One of my favorite things is spotting small animals. When you live and work in Yellowstone you will see a bear, bison and most likely wolf or moose during the four or five months you are in the park . Small animals are so much harder to spot. This was a good year. I spotted snow shoe hares, foxes, yellow bellowed marmots, pine marten, all types of squirrels, chipmunks and more species of bird than I can name. This year’s favorite was this short tail ermine. Donna and I were hiking the Cascade Creek Trail for the second time of the summer when we spotted this beauty. We were nearing the fork in the trail where you could continue forward to go to the Dunraven exit or turn right to the Creek exit. We heard rustling and saw a small creature come towards us. We stop so as not to scare it. Out comes the weasel with a look that stated – ‘hurry up lady and take your photo, I don’t have all day. Make sure you get my good side.’ It kept tilting its head so I knew which was the good side. I took a few photos and put my camera away. It scurried off back into the woods once I put my camera away. We laughed so hard at the animal encounter. This will be a memory that I will always cherish.