Letters to the Editor 06/30/2010

To the Editor:

Last week, while horseback riding the Peterson Ridge Trails, a friend and I encountered three adult male mountain bikers. They approached rapidly on their mountain bike trail to where we were riding on the Forest Service road. We asked them to slow down; they ignored us, spooking my 71-year-old friend's horse.

The horse spooked, reared and created a large mass of dust. The bikers sped across the USFS road, totally ignoring what danger was presented to us horseback riders.

It is well marked that this mountain bike trail is approaching a USFS road as signs with "No Horses" and horizontal markers indicating the horses will use the USFS road are present. It is only logical to believe that if one were riding their horses on a mountain bike trail they might get seriously hurt. No one should assume what a horse is going to do. Their survival instinct is to flee when rapidly approached by anything. Horses are a "fear and flight" animal.

I hope this letter will serve as education for those who do not realize the danger they can present to horseback riders. And perhaps a little consideration and courtesy might keep the forest a safe place for everyone to enjoy.

Linda Daniel

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To the Editor:

I guess this is an obituary of sorts. Someone needs to remember the "old boy" if for nothing else but the fact that he was a loyal dog to someone and he doesn't deserve to pass away without being noticed and remembered.

When I read the article in the "Sisters salutes" section (The Nugget, June 23, page 7) praising the wilderness rangers and all the assistance from the Crews 401, Prevention 41 and the people who never get named for helping my dream of giving the old boy a forever home kicked into

action.

The "old boy" had been found adjacent to Candle Creek about one mile on the Jefferson Lake Trail and everyone had changed their lives and jobs to help get this old emaciated, dehydrated and dying dog out of a terrible situation. My dream became the goal of giving him a forever home. I have two gentle giants, I was armed with kennel dimensions, dietary ideas and the belief that my vet, Dr. Carl Berg, could handle anything I threw at him. I called promptly at 10 a.m. to plead my case at the Humane Society.

Dreams die hard. Little John had been euthanized. It had been decided that it was best for a dog in extreme pain with a shoulder dislocation, joints that were riddled with arthritis, dehydration and extremely underweight to be euthanized. The big boy refused to eat. He didn't seem to want to continue.

I guess I will always wonder if he was just a throw-away dog in a society of over-stressed people or was he just abandoned to fend for himself at an age when we all just need a little tender loving care or did he just get lost and couldn't find his way home. I'll never know.

I will pray though. I'll pray that his owners - and he must have had owners - need to remember that "what comes around goes around."

Bernice Rossana

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To the Editor:

Well, I've been waiting for someone who lives on or off Cloverdale Road to write a big thank-you for such a beautiful job of paving our road.

I've lived off this road for 30 years, and at last it's a pleasure to drive on it.

Thank you, thank you!

Shirley Berray