Why the Big Pup?

December 26, 2009.  Saturday.
Situation:   Today, more typically, took an afternoon walk at 3 pm, prior to work this evening and before showering etc.   But Atlas is still here, and he knew what was in store, pacing and whimpering at the door, as if he’s been going on walks with us for years now.  Mway stood away from the door, just looking on quietly, as if to say “why does this big pup have to go along with us?”

State of the Path:   All the snow from yesterday is gone, washed away apparently from the rain that started yesterday afternoon.   Lots of mud, grass in spots as green as if it were summer time, clumps of grass along the old orchard that I mistake for the garlic grass that comes up profusely in the spring.  As soon as I step outside I expect to be irritated by the jaggers that are probably jutting into the path, but they do not seem as bad as I expected.   Atlas wanders away a lot, even venturing through the back hedgerow into Hutchinson’s field, but he keeps looking backward, to keep track of where we are.  I take note of the many new raspberry runners that have come up along the old orchard, pinkish purple and more slender than the redder blackberry briars so prevalent in the back acre.  There have not been many raspberries the past couple years; looks like there could be more this year.

State of the Creek:  The water is running about as strongly as yesterday, a thick brown green color.  No ice at all.  But in the eddies, there is the foam that you sometimes see, which looks like soap suds.  I’m not sure what this is, if it is cow urine, or a concoction from nitrogen runoff, or simply oxygenization of the stream.   Coming up through bug land along the sumac ridge, I am surprised to find some spots of ice.  When we get to the creek, Atlas runs up to it, but stops short, until he sees Mway wade into it, then he jumps in and out of it, smiling, as if he’s done this all his life.

The Fetch:   Coming up from the creek, Atlas wanders down the channel into the skating pond, and so I follow Mway up to the clearing alone (I don’t hop across the channel, because I’m afraid of slipping on the mud).  As soon as I get to the clearing behind Mway, I turn around and I see Atlas’s big white form running along to catch up with us.   I manage to throw one stick for Mway before he arrives, and I get a second one off before Atlas has the wits about him to interfere.  On the third throw, he bounds off and steals Mway’s stick.   After Mway fetches the fourth stick, she simply starts heading down the path back to the house, Atlas following with his stick.   I don’t have a chance to leash Atlas, so in the backyard, while Mway sits with her stick, I chase Atlas around the house.  Finally I throw Mway’s stick once, and Altas drops his.  I manage to collar him as he runs by me to snatch Mway’s stick away.  When I come back out into the yard after dragging him into the house, Mway is only interested in fetching the stick once or twice.