Fast Running Blog

One time while running in a group we saw a cougar about 1.5 miles into the South Fork of the Provo Canyon. We stopped, he looked at us, and then ran up the mountain.

On March 27th, 2007 I got sprayed by a skunk during a quarter repeat. Details at

http://sasha.fastrunningblog.com/blog-Ran-with-Ted-in-morning-He-ran-easy/03-27-2007.html

I've run into 6 moose, a few rattlesnakes, and the usual deer, cows, skunk, elk, etc.

Last year I had some extra time on my hands and saw a bunch of animals on one run, so I documented it "TV style".
http://jon.fastrunningblog.com/blog--Announcer-nbsp-This-week-on-The-/07-11-2007.html

Thursday of last week on a run I was attacked by a cat. No not a mountain lion or bobcat. Just a ferral cat. I was running down a two track road on my farm with my dogs when they started barking at something over in some trees. I ran over to see what it was and saw a large tom cat that then ran at me and jumped on my thigh. I was wearing shorts so it had a grip on my bare skin. I tried to shake it and nock it off. It seemed like it was attached forever but I'm sure it was just a couple of seconds Then I think the dogs pulled it off or it just jumped when they tried to. I counted 17 bleeding puncture wounds and several other scratches all the way around my leg mostly on my thigh. Some on the calf. By the time I finished the run I had blood running all the way to my shoe. I'm pretty sure one mark was a bite as it was deeper than the rest and had that pattern the exact size of it's canine teeth. It also bruised a lot the next day.
 
It's usually those big mean dogs you worry about but now you know watch out for the kittys.

Better make sure you get a tetanus booster after that kind of encounter - never know if it had rabies or not.

A brown bear details here http://arw.fastrunningblog.com/blog-08-07-2007.html

My dogs killed the cat and I took it to the health dept. for rabies testing which I just found out came back negative and I had a tetanus booster 4 years ago. I guess I can still get cat scratch fever but I guess there's not much you can do about that.

Here in St.George there is a massive desert reserve north of town in every direction- Why? to protect the desert tortoise. I've talked to hundreds of people who have lived in STG for 20 years to their whole lives and they have never seen one of these turtles in the wild. Including the WildBull. But I've been running out there for a little over two years and have came across more than 10 of the little guys in several locations. Most recently last Saturday morning (june 7) I saw two within one mile of each other. Anyways nothing really mind blowing but it's always pretty cool to see one just truckin' along.
I've seen plenty of rattle snakes out there too, and coyote's.

Didn't Ted Nugent sing a song about that?  No, wait... I think it was a different kind of "cat scratch fever"!

This morning I saw two turkey vultures (http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/339/articles/introduction) near Poppington Park!!  They were huge.  One of them was sitting on a fence, and the other was on top of a light pole with its wings fully extended.  I thought maybe it was going to swoop down on something, but in retropect I think he/she was warming itself!!!  I first notice one of them (the light pole one) flying - what a wingspan!!  Very very cool.

when I was in germany (01-03) for high school, our training ground was a huge nature perserve next to the base. we would run by buffalo, elk, deer (which most of the time were fenced in), but we had aware of wild boar, since they weren't. A few grunts close by and you start bookin it!

here its mostly been snakes sunning themselves on the trails. I jumped a few last year.

I was "attacked" by a weenie dog.  Wasn't quite sure what to do.  The little fellow just jumped up and clamped into my skin (through my shorts, right above the knee).  I shook and shook and as he began to slip, I gave him a very firm kick right in the gut.  Don't get me wrong, I love animals...this little terror just wasn't going to let up.  Not the proudest moment of my athletic career, but at least I lived to tell the story. 

Probably not a big deal to most of you, but it scared the living daylights out of me:  I ran into a tarantula on a sidewalk in Herriman.

So, I can add that to my moose encounter, deer (or great danes---which I thought they were from far away), fox, skunk, pheasants, and too many dogs off leashes.

Why in the heck is there a tarantula in Herriman?!  Remind me NOT to run there!  Eeeek!  I like running past roosters in our river bottoms loop.

I think if an animal attacks, teaching it a lesson is fair game.

And this reminded me of a Brezhnev joke. Brezhnev and Reagan are taking a walk in Washington, DC. All of a sudden they are approached by a gangster who tells them they could have their last wish and he will kill them afterwards. Reagan says he wants to smoke an American cigar. The gangster grants him his wish. Then it is Brezhnev's turn. He pulls out a piece of paper and starts reading in his typical monotonous Brezhnev voice: "In the name of the Soviet people, the Soviet government, and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union I request a kick in the behind." The request is granted and sends the Soviet leader flying. Brezhnev flips over in the air, pulls out a gun, shoots and kills  the gangster. Reagan is astonished. Brezhnev, explaining, pulls out another piece of paper and reads: "The earlier actions of the attacker gave no pretext for aggression"

Hey Kim, apparently it is not so uncommon.  I freaked and thought it was someone's pet that had escaped.  BUT NOT SO!  People have had them in their garage and backyards for and so on for years!  Freaked me out sitting there all normal like on the sidewalk!

Yesterday I was running along the canal and saw a rat swimming alongside me with an apple in its mouth. Not very scary, but it did make me laugh.

