moose and bears

 these moose were seen the other morning as i walked from the hospital to my car.

 worked that they walked in front of the window so i could have them back lit

 the rest are from hallo Bay. still bears and views to share from that lovely trek!!

 these are still a single female, collared bear that we followed out on to the tide flats.

 the pups are happily dragging sticks into the house and chewing them to bits.  there are worse things.  choose your battles as they say. i will have to do some tiny splintered stick clean up in a bit.

 worked my 3 nights.  still coughing loads but less than the week before.  i managed to survive the week.  i was sleepy between shifts and the pups missed a few days of walking.

 we are back on track.  it warmed up a bit and some of the snow melted.  it's a bit of a mess out there.  the trails weren't bad the past few days though.

 i was cracking up the other day.  the pups were on the deck and in the warmth some snow slid off the top of the dog kennel and slammed onto the deck right next to Tusker.  poor guy was confused as hell.  he looked up at the sky with a look like, "i had no idea that could happen...whoa!!".  it was pretty funny and cute.

 my week was ICU-ER-ICU.  last night fairly busy as poison control had me giving a lot of insulin and i checked blood sugars a lot to make sure my patient didn't bottom out. nobody had done the protocol so i think it was probably good they gave the patient to an "old" nurse such as myself.  often the newer nurses have had protocols while us older nurses learned in a more free flow, fly by the seat of your pants manner.

 i'm not knocking them it's just it would have probably made them more anxious to be flying without any sort of guidance.  i was a bit anxious at first and as i was trying to get report these RT's were right behind me talking about nuclear war with Putin and the apparently new nuclear arms they have that can take out most of our nation in one blow.  lovely.  mankind...gotta love it.  i was probably rude but i just turned around and said something about trying to listen to report on this critical patient and how difficult it was with them talking loudly about bombs and nuclear war and WWIII.

 the patients family called and clearly there sounds to be a bit of a power struggle.  families can be a bother.  who is in charge, who gets to make decisions.  everyone wants to get their own updates...and if the family is extensive..this is not really possible.  my standard response is i can sit here and chat with each of you on the phone or i can take care of your loved one...i can't do both.  your choice.

 this time it became, who got to make the password.  i told the guy who insisted on being the one to make the password that he needed to tell the other siblings as otherwise they would try to call and be blocked.  of course he didn't and man was that family member pissed in the morning.

 have a spokesperson that is reliable if you are ever in this situation.

 another odd moment at work.  a DR apparently said a rather inappropriate thing to a patient.  this patient was super upset and i had to try to figure out what the deal was...surely that DR did not say what this patient said he said.  when i went to him it was clear that he did say it.  then he had the audacity to want to write up someone else.

 otherwise just another dull night at work, haha the bear is eating some sort of bottom fish.

 tried to watch a movie last night but i crashed in the middle.  joined friends for a game night.  easy and fun. there was another party, a costume party but i didn't have the energy for that anyway.

 Blossom seems to be eating and more energetic with the ab's on board, but she had an elevated white count and is still a bit drooly and coughing, less but still.  she will go in Tuesday and get her teeth cleaned/checked.  if she has a bad tooth that is the cause of the infection it will be removed.  they will also check to see if there is any other cause of the infection that wouldn't be easy to see on an awake dog.

 poor puppy.  happy that she has been feeling better at least.  very playful and while she is eating fairly slow, she is eating all her kibble so that is good.

 the election....oh my...each day you wait to see what new awful thing is said about one or the other candidates.  i'll just be sick if this idiot Drumpf gets in.  what sort of insanity has befell our nation!!  not that she is stellar, but she will be controlled by the obstructionist party..formally known as the Republicans.  the GOP is incapable of controlling Drumpf which makes him a very frightening option.

 apparently, Putin will blow us all up soon anyway so i guess eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we may all die.

 sadly, many who rise to lead are not leaders at all but are instead power hungry, selfish a-holes.  our nation has taken a sad drop to the bottom of the outhouse for this election . hoping we can wade through all this and survive for the next election hopefully, there will be some changes due to this but all signs point to no changes happening.  blame, lie, blame, lie.

