My wife was taking our now 5 month old dog, Koda, outside for his last bathroom break of the evening on a particularly cold night. It was 27 degrees and my wife is very adverse to cold weather (read: she doesn't like it too much) so she had the swim parka that I received from USA Triathlon and Speedo from the Olympics on and ventured outside our front door the few feet to let Koda do his thing. A few minutes later she came back in with a rosy red nose from the cold wind and a confused look on her face. I asked her what was wrong and she told me that during her very short transition outside, there was a fox trying to get friendly with our dog (Koda was on a leash, don't worry) and was circling them and even came very close to our front door as he was making his rounds and scoping out our dog. Koda, she said, was in a very playful mood, of course, when the fox was present. I am sure if we had let him off the leash, he would of thought it was an opportunity to play with someone different from our family. I don't know too much about foxes but my gut instinct tells me that the fox would not want to play with our dog but possibly offer him a cozy hotel in his den for the evening and Koda would possibly be on the continental breakfast menu the next morning.
Strange scenario number two actually happened last night to me. I was working downstairs at about 9:30pm and was sitting about 10 feet from my front door when I heard a very loud, almost banging noise outside the door. My heart immediately began to race as I thought it was someone trying to manipulate their way into my home. I sprang up off of my chair and quietly approached the door. As I looked out the peephole, I could not believe my eyes. There was a deer at my front door. I'm not talking in the front yard...right at my door! I was a bit shocked and when I finally controlled my excitement and nervousness, I opened the door and gave it a bit of a yell to scare it away. I don't know if I was thinking clearly. I mean, what if I opened the door and he rushed me? Turns out he was just eating some plants that we have right outside the door and luckily for me, I was scary enough for him to dash across the street.
Wow...gotta love living in Colorado. I've have some great run-ins with wildlife but the funny thing is is that they have only been in the past few years. Remember, I grew up in the mountains of Colorado and did not have this many wildlife encounters even with many camping and fishing trips in remote locations.
Gotta love it! I'm never moving!!!
Coach Bob
coachbob@fuel4mance.com
