Dodger day

After a couple of very chilly days today felt wonderfully warm. The sun was shining and the wind was down, it was great weather for hiking or anything else. I got out for a walk and took Dodger alone. I have usually walked him with Bailey, but she had been out in the pasture hunting with Elvis all morning so I figured she needed a rest. Also, I wanted some one-on-one time with Dodger. He's better with me than he was, but we have a ways to go before I'd call it a trusting relationship.

Dodger needs a home. He'd love to have a canine friend and I suspect he'd be all right with a cat as well. He's certain to be better with women than with men, but both will need to give Dodger plenty of time and space to come around. 

He walked beautifully on a short slip lead today. I kept him on a short leash to keep him close to me so he'd see that I wasn't a monster. I had been using a gentle leader on him when walking the Bailey but he really didn't need it. He stayed right next to me or a half step behind. He's still very shy about being touched or handled and he doesn't have a happy look on his face when he's with me, but I think he did enjoy the walk. 

He loves to play with Bailey and he comes upstairs to the office with everyone during the day. He's really good about going into his crate and he's finally getting used to the routine of going out, and coming back in and then going to the a/c yard to eat. He doesn't exactly come when called, but he's never far away, is disinclined to wander, and he comes back in the house with everyone else, or even on his own.

Dodger playing with Bailey and Candace

Catching some rays on a warm day. 

Left to right: Bailey, Elvis, Dodger, and Candace

A visual girl

Everyone knows that a dog's sense of smell is far superior to a human's, and they use their nose, a lot. Sometimes it seems that the nose is their primary sensory device, almost to the exclusion of all others. Walking Della can drive me crazy because she's always wanting to stop and sniff for what seems like an inordinate amount of time. I mean, how much more information can she gather in 30 seconds that she can't pick up in the first 10? It's an on-going bone of contention between us on walks and it's not great for photos because she's always got her nose close to the ground.

Bailey is a different breed. She seems to rely primarily on her eyes. Her head is always up and she never stops to sniff on her own accord, although she will join in when Della does so. I walked Bailey by herself on Tuesday and we got in three miles at a better-than-Della pace thanks to her youthful enthusiasm and the fact that she doesn't try to stop and sniff every tree trunk or bush that we pass. 

Bailey sees things that I don't, and seems to see things that aren't even there. I have to keep a pretty close eye on the trail to avoid tripping, but she's always got her head up looking off in the distance, scanning the woods for any kind of movement. When the sun is behind us, she may alert to the movement of our shadows that precede us. Birds, squirrels, and of course deer hold a lot of interest. More than once on yesterday's walk she would stop and look up at the tree tops swaying in the wind high above us. She looks and watches so intently that I think something must be there (I keep hoping to spot a bear), but when I stop and look, my mere human eyes see nothing. I don't know if it's wishful watching on her part, or if she sees something relatively small but distant, or something supernatural. 

Della's eyes glow like embers in the light, but Bailey's eyes are jet black and all business, taking in information and storing the knowledge in her brain for possible future use. 

My van is in the shop so we used Clay's car without a crate.

She was pretty good about staying in back.

We walked one trail segment that was probably new to her and 

several common ones but in a different direction than we usually go.

I used Maya's harness on her. I had down-sized it for Bailey when

we first got her, but it was very snug on her now so she's definitely grown.

This was one of those times that I could not figure out what caught her attention.

She's even got one leg lifted, pointer style, but only one ear is up,

so whatever it was must not have been close.

She scrambled up on one of the big boulders for me to give me a nice pose.

She probably likes the higher vantage point.

Mental health walk

I have a case of the post-holiday blues. I hadn't walked for a while even before going away because I was busy with other things, so today was the first time since November 17th that I've been out on the trails. 

I knew I needed to get back to it, but I wasn't motivated. I was fed up with my failure to lose weight and was unwilling to cut more calories from my diet and unable to devote more time to burning them off. I've still been keeping my blood sugar in check but had pretty much said "fuck it" to the hope of fitting into a smaller pants before we go to Belgium in a couple weeks. (That's a goal I had been working toward over much of the past year.) 

So I wasn't in the mood to enjoy this and I didn't plan to walk very far. I took only Della so I wouldn't have more than one dog to annoy me. The first mile was like all first miles, just something to get through, to get the muscles loosened up and to get the heart and lungs working beyond the minimal, sluggish level needed to support sedentary activity. 

But, by the end of that first mile my mood had already improved and I decided to pass the turn I would have made if I wanted a shorter hike. I went on because I really wanted to get out onto the trail through the open field to enjoy the colors of the autumn grasses during the golden hour. The sun, and Della's eyes, did not disappoint. 

At the end of the second mile I had to be realistic about the distance I could expect to cover with the remaining daylight, so I headed back, but we hit three miles sooner than expected and I convinced myself that there was time to walk one of my favorite trail segments and still make it back before dark. We emerged from the woods back at the trailhead where we had started at 3.9 miles and made it an even four miles with a quick loop around the parking lot. I could have gone on for a few more miles, but the lack of daylight dictated that we stop. 

Seeing the almost-full moon rising in the clear sky as the last light of day was fading was an added bonus on the drive home. I'm obviously glad I went and I will try to do it again tomorrow. 

Thanksgiving in Kentucky

 

Cache, so named because my sister Kate found him while out geocaching.

BeBe is the senior dog in the house.

Cache and BeBe 

Reka, in HER chair. 

This huge cage and the two avian occupants, Frank and Ricky, made the trip back to Virginia with me.

Thanks to Green Dogs and their foster for taking them in.

Ricky is an Eclectus parrot.

Frank is a Cockatoo.

Reka

Willie, the only cat in the house.

Cache slept in my bed while I was there.

Pixel loves to play fetch.

Pixel

Cache

Willie

Frank and Ricky on the drive home.

They were quiet the entire route, thankfully.