Another day in Paradise...

Yesterday I glanced out the window and noticed a white pickup truck in the driveway. Thinking that it was my landlord come to call I nearly panicked, as the cats' litter boxes were overdue for cleaning. Guilt and paranoia rushed over me like a cold wave. SHIT...why me...





It wasn't the landlord. A young couple unknown to me climbed out of the truck, their attention riveted on neighbor Jack's driveway (we share a large, well-gravelled semi circle for our entry way from the road. It's well used for turn arounds, and the cops love to park there to catch speeders coming off the frontage road too. It's convenient for people to pull over and talk on the phone, look at maps, or explain their excess speed or erratic driving to the police.





I looked out the north window to see what the couple were scrutinizing, and lo...there was a cow elk on the little treed hummock next to Jack's part of the driveway. I grabbed my camera and headed out the front door. The elk was the first critter I'd seen all winter, which has been brutal for the animals....since January DEEP drifts of countless snow storms covered everything, so moose, elk and deer have come down to forage on whatever they can find to survive.





Our large yard is churned up from tracks, and my southern neighbor's ornamental shrubbery was gnawed away to stumps, but the animals were never seen.





I noticed the elk staggering awkwardly as she made her way to the shelter of a small evergreen and took several pictures before the driver of the truck strolled closer when I said,





"This is the first of the critters I've seen this year."





"It looks like she's sick, or maybe got hit by a car."





"I can call the Sheriff I guess, but I doubt they'll say more than just to leave here alone".





I turned to get my cell phone from the house, until it flashed in my mind,





"Hey, the guy next door works for the Fish & Game office. I see his car, so he's at home...why don't you run over and ask him to call them. They'll know what to do."





After the couple left, I watched Jack come out from his trailer a couple times to assess the elk, and after Himself came in from work we watched it before we had to leave to take care of some car business. It never moved except to look around a bit. Himself thought she might be ready to calve, as her belly looked full, but when we drove past on our way out I noticed one leg appeared to be injured.





Anyway, she was gone when we drove in after dark. Jack told me today in an email, that she was there when he went to bed, and that his superiors had said to just let her be...which is pretty much what I supposed their response to be. If they aren't hurting anything, or in obvious anguish, I guess it's best to just let nature do it's own job.




While we were away we ran into my best friend's brother. He informed us that her health is failing rapidly; she's been taken off chemotherapy as it has made her so ill she can't take even her IV nourishment. She's down to 78 pounds and has basically given up the battle to survive multiple cancers.


Letting nature take it's course is sometimes so hard.


*
A Forest Service truck and a front end loader were just here; the loader cleared a path through the snow over at Jack's...and loaded up the elk, which had only moved a few yards away from the trees where she was yesterday, before apparently succumbing to whatever injury she had sustained.