Coyotes, Boulder Creek, and Neighbors

  It was cloudy this morning, then bight and sunny until 3 this afternoon; now it cloudy and thundering again.  Yesterday I visited the Boulder library to get some new books to read, as I was leaving, I caught a flash of water from the corner of my eye, so I walked across the parking lot to Boulder Creek.  The water was up over the banks on either side.  I went home and looked a the Creek at the south end of my apartment building...  While it will take a rise of four feet to approach my building, the pathway beside the Creek, which is an underpass walk-and bike-way, was under water and closed.  I suppose that since one could see the water flowing across the concrete path, quite a few folks felt that the the "Closed - No Trespassing" sign did not apply to them.  In the 10 minutes I was beside the Creek, I saw 6 bicyclists and 10 people on foot ignore the signage, walk around the edges of the barrier, and use the "Closed" path.  At that point in time, the water speed was running at 8 times its usual speed - over 800,000 cubic feet per minute.  When I went into my apartment, took care of the cats, and turned on my PC, I found that all of Boulder County was under a Flash Flood watch until 9 p.m.  I'm sure that if someone had accidentally slipped into the Creek at the Folsom underpass, they would have wanted to sue either the City or the County for their act of stupidity.
   We are, once again, under a Flash Flood warning, and will probably be under the warning for most of the hours between now and 4 July.  Tubing is now banned on the St. Vrain River, joining Boulder Creek, Clear Creek and the Cache le Poudre River.  We also had  small wildfire yesterday afternoon in Lefthand Canyon; fire fighters had it contained within 3 hours.
      I had a very nice chat with a new neighbor this morning - I met Meredith and her dog, Izzy.  Izzy is a trained service dog, and she is extremely well mannered.  She finds my cats fascinating, but doesn't chase them, and, if the cats come inside, she stops at the door.  Lovey pretty much ignores her (Izzy), but Nedi hasn't made his decision about her yet.  In any event,  we had a very nice introductory conversation, and the two of them met the three of us.  Only Nedi has any reservations about either of them.  ....  Britta, her dog Boulder, her cat Baby, and her four parakeets have moved out, but according to the maintenance men, the place is a wreck.  I don't want to hear what they'll think of Nancy's place when she moves out by 5 June...  The air inside her place takes my breath away, between the litter boxes, her refrigerator, and her burning of different herbs and incense.   At least the two guys dealing drugs in 101 have also moved away.  I hope the other new neighbors are also nice, quiet, and don't deal.
    I had fallen asleep last night before midnight, but awoke with a start.  I was trying to decide why I had woken up, when I heard the chorus again - 5 coyotes here in the cul-de-sac.  Five of the six houses here have dogs, and one place leaves their dogs in the back yard during the night.  The coyotes were congregating at the end of the driveway where the outside, over-night dogs live.  The song was eerie, but familiar.  What amazed me was that none of the dogs in the cul-de-sac, inside or out, barked or howled.  Not Lola, not Cooper, not the two Jack Russell terriers on one side, or the Bovier des Flandres on the other side.  I had expected our domesticated buddies to bark at the coyotes - but they were silent.   I wonder why.  Is the quiet a tribute to their "wild" cousins?  Do the dogs realize it's a pack that's crying, and they say silent for safety?  Cooper and Lola were both abused dogs, and are "rescue" pets; they bark at anyone and everyone they first encounter.  If I open the front door and allow them to run out, loose, they do so barking and running.  They don't bark if on a leash, even though they do try to hurry down the front steps.  When other dogs bark in neighboring yards during the day or night, Lola and Cooper run outside and join in the bark fest.  Do the coyotes frighten them?  Or do they respect their wild counterparts?  Why no barking at the coyotes?  I'm stumped.

Stormy Night

Last night was certainly interesting....  We've been having our Spring thunderstorms since Tuesday afternoon, and they are expected to continue.  Thursday night there was another big blow with rain and hail, and it was pretty yesterday morning.  In late afternoon, things started to get cloudy and the winds picked up.  While walking Lola and Cooper, I remembered my husband telling me that "when the leaves on a tree turn over, and show their backside, you know it's going to rain."  He'd learned that from his mother.  The leaves on the maples, oaks and cottonwoods were all flipped over by the wind yesterday, and when I arrived back at the house with the dogs, I turned on the television to check our local weather.  It was thunderstorm warnings up, and said that in some areas, the rain might fall at a rate of 2 or more inches per hour.
  Now, it's silly, but I checked the channel guide, looking at all of the 700+ channels offered, and I didn't see anything that I wanted to watch.  I started cooking my supper, and I fed, watered and medicated all the critters.  Tipsi didn't want to come inside for dinner, but after I went out with Pounce, he suddenly appeared at my feet and wanted inside.  As soon as I closed the patio door, it began to rain.  Then tremendous flashes of lightning began, followed by window-pane rattling thunder.  My supper had cooked, so turned off all extra appliances, but sat in front of the TV watching a re-run of the movie Van Helsing, with the volume turned way down. (So I could make up my own ridiculous dialog...)
  I was digging into some mashed potatoes when I heard a very disagreeable sound come from the television set.  It was an Emergency Alert from the National Center for Atmospheric Research here in Boulder.  Last week, with the high temperatures, the area was told to be ready for possible flooding from snow melt.  Last night, the warning was that rain was falling at a rate of 4 inches per hour, and that areas along certain creeks were to expect flooding as the rain moved northwest, into the mountains, over the creeks and areas that have been burned by wildfires in the last few years.  The computer-generated voice stated that this was "a life-threatening event" and to expect mud-slides, possible rock slides, and to look out for various burn-damaged debris being pushed along by water.
  One of the creeks named was the creek that runs along my sister and brother-in-law's property on Topaz Drive.  It's the creek that flooded multiple square blocks back in September last year.  Once the announcement was finished - and it was repeated twice, both in English and Spanish, both written on the television screen, and spoken - I called Kathy and Jim.  Jim answered; he was preparing supper in the kitchen, so I asked if he'd heard the warning.  He told me, no, he hadn't heard it, but Kathy was watching TV and should be there to let him know at any minute.  I repeated the warning, and said that it announced to end at 10:30.  Finally, Jim wondered where Kathy was, and found her, sound asleep, on the sofa, with the TV on....  As he'd left the lawn mower with 10 feet of the creek, he thanked me, and said he'd run out and move it, and "keep an eye on the creek level" until he went to bed...
    The lightning and thunder continued almost constantly.  Both dogs became frightened, and the cats wanted comfort, too.  I took everyone upstairs, and I went to bed (reading), and finally fell asleep with two cats and two dogs in bed with me.  I did not need a blanket to stay very warm.
    It's gray and cloudy today, and my kits were very happy to see me.  We've been having a "love-in" at my desk, and I've petted and scratched and rubbed kitty anatomy since I returned home - except when they were eating their special breakfast.  (They don't like lightning and thunder, either; they go under the bed, and I read aloud to them. - That's why they got a special "Momma's sorry" breakfast today.)  The storms are supposed to appear again this afternoon and tomorrow afternoon, as well.  At least I don't have to water the flowers and garden twice a day!