Animals I have encountered

Today I had my first encounter with goats by the road. Earlier this week there was a cow in the road. And a horse yesterday. You see, this is open range country. And with the fires, I suspect animals are on the move. I wondered why a number of patients say they are afraid to drive in to the clinic sometimes. Apparently there are some pretty nasty bulls that have been known to charge cars out there. And I was worried about rattlesnakes and tarantulas!

The fire is about 20% contained now. Virtually all of the summer camps are destroyed and won't be able to be used for a number of years. These are not the summer camps we think of. They are areas where the Navajo families bring their livestock, mainly sheep, to graze during the summer, but also where they all get together to shear and immunize their animals. One family helps another and it all gets done. It is unknown what will happen now.

I have had my own first hand experience with a wild animal this week. In the form of one dog named Otis. I was consulting on a patient for another doc yesterday when my cell phone rang. I ignored it. Then I got a text. "I have Otis." The boy had destroyed the vinyl blinds over my living room window, nosed the window open, and escaped through the screen. Twice. Luckily they are doing some landscaping around the apartments, and the guys have gotten to know Otis, so when he went running by they were able to corral him,  but had to carry him back in the apartment, as he was doing his usual play dead imitation. The next time they saw him he was coming back from the baseball field behind us, where he had apparently been frolicking in the sprinklers and rolling around the infield. He was a muddy mess and so was the apartment. ARGHHHHH!!!

The not so amusing animal stories are the daily dead animals, usually dogs, that I see as I drive north. There are soooo many stray dogs on the reservation. And they all have this kind of scary wild look about them. And everyday one more is gone. And no one comes to pick them up.