Nose Ticklers

This is starting to sound like a broken record, but: the girls discovered yet more deer or elk remains during our run yesterday. A couple of weeks ago, while walking in this same area with a neighbor and her dog, the girls came to a draw off the right side of the old dirt logging road in the forest above our house (see bottom photo). They ran down into the draw, and while I suspected they'd found some sort of carcass, I couldn't see it. I called them back up to me, never an easy task when a carcass is involved.

So it was no surprise that during our subsequent run through this area, we encountered some of the remains, now up on the road, pulled there for easier eating by forest scavengers. Given the size of the skull and jaw bones, I'm thinking elk? It's amazing and wonderful how thoroughly used the dead animal becomes, being eaten by creatures large (wolves, coyotes) and small (crows, ants) until there's nothing left but bone and hair, providing sustenance so that others may live.

Meadow always carefully sniffs the left behind hair (second photo, her standing near area where clumps of fur left behind), and on this day, ended up with several hairs on her nose (top photo/closeup)!