's also working perfectly.


The moral of this story is really about adapting creatively to a new problematic situation. There are almost always ways, and even if one can't immediately see what they might possibly be at first, keep on trusting and believing that they're there — just waiting to be discovered.

https://projectavalon.net/Mara_runni..._big_field.mp4

[Matthew]

Wow NLP perspectives applied to furry friends, speaking in their language. Taking that further have you considered consciously stretching ESP?

[Harmony]

Mara looks very happy with her tail wagging and rolling in the grass with the excitement of being on an adventure with her Bill.



She seems to be able to find her bearings quite easily now with the help of her nose and her ears and perhaps a 6th sense as well, You seem like a shepherd Bill. I think it is marvellous and quite remarkable how dedication and persistence have developed into perhaps an even greater friendship between 2 souls.

[wondering]

Wonderful video! I love Mara rolling in the grass, total dog bliss, I think! Thanks for putting the video on.

[RunningDeer]

........
Oh yay! A bell! Brilliant idea, Bill.
Thanks for adding the Mara clip. It brings lasting smiles to my day.

[Bill Ryan]

"No more big hikes," said Bill.
“Your plight of blindness was unplanned.
Oh, Mara, Mara, can't you understand?"
But Mara shook her head.
"Say it again" she said,
"And slowly, please.
No rocks, no lakes, no quinoa trees?
No llamas and no deer to chase,
No return to that magical place?”
“Alas,” said Bill. "You must stay here."
And Mara shed a single tear.
"For always, Bill?" she whispered, "Will it be
That way evermore, for you and me?
Or will there come again some day
When the great green hills will call me back to play?"
Bill bowed his head:
"Some day… some day," he said.

[Casey Claar]

I fear to ask, Bill, ....has Mara left us?

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by Casey Claar (here)
I fear to ask, Bill, ....has Mara left us?

No, not at all.

[Casey Claar]

This is comforting to hear. I am glad there is still more time ahead.

[Harmony]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
"No more big hikes," said Bill.
“Your plight of blindness was unplanned.
Oh, Mara, Mara, can't you understand?"
But Mara shook her head.
"Say it again" she said,
"And slowly, please.
No rocks, no lakes, no quinoa trees?
No llamas and no deer to chase,
All that gone, without a trace?”
“No more mountains,” Bill replied.
And Mara sighed.
"For always, Bill?" she whispered, "Will it be
Like that for evermore, for you and me?
Or will there come again a day
When the great green hills will call me back to play?"
Bill bowed his head:
"Some day… some day," he said.

"Can't you feel me with you Bill?
I see the llamas the lakes and hills
I am with you Bill, within your soul
For together we have always been
And always your a part of me"

[RunningDeer]

Posted by Indigris (here)
...

How did you and Mara come together, Bill? Was she a rescue? A stray?

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
with a puppy on his shoulder

Ha. Back in 2013, I was driving through Cuenca in Pandora (my ancient 4x4) with three friends. We pulled up at a red light, right alongside a man walking down the sidewalk with a puppy on his shoulder. I made a joke — "Hey look! There's our dog!" — and next thing I knew, my friends had gathered together $40, opened the window, the guy took the cash, the puppy was handed through the window, the light turned green, and now there were 5 of us in the vehicle, not 4. It must have all taken 30 seconds flat.

Posted by RunningDeer (here)
…

Little shoulder puppy
worked out her mountain muscles
in full trust
that her Daddy would arrive
at the mutually agreed upon time.

Soul Buds

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by Harmony (here)

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
"No more big hikes," said Bill.
“Your plight of blindness was unplanned.
Oh, Mara, Mara, can't you understand?"
But Mara shook her head.
"Say it again" she said,
"And slowly, please.
No rocks, no lakes, no quinoa trees?
No llamas and no deer to chase,
All that gone, without a trace?”
“No more mountains,” Bill replied.
And Mara sighed.
"For always, Bill?" she whispered, "Will it be
Like that for evermore, for you and me?
Or will there come again a day
When the great green hills will call me back to play?"
Bill bowed his head:
"Some day… some day," he said.

"Can't you feel me with you Bill?
I see the llamas the lakes and hills
I am with you Bill, within your soul
For together we have always been
And always your a part of me"

Mara (mountain wonder dog, retired) playing and running in the big field, just this morning. (When she gets to the dirt road, she's on tramlines again and she knows exactly where she is. )

https://projectavalon.net/Mara_runni...ig_field_2.mp4 (20 second video)

Will there come again a day
When the great green hills will call me back to play?

In her next lifetime. And then, whenever it may be, it has to be very possible that she'll be in the mountains with me again.

[Denise/Dizi]

I think of you and Mara often, and I am so happy that you are still sharing videos of her... and her travels... They are just so special... Our animal families...

Mara is a lucky pup... And she knows it...

[Bill Ryan]

Wow, I've not posted a thing here for 3 years. As followers of my Mara returns to the Mountains thread will be aware, she's been totally happy and active all this time with no travails * at all.

* A definition for any non-native-English speakers: Travails are painful, difficult struggles or hardships. (Mara's had a lot of those)

I was planning to go to the mountains tomorrow with my young friend Noam (the super-athlete brother of superstar Pema), but I just told him that Mara wouldn't be coming with us. Here's why:



(She looks like a lion... )

This is what happened. I took her to the vet this morning for a second injection of monoclonal antibodies. Her first was a whole year ago, and it seemed to have an instant effect on her energy. It was only meant to last a month before a booster, but because it costs quite a lot I left it this long.

But the real problem was that she was SO muddy. Just old, dried thick mud than never washed off. I would try to cut it off with scissors, but a lot still remained. It looked like this:



The only way the vet could get it all off was to shave her, OMG.



And then we discovered this:



I'd never seen it, because it was under all her thick fur.

The vet said it was quite new, just a few days old. What I think happened was that she was cut by a broken bottle when she was wading in one of the mountain lakes. And I think it happened on Monday. What was very interesting was that on Wednesday, we went back to the exact same place by the side of the same lake, where she always immediately goes for a swim. But for once, she would NOT get in the water there.

She needed a bunch of stitches, and the vet said she should stay indoors for a week. Of course, that's not going to happen. But she can't go to the mountains tomorrow. Her fur will start to grow back quite quickly (and the wound will heal fast too), so maybe next week we can do it...

[Casey Claar]

My goodness, Bill, that looks like quite a gash! Thank goodness you went in today and discovered this. Fortunate timing to be sure.

Just out of curiosity, what do the monoclonal antibodies set you back?