Well Bridgeport is a town with no stop lights, population 800 (and in the winter it dwindles far below that) and no Starbucks. No franchised restaurants at all actually.
Bridgeport is a seasonal town that some people drive through on their way to Yosemite or other popular summer destinations. Families come to camp, hike, and fish in the areas surrounding Bridgeport. Bridgeport plays the spring-pad for the family summer campers. They come to sip their last taste of civilization before they head out into the wilderness- a soft serve ice cream from Jolly Kone, a freshly baked loaf of High Sierra Bread, the use of a flushing toilet...
In the winter, the summer homeowners migrate south to escape the harsh Bridgeport winter and the town closes down.
The beauty, simplicity, and serenity of Bridgeport appeals to me. There is no traffic. Small family businesses make up Main Street. Bald eagles fly over the East Walker River spying for a meal. The Sawtooth mountains is the view I take in from my deck. Mountain lions, bears, deer, coyotes, bobcats, and jack rabbits, call Bridgeport home. Bridgeport is a town where the urban sprawl has not choked out the untamed land. It is still wild here.
The largest employer in the town is the county. Bridgeport is still large enough to have Animal Control offices. One day in August 2011, an Animal Control officer got a call about a little dog that had been living wild on a ranch near the Nevada border. People had been trying to catch her unsuccessfully for several weeks. The officer discovered that this dog had been living under an old trailer, fending for herself.
This canine, with pencil legs and the streamline physique of a greyhound, not much taller than a laundry basket, with almond eyes, a long narrow snout of a fox, and long conical ears, was a survivor. Escaping predators, somehow finding water in this dry high desert climate and surviving on lizards, quail and chipmunks.
It is no surprise that this dog is a good hunter with the ability to escape larger animals hunting her. Her thick chest narrows before her hips. She is quick, she bounds like a deer through snow and sagebrush, without tiring. Her reflexes are sharp enough to sense and respond to a scampering lizard.
At last, after many failed attempts, Animal Control was able to capture this clever, fox-like dog.
Living in the wild, she carried the scars and wounds and parasites of a wild animal. The Animal Control officer spent days washing the wilderness out of her, to reveal the dog beneath.
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| Foxey hunting a chipmunk |
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