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We went out for a nice long walk once it cooled down into the river valley this evening. I saw more animals down there than I have ever seen! I've lived here for 6 years and frequent the valley often. Tonight within an hour we saw:

- 2 pelicans (yes, we get pelicans here in the summer!)
- a muskrat
- a beaver
- a porcupine
- a beautiful stag deer (not sure if he was a mule deer or whitetail as it was getting dark, but huge antlers!)

Maui decided that she should swim after the beaver, she got within about a foot of him and he slapped and dived and it scared the crap out of her! Haha the look on her face as she frantically turned and swam back to shore was priceless!

We narrowly averted a porcupine disaster, still not sure how that happened but as we were walking back up he was meandering across the trail and the dogs spotted him before I did (I thought it was a skunk) and started pestering him. It didn't take too long for them to listen to me and back off but he must have been in a good mood to put up with that much pestering and not quill either of them. I think they were being pretty curious and not getting into attacking yet so that's why we were safe! I've had two porky encounters before, once Maui tried to eat one and had a whole bunch of quills all in her mouth and tongue, so she had to go to the vet and get anethetic to have them taken out. Another dog got a face full but none were in his mouth so we took them out ourselves. He was about a 50lb dog and it took three of us to hold him down while we pulled the quills out. I know the proper technique but ouch, felt bad for the poor guy it must have hurt!

We saw the deer after as we came out of the valley back onto the road and leashes were back on. He was big and beautiful with a huge head of antlers!

Six is really good offleash by the way, he listens really well. He and Maui and playing a little bit, he really wants her to play but she is still being a prude mostly, not being grouchy though which is good.

Sounds gorgeous!!!

BUT

We had an Irish Setter that was nearly drowned by a beaver. My dad had to wade in and rescue him. It had crawled on top of Tramp in the water and was holding him under the surface.

Last year in June, Scout was nearly killed by a doe. I had stopped the car along the highway and a doe jumped up. I quickly found out the doe had fawns in the tall grass in the ditch. She went after Scout, trying to bash her with her head and slicing at her with hooves. It was quite the spectacle. My poor dog running for her life and me too. We were all running for the car ... Funny in retrospect. Ended up stopping traffic in all directions with the deer and I doing a stand off in the middle of the highway with the car between us and Scout, in fear, had expressed her anal glands on the car seat.

Anyway, glad your dog listens so well. It sounds like a little bit of paradise.

Oh man! I'm glad I'm not the only one! We had a bad encounter with a deer in Waterton once. We had read all the warning signs they have posted about agressive deer around dogs, so we were very watchful and careful. We were all down by the water and from WAAAAAAY far away, this deer spots us, drops her head and starts coming at us! We managed to head her off and get away from the area, but man it was nuts! There were people all around, too. It's not like we were invading her private space. I think we finally headed her off right in front of one of the hotels.

So now, we're very cautious when we have the dogs and see any deer. We were walking down a city path last weekend right between some commercial buildings and an adult gated community. At the end of the path, there was this deer and she did the same thing. Dropped her head and started moving towards us. She wasn't as aggressive, but she was definitely not backing away, no matter what we did. We had to retreat and go all the way back to the start of the path to go around. Some of the people that lived in the area were out walking and said she had a couple of fawns around somewhere, which we figured had to be the case. I think they thought we were NUTS to be scared of a deer though!

Yeah I know beavers can be trouble, I was just about the call her back but the beaver did the work for me heh heh.

I've got a good deer story, I am always cautious around them too because I have heard they can charge. Didn't know they were so bad in Waterton though, nuts. I've only been there once and not with the dog.

We had Maui and the other husky I had (since adopted) and we were walking them down the trail to the river. The two were running around in the grass to the side of us hunting for voles, all normal. We heard this really weird noise and Cam and I were both quite confused, it sounded like a goat. We turned around to see Maui and Tear trotting back to us, Tear with a baby deer by the neck in his mouth screaming! I was mortified thinking they were going to kill this poor baby, they got closer to us and I told him to drop it which he did, and amazingly the foal had absolutely no blood and not one wound on his neck. Tear must have thought he was just a big squeaky toy but I was so glad he wasn't hurt.

The little guy ran off and we put the dogs on their leashes, thinking momma must be close. Well she was, her and 4 other big mule deer does came bounding up over the hill in response to the baby's screams. At this point I was pretty sure they were going to attack us, all but one realized the baby was gone and took off. The one (I think was probably the mom) thought we still had her baby and kept circling us. She was at first about 40 feet away but kept bounding around us in circles, each time getting closer and closer to us. She was really upset and was making this huffing noise. She kept circling us as we walked back up the trail, and Cam (my boyfriend) decided it would be a smart idea to make the mad-deer-huffing noise back at the pissed off mommy mule deer lol.

I told him to knock it off because I was freaked she was going to attack us, he said he didn't think she would because we had the two dogs....I told him it didn't matter if she thought we had her baby she would attack. Meanwhile she had closed in quite close to us, about 10 feet away and we realized how big she was and Cam finially stopped agrivating her. We got up the trail and onto the road but she kept an eye on us the whole time.

That's funny you mentioned the pelicans--a few years ago, I was driving from Calgary to Taber to visit my friend (I'm from Southern Ontario), and noticed a bunch(flock?) of birds in the water. When I realized they were pelicans, I nearly drove off the road!! I thought they only lived in the southern states! A little further along, there were some prairie dogs standing on the shoulder of the road, and I almost ditched the rental car again looking at them! I'm amazed I made it to Taber in one piece!!

So, it's not just dogs that are intrigued by the Alberta wildlife!!

Oh you're funny!
Pelicans in northwestern Ont and northern Sask and Manitoba ... They are cool. You call them a pilot of pelicans.


I think one of my favourite firsts when I moved back to Alberta as an adult was passing a farm field on my way into the city and two men were sitting in those old style lawnchairs with their feet up on a beer cooler, brewskis in hand, shotguns across their laps, half tonne behind them. They were settin up to shoot gophers!