the Subway

Ten miles of boulder-hopping and water-walking in an empty area of Zion amounted to the best hike I’ve done since living here. The end.

Filed under: the great outdoors

staircase to the staircase

I live in the middle of nowhere. I love it, and tend to think of it as the middle of everywhere, but by city-slicker standards, I live in the middle of nowhere. I live in the Grand Staircase. For those who don’t know, the Grand Staircase is a massive piece of land (part of a 1.9 million-acre national monument) here in southern Utah. As its name implies, it is like a giant staircase, stretching from the Grand Canyon just south of me, to Bryce Canyon, just north of me (this drawing may help you understand). I live along the second step, the Vermilion Cliffs, and work along the third step, the White Cliffs.

To get my kicks during the work-week, I hike the trail in town that winds up the side of the 1,000-foot Vermilion Cliffs and spits me out on top looking north to the White Cliffs. It’s a glorious sight anytime, but I discovered on Tuesday that it’s best at sunrise. I went back on Thursday and brought my camera.

Filed under: the great outdoors

huggable hoodoos and tales from Bryce Canyon

This weekend, Miss Molly and I, along with Garrett (the mudslinger from last weekend), ventured to Bryce Canyon to hike the 8.5-mile Fairyland Loop. Molly and I have been meaning to do this trail for a while, but the high elevation there kept the place snowy and muddy until recently. There was minimal mud along our journey, but what ass-painery we lacked in mud was made up for in wind… super gusty, nearly 40 mph winds. Sometimes it felt really good, but most of the time it was just a pain in the ass.

Bryce is beautiful, but I’m not sure I’ll go there too often. It seems like the kind of place that if you’ve seen it once, you’ve seen it all. Regardless, it was a welcomed new sight, and I even got to hug a hoodoo… but I think I’ll stick to Zion as my primary source of entertainment.

And to continue with the new video aspect of this here site, here is me on my quest to hug a hoodoo.

And here’s a little clip I threw together of me snarfing on our post-hike meal… really disgusting pizza (but hell, after 8.5 miles, any pizza will suffice).

Filed under: the great outdoors

week in wildlife

This is Fat Bastard. He is fat, and he’s a bastard. Some idiot family took him from the wild and kept him as a pet (until the DWR confiscated him) in an itty bitty cage and fed him grilled cheese sandwiches, egg McMuffins, and candy bars. No wonder the little bastard is so fat! And as fat as he is, he used to be fatter. When he first came in, he couldn’t even get up to the next level of his 5-story cage. Now he can run the whole thing (and very fast), but he’s still a tub of lard. Hopefully that won’t be for long though. As you can see, he is now on a low-cal diet.

Think he’s all cute and cuddly? Guess again. That photo above was taken through the bars of his cage, because he would attack me if we opened the door… just like he did to one of our staff…

So now we’ll move along to the darling little mink that was rescued from becoming a coat. Just look at that face! How could anyone ever wear such a thing?!

And if that wasn’t cute enough, how about some itty bitty baby cottontails? Three of these tennis ball-sized babies (none from the same family) happened to come in at the same time for the same reason: they were all chew toys for dogs and cats. They were pretty messed up, still kind of are (one is bloated and full of fluid still), but can hopefully be released in about two weeks. Seeing these guys makes me feel kinda sad about the comment I made a few posts back about it being a good thing that these guys are an easy meal for the bobcat.

Please note the three small baby bunny poos in the bottom right corner… HOW PRECIOUS!

Filed under: best friends, bunnies, wildlife

well whaddya know, more tales from Zion

With Whitney’s bike race in Hurricane this weekend, we decided to camp out in Zion after the race rather than heading back to my neck of the woods. She was so exhausted after the 25-mile race that hiking was not really an option, so we camped on the same sandy shores that I got stuck in six months ago.

We spent the bulk of our evening watching the ants that inhabited our campsite. No, really, for like two hours, we sat and watched these ants. We fed them bits of sour apple blowpop and a whole peanut M&M. We watched as they first discovered the delicious taste, then as they figured out a plan for getting the giant candy bits down their little ant hole. They got the sucker bit and half the M&M down before Whitney accidentally trampled their domain and caved in their precious tunnel. In the morning, the ones that were trapped outside were dead.