 new email information which really sounds like much ado about nothing and very oddly released information so close to the election.  not even hers.  she has been chased for decades and yet nothing has yet come to bear.

 they can keep chasing and then have the pleasure of indicting her if they ever get anything on her that could actually stick.  for me it just makes them look nuts that they keep hunting and keep failing to actual get her on anything.  he had some court cases of his own coming up.

 pups are having a crazy time right now.  i am ready for them to chill. they always seem to have one more crazy time in them about this time.

 we went to  Bass and did training walks around store.  worked out great as they had a halloween thing going on with loads of kids and parents dressed in costumes.

 then i met a friend for dinner at a newer mexican place.  it was good  Xalos.

 another week and we will see what happens in our nation.  it's craziness.  suspect it will get worse before it gets better.  some times a nation needs a clean out.  it's time to get those out that are too seeded in and get some fresh blood with better intentions in the various offices.  people need to vote and people need to get more involved.  we have all been slackers i think.  it's such a nasty business running for office.

 we lunched while watching the bear.  it was a bit windy so a bit of a sandstorm so we had tucked in the rocks.

 i'm sure we all ate some sand though.

 i'll have to go entertain the puppies.  generally when puppies get active it's a great time to run them through some training stuff.  it wears them out and is less destructive.

 just want to finish this before my computer does some restart on me and blitzes all i've written

 awe, black and white

 totally cool rock formations and how the rocks were breaking apart was interesting.

grateful for:  A.  life in Alaska.  we have some separation from the lower 48 that i love  B.  dogs that are slowly getting trained. it is very rewarding when they do the right stuff.  C.  rainy days since they are lazy days.

the low tide that went out for miles...

 back to Hallo Bay. we walked miles on the tidal flats this day. i loved it.  we were all pretty chill. happy for any bear sightings but also happy to explore and just enjoy the great beauty of this land.

 it is a truly amazing place.

 we did have a bear join us as you will see later.  we followed her along and just enjoyed. great scenery.  great folks.

 got almost all of my pictures for the year loaded into shutterfly.  so hopefully i can work on my calendars and christmas cards next stretch off.

 there are still some pictures from the Iditarod that i haven't even looked at this year.  such a slacker.  then i can load those in.  don't usually use too many of those but a few are always fun.

 got Blossom off to the vet this morning.  i guess the Northern lights went nuts like 5-7 am while i was sleeping.  supposed to be good again tonight.  should go out chasing, but it will be in the 20's and i'm already in my pj's

 took the puppies for a training walk around the bog.  they did fairly well.  got to play with them off leash in the open area and did some sit/stay/come training out there.  near the end there was a loose dog and they went nuts.  we are still not great at greeting dogs on leash . they believe they should be able to romp and play...at over 60 pounds each now...they can easily best me.  i'm trying hard to make sure they don't really get that.

 we picked up Blossom and then i took them in to the vets for weights.  Ivy Rose was 63# and Tusker was 66 pounds.

 as for Blossom.  they drew labs and started her on antibiotics. sounds like we will probably give her sedation and check her teeth. i do suspect she may have a bad tooth in there.  we shall see.  hoping that is all it is and nothing worse.  hopefully, it can just be fixed and she'll feel better.  chatted with my vet friend in CA...thanks Carla.  so awesome to always be there for me with pet advice.

 we were laughing about a visit she made up here when my old lab, Baby Huey, came down with trigeminitis.  sure i didn't spell that correctly.  it was actually the first case she'd ever seen. not very common.  she said she was just talking about huey the other day with this.  he had both a bells palsy and a horners.  drooling like crazy.  poor dog couldn't pick up sticks any more and he was obsessed.

 i had to hand feed him for several weeks.  his tongue worked but not his jaw.  he couldn't close his mouth.  so i had to manually hold his jaw while i fed him.  drool was everywhere. this was like 3-4 x a day if i remember right.  i'd shove it in his mouth on a spoon.

 at some point, that spoon got sucked out of my slimmed up hands and down the gullet...gone!! i screamed, "noooooooooooo!!" and made a reach for it down his throat.  this was in Ketchikan.

