General

After coming back from Mexico, I enjoyed having a routine for 6 months. We already had a plan for this year: to travel in Canada.

After all the COVID restrictions, everything turned a bit to normal now. We have been on the road for more than two weeks now. I have been keeping a dairy so, I could remember every bit of it in the future. Having a dairy is almost a necessity for me because of my everyday forgetfulness: “my playful subconscious”.

The most beautiful part of this trip is being in the nature and have interactions with animals. We saw few black bears, coyotes , a gopher, a moose, a snake... and a cougar. The closest one was the cougar. We were in the back of the van -that we have been travelling with, laying down in the bed to watch a movie. I heard someone talking outside. Stood and looked out from the window to see if anyone is outside.

There were no people around that I could see but a cougar standing so still 9 feet away from the van. I slowly turned to James and whispered him to look out of the window. He stood from where he was laying. We were both watching with awe. This was probably closest we could get to an animal in the wild without having any fear of getting eaten. It was a minute or less: the cougar stood by the car for few seconds and watch the surrounding ( it looked like she was looking across from the river) and moved few steps and stopped and observed. Few more steps; now she is behind the car. Few more steps; she is getting away from the car. Few more steps and it is harder to see her in the bush. I finally think of taking a shot of her. It is so crowded in the car that it is hard to find my backpack where my phone supposed to be. I find the phone and look back where the cougar was, she is still standing still. I waited until my phone turned on. It turned on. It is dark enough for my phone camera to capture the moment clearly. I took a photo anyways. Whatever I could get from that moment is fine with me. I meowed to get his attention back, so maybe I could get clear pictures of him. James and were loudly meowing to get our voice heard by him. He was as calm as he was when we first saw him. He listened, observed and slowly moved away.

Only two shots before he left. All this time James and I was whispering to each other about how nice looking it is. It was his and also my first time seeing a cougar. I was so grateful to share a moment like this- with James.

I can’t wait to have closer up interactions with more animals with more feeling of safety. I wish I could supply feeling of safety for any animal to trust me fully and instantly and wish animals wish to have the same with me: connection. Maybe this is the one of the main reason I am doing this trip: having and catching those connections...