In a crazy twist of events, I ran into an old college friend, Ryan, at Whit’s bike race. He, a writer, was covering the event. We’ve both lived in Utah now for a couple years, yet only gotten lunch once back in 2006. It was great to see him, and worked out perfectly because I was camping in Zion that night and he was hiking there the next day. So Sunday morning, a still-exhausted Whitney headed back to Park City and I hiked Angel’s Landing with Ryan and some of his friends. Ryan wore old-man Utah socks. His excuse is that “they wick the moisture away!” but that’s really no excuse.

Garrett, a fellow photographer, took most of the pictures (which you can check out on his blog), but I managed to fire off a few too. Here he is trying to destroy my camera gear with mud.

Since it’s a common occurrence, this is probably my 10 millionth photo of the moon over Zion, but whatev. It’s still pretty.

And here is Garrett trying to ford the river, and nearly (but unfortunately not) falling.

Filed under: the great outdoors

cholla challenge

So this weekend, Whitney came down to my neck of the woods for a bike race. I took some photos.

Filed under: the great outdoors

into the wild

On Saturday morning, I got to cover my first release - a bobcat release. Her name is Sophie and she had been at Best Friends since she was just an itty bitty baby. She was trapped at the bottom of a slot canyon when she was just a few pounds and was rescued by canyoneers last summer. She’s spent her whole life since then here in captivity, but remained completely wild. She has been kept away from humans to ensure that she stays afraid of them. She ate by hunting small animals that wandered into her pen, and was occasionally tossed a live meal to hunt if none wandered into her pen on their own.

She could have been released last fall, but she would have had a much harder time adapting to being on her own at that time of year. Now was a better release time, because of the bajillion wild bunnies out here that are procreating. There is a never-ending supply of slow, easy-to-catch baby bunnies for her to feast on. Not so good for the bunnies, but good for her. It will give her time to become a better hunter in time for winter, when food is harder to come by.

We drove out to the White Cliffs on Saturday and let her go. It’s incredible how much natural instinct they have. This bobcat that has lived its whole life in captivity, will be just fine in the wild. Bobcats are solitary animals, so they don’t need to befriend any others. They just go out and eat, sleep, and live.

I wish I had better photos to show for the release, but that cat took off so fast, I only got two frames fired off before she was gone, gone, gone. I couldn’t be in front of her because she could attack if she felt I was in the way of where she wanted to go. But sub-par photo aside, it was an incredible experience, one I don’t think I’ll ever forget.

Filed under: best friends, wildlife

week in birds

This is Richard. We stumbled upon him while taking birds to visit a local nursing home. We soon found out he is a true friend to animals, and was even awarded with a Lifetime Achievement Award from Best Friends back in 2000. The former animal control officer told us a particularly interesting story about how back in the late 70s, hundreds of burros got trapped in the Grand Canyon. The Department of Interior wanted to shoot them, but Richard said he told them “that’s bullshit” and he arranged to have them helicoptered out of there (many of which later came to live at Best Friends). There were around 600 though, and a lot of them did get shot (secretly, by the Interior), but because of Richard, a lot of them didn’t. His bedside is decorated with all sorts of photos and art of animals, everything from dogs and horses to burros.

On the other end of the age spectrum, this is Tim, getting his eyelashes preened by the lovely miss Ella. Birds make me happy.

This is a red-tailed hawk chasing a raven. They started fighting mid-air and it was pretty amazing to watch. On any given day here, there is as much action going on out in the wild as there is inside our animal departments.

And this lady, at the nursing home, makes me deathly afraid to get old. But she sure appreciated the visit from the birds.

Filed under: best friends, birds

introducing… VIDEO!

As I promised in a previous post… VIDEOS! Flickr just keeps getting better and better. Gaaaaaaaaaaaary!!!

Filed under: VIDEO!, the great outdoors

80s prom and other tales from Park City

So this weekend, I voyaged up to Park City for the first time since December to go to prom and to pay homage to the decade of my birth - the 80s.

I spent my weekend hotspringing, getting bombed (literally, by Heber high school hick-punks), socializing, recycling (yes, I brought my recycling all the way up there, but that’s because St. George’s recycling center blows), and I even got to see the neurotic dog that I had to say goodbye to when I moved. Of course though, the main event was the 80s prom.

The Park City 80s Spring Prom is really just an excuse to dress up in horrible clothes and get drunk, but for me it was a chance to see old friends (and maybe drink a little since I’ve been dry as the desert since I moved here in November). More importantly though, I went because I never went to prom. I was a badass in high school (or at least I thought I was at the time), and prom was definitely not my scene. I was too cool. But you’re never too cool for 80s Prom. Especially when it’s themed “80s Prom Goes to Texas.” Yee-haw!