 by the time this happened, my friend had moved on to Juneau to tour around a bit.  i remember talking to her and she asked how Huey was...i told her, "fine...post op!!".  spoonectomy successful.

 it was not my most fun month as a dog owner, but we got through it and he healed up.  drooled forever after but was able to eat and fetch again happily.

 i told her i did not believe Blossom had this ailment.  haha.

 she was eager to eat upon returning home and took her meds well.  then we all went for a walk so the pups could play off leash, and Blossom could get her walk in.  fun for all.  Blossom is still wanting to walk and doesn't seem to have any issues with that.  does seem to want my attention and encouragement with eating.  that is when i started doing, "go team blossom" i think.  i have always made the puppies wait until she was done eating so she wouldn't be bothered while eating.

 she wrestled with the pups on the gasline/powerline trail

 sadly, this morning there was a dead moose on the side of the road.  they were loading a trashed truck onto a tow truck.  no idea how the owner of that came out. but the moose didn't fare well.  felt badly as i'd just seen a moose with her calf crossing that road yesterday.  if it's the same one, it's probably going to mean 2 dead moose as the calf will probably not survive the winter.  will possibly get pegged off by a bear.  they are still out there loading up on whatever food they can find.

 actually felt a bit like i accomplished a few things the past 24 hours. after sleeping so much that felt good.

 here is that bear i promised you.  she was out clamming. low tide before the salmon running can be a bit of a feast for them if they get lucky.

 not sure she was feasting.  i think she did catch a few fish at low tide as well though.

 i think they also eat the barnacles.

 skies were just amazing that day.

 pups are on guard dog duty.  perhaps it's the changing of the guards and Blossom can relax now more like Rio used to be able to.  i think it really did comfort Rio having Blossom there keeping an eye on stuff.

 back to work tomorrow night. hopefully, it will go better this week.  miserable coughing that much and trying to work so i hope it's settling down .

 want to make hair and foot doc appointments.  just need to stop procrastinating.

 may actually need some caffeine to get through this work week.

 ate pumpkin bread for breakfast.  so tasty!!  i think i'll take the pumpkin seeds to work to share with the crew.  i still have more to cook up in the fridge.  i also have more pumpkin to make bread with.

 stopped at grocery store and was going to buy some sugar, but the bag i picked up was solid as a rock.  ditched it.  it was too busy to bother with it so i left without it.

 don't think i took many pictures today.  some days i just walk.  it was nice this morning to bog it with the two of them and work on the training a bit more intensely.

 did the math...when i walk all three dogs, that is 198 pounds!!  that is a lot of dog.

 had big bang on in the background today.  had the news on but it's too depressing.  it's what is Drumpf whining/complaining about today.  what a baby.  he's going to sue everyone, it's rigged, he's going to win, the media is rigged...

 didn't hear any of his followers bitching about all the media coverage during the primaries when the other 17 folks running couldn't get any air time and Drumpf hogged it all...no charge.  if they are the ones bringing him down now, they are also the ones responsible for him being there to begin with.  ratings.

 she walked in closer to us.

 the pups have just followed me in here and crashed, they are quite loyal to me.

 Blossom has actually always enjoyed sleeping downstairs.  i think Rio always did Mom duty.  old habits.  so these guys have mom watch while Blossom maintains the vigil downstairs of protecting the household.  she's very brave!!

 chill day.  most of my days are pretty chill though i must say.

 i'm quite happy with that.  that will all change when i start the Rationalist Party!! man do we need one.  those other 2 parties are a mess and the other smaller parties are pretty useless as well.

 love all the rivulets in the sand

 thus to the end of another blog.  hope you enjoy bears..still more pictures from summer to share.  the ice is forming though so i'm sure i'll be looking for cool ice photos...and if i manage to stay awake one of these nights perhaps i'll take a few more aurora shots.  don't hold your breath though.  i'm a bit of a creature of habit.  would rather go aurora hunting with others...seems safer that way.

thankful for:  A.  Blossom having a good day and taking her food/meds well B.  healthy pups  C.  walking.  it's good for my heart, mind and soul