I have noticed while in my garage on the wind trainer, I have a friend that I've nicknamed Stewart that shows up. he is a small, beady eyed rodent (some might call a chipmunk). He likes to carry acorns in his mouth and he stops and stares at me and I give a friendly wave and he wags his tail and runs away. I have a mission to feed him peanuts from my hand by the end of the year.

Hope you like rabies shots...  ;D

chipmunks can carry rabies?   maybe ill feed him from a stick?

Once I saw a lion he was standing alone, with a tadpole in a jar! (Name that tune...)

We had a cow from next door get loose and go galavanting through our yard! I ran like a scared little girl that I am inside!

Dancin' Days by Led Zeppelin....Tom will be so impressed if I'm right!  I've never been a Zeppelin fan.

I hate cows!  I had a horrible experience with a heard of cows that I had to drive through in a jeep with no doors!  They were practically in there with me!  The cowboys on the horses were laughing their heads off at the scared little girl that I am inside!

Thanks Kim, you the win the prize! (Prize to be determined by you) I thought "Dancin' Days" was an appropriate song to reference post St. George Marathon (though I didn't run it.)
You had a great marathon it looks like.

Guess my location makes it easy.

In the last six months all in or near towns I have seen:

8 brown bears - 2 of them  too close for comfort
1 black bear - and many others where I just saw wet prints on the road
1 moose - OK quite a few miles from town
mink
martin
too many deer to count
humpback whales - ok not ON the trail but within 100 yards

Jeff, you must live in Alaska to see all those!  Yup, your blog says you do.  You win the animal prize.

Just wondering, do you run with bear spray or a gun or anything?

No I don't like carrying things while running.  I run midday when the bear encounters are less likely.  When running on the salmon stream trails I try to find someone to run with or avoid them  from August through October.  I also do not run on the road in any section of town that is on that days garbage pick up.  Bears are a part of life here and we just do the best we can to avoid them.

Wow...almost stepped on a snake today!  Did one of those cartoon moves where on my way down somehow my body's able to shift in mid-air and land almost 3-4 feet away from the snake.  Thank goodness a car wasn't coming.  I'd have been toast.

this happened about two weeks ago, i blogged about it but i will share it here too because it was frightening. i was running down the street in a quiet neighborhood when out of nowhere a little chihuahua came cruising at me and was barking and growling. the most terrifying part is that it only had three legs. really. terrifying! it chased me for a few seconds and nipped at my ankles, but backed off when i crossed the street and was out of its' territory. i was screaming the whole time. i am just glad i got away and that (hopefully) no one else saw this encounter.

This was in the news today:

PRESCOTT, Ariz. - Authorities in Arizona say a jogger attacked by a rabid fox ran a mile with the animal's jaws clamped on her arm and then drove herself to a hospital. The Yavapai County sheriff's office said the woman told deputies she was on a trail near Prescott on Monday when the fox attacked and bit her foot.

She said she grabbed the fox by the neck when it went for her leg but it bit her arm.

The woman wanted the animal tested for rabies so she ran a mile to her car with the fox still biting her arm, then pried it off and tossed it in her trunk and drove to the Prescott hospital.

The sheriff's office says the fox later bit an animal control officer. He and the woman are both receiving rabies vaccinations.

Question - lets say you were in a very prestigious race and you were winning, and this happened to you, would you run the last mile with a fox clamped on your arm

I'm not sure why she felt the need to take the fox with her, since it is a given that she would have to undergo rabies vaccinations anyways.  No, I wouldn't carry it at a race.

o.k...this has been a big animal week for me.  Just a few days ago I was finishing a jog and a fox was staring me down from the bottom of the hill I was hoping to climb.  All I could think about was that woman in Arizona who carried the rabid fox on her arm for a mile.  I slowed to a stop and then a deer startled the fox who then took off.  A day later I was heading up a hill and my attention was focussed on a car coming down from the opposite direction when suddenly I was startled by a deer to my left close enough to touch- literally 5-10 feet from me.  I almost ran or should I say jumped out in front of the car.  They were still distant enough to easily avoid me and looked to be quite amused by my reaction to the deer.  Finally, today I was on a trail near a stream that feeds a lake and a woman coming from the opposite direction said to beware of the huge beaver behind her a hundred yards or so...I didn't think much of it (who's afraid of beavers?) until the biggest beaver I've ever seen jumped into the water (frightened of me) and made such a splash that I jumped like a cartoon character.  I'm starting to feel a bit on the edge on my wilderness runs!

Wow Dave! It sounds like you've had an exciting week. I was hit by a small kamikaze bird while riding my motorcycle on HWY 1 last week just before two very close calls with a cow and an owl, but nothing noteworthy while running lately. I don't spend much time on the trails though.

ah, suicidal birds. it reminds me of this one time...

http://allie.fastrunningblog.com/blog--some-days-don-t-go-as-planned-drivin/04-02-2009.html

"...a woman coming from the opposite direction said to beware of the huge beaver behind her..."  I want to comment, but really don't know what else to say....lol!

Wow, wow, and wow!! Always enjoy a little extra feedback.  :)

I screamed at a cockroach in the bathroom at the track yesterday.  Is that categorized as an impressive animal encounter???? 

http://jon.fastrunningblog.com/blog-Lunch-7-Tired-didn-39-t-even-try-to-/03-13-2014.html

I hate turkeys.

Here's a new one- I saw two lobsters walking down the middle of the road during my run today. I'm no where near the ocean or any other place they could come from, but there they were, tramping down the road. One of the strangest things I've ever seen.