The obligatory prom photo (I shared Whitney’s date with her)

Git in ‘dem girl jeans, boy!

Whit had the worst (best) dress ever

and a few of the gang

Okay, so enough about prom.

When I rang the doorbell at my old house, Chloe growled and showed her teeth at me through the window. When no one answered and I went in through the garage, she was looking pretty scary as I opened the door. But then, when she got a good look at me, she SQUEALED in delight. She squealed unlike any squeal I have ever heard. I almost went deaf she was so happy to see me, and that just made me all the more happy to see her. I also got to meet Sabrina, the newest addition to the household, a little Pomerian who joined the tribe just last week. Here are the two of them.

We also went and saw Rusted Root. It was good.

It was there that I first got to meet Kristin, the girl who took my job at the Record when I left. She is cool.

I also got to see a ton of friends there and it was so nice to have a social life again, even if only for a weekend. Anyway, I don’t feel too much like writing anymore, so I’m just gonna end this and I’ll close it with Whit being her usual self… awesome.

Filed under: misc

don’t you dare even mention the ‘B’ word

I mentioned last week that I was looking for a tacky prom dress. Specifically, I was looking for a tacky western prom dress. I got this beast for $5 at the thrift shop next door. I had the belt, boots, and hat already so luckily I didn’t have to pour my bank account into this hideous outfit.

Before I headed north to the prom that I would grace with this dress’s presence, Miss Molly and I had a photoshoot showcasing the glorious long-sleeved, off-the-shoulder, black velvet dress. Here are some of the results… the PG-rated ones (you’ll have to see the PG-13 ones here, because well, I work with animals and we really can’t associate me with the ‘B’ word on this blog… or anywhere).

Filed under: misc

don’t pick on yourself, dear

As much as I would love to say that Aramis didn’t hate this, I’d be lying. He HATES it, in capital letters, exclamation point. But without it, Aramis would likely pick himself to death. His scab is healed now that he hasn’t been able to pick at it, but if he could, he would. He tries to tear through the bandage and still does his obsessive-compulsive routine with it on, just with far less damage.

Aramis is doing so much better, but the real progress will come when we see how he does with the other cockatoos. He still doesn’t know he’s a bird, but with the new cockatoo house nearly complete, Aramis will soon move out of the office and in with his fellow species. Though he has only met Seppi so far, in time he’ll be introduced to Mango, Sydney, Sugar, Clancy, Roxie, Sunshine, and Peaches. And maybe then he’ll start to get the hang of being a bird.

Filed under: best friends, birds

glamour shots, doggie style

The past few weeks, a large chunk of my work-load has been strictly dog headshots. We need headshots of every dog in the joint (that’s several hundred), and eventually all the other kinds of animals too, for a new adoption module on the website. Luckily, I shot the very last dog on the list this afternoon (though it’s guaranteed new dogs will arrive within the week and need their photos taken as well).

95% of the time, the dogs pose nice and pretty for us. It usually takes some coaxing with treats or a squeaky toy, but even the tougher ones manage to get done pretty quickly. The other 5% are not so easy. They are either too aggressive (with photos needing to be shot through a fence) or they are feral and won’t come within 200mm range of you. And of course, if the feral ones ever stop moving and actually sit for a moment, they sit with half their face in the sun and half in the shade or some other ridiculously impossible scenario to shoot. I tend to hate the situation even more than the dog does.

Since posting a billion doggie headshots would get really old, really quick, here is but one, my favorite from this week. Meet Spanky. You should adopt him.

Filed under: best friends, dogs

fatty, fatty, two-by catty

The other day, I was asked to photograph the fattest cats at the sanctuary. This was no easy task. That whole rule they say about the camera adding ten pounds apparently doesn’t work for cats. It’s exactly the opposite. Wide-angle or long lens, the camera tends to make even the most portly cats appear slender, or at the very least, not obese. I went building to building meeting fatty after fatty, each one seemingly fatter than the last. But the fatter they got, the skinnier they seemed to look in the camera. I could not for the life of me take a photo that showed the true fattitude of these fat cats. But then I met Peppermint Patty, by far the fattest of the fat, and even though she looks skinnier in the photo than she actually is, she still manages to look fat.

the fatty herself

Jessica

Wrigley and O’Malley

Tom

Mr. Catrick

Want more fattitude? Make sure to check out these links:
Food-filching cat gets stuck in doggie door
33-pound cat the equivalent of 600-pound person (and make sure to check out the slideshow)

Filed under: best friends, cats