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.

It Doesn't Matter It's Christmas

December 25, 2009.  Friday.
The Situation:   Mway lies quietly on the floor, her snout buried in discarded product packaging and holiday wrapping.  Unusual day today: normally Moi has already taken Mway out for her early morning walk, long before I wake up.   But today everyone, Moi, me, Jungle Boy, and Jazz Baby, is spending all morning sitting around the living room, tearing up pieces of paper and plastic and throwing them on the floor.  Jazz’s German shepherd dog, a big white pup, has come along with her to visit.  He’s been pacing around the house, jumping up at the door windows, making a constantly shifting nuisance of himself; Moi and Jazz tie him up outside for a while, but he does nothing there but whimper and bark.  (I suspect he remembers a walk from his last visit.)  I try to keep my stuff, especially the food items, stacked in one corner of the living room, and keep clear at least a small area free of trash around me.  We reach the last few items to rip open around 11:30, and, though what I’d really like to do next is eat breakfast, I decide to take the dogs out, partly because I need some air, partly because I can’t stand Atlas pacing around any more.

State of the Path:   Mway scoots down the backyard sidewalk, her spindly legs carrying her slightly stout, but taut, body, the stub of her tail flexing.  She does her best to ignore the gangly Atlas frolicking at her side.  I’ve seen her snap at him in the past, but I suspect, although she’s not frightened of him, that she’s mindful that his mouth could just about engulf her head.  The path, which begins beyond out biggest outbuilding, is the same as it has been for the past few days.  The weeds along it are beaten down from the several snowfalls this past fall, but there are places the jaggers and briars still poke into the pathway, though you can sometimes whack them back with a stick, and where they are not too thick, you can try to trample them down to widen the path.   Where tall grass grows in summer, particularly down at bug land, the path is beginning to widen considerably.  At this time of year, the path makes a clear, unimpeded circuit down to the creek then back up.  There is also a side path along the old orchard, which however disappears as you doubleback to the main path through a thicket of blackberry briars and goldenrod – these have been knocked down by the snowfalls, but you still have to trample on them, very rough going for Mway to step on.  The side path along the failed skating pond is also clear, but this can be treacherous as you have to hop over the first feed channel, which is now filled with ice and whose foot holds on its banks are not clearly visible.   A few days ago I put a plank of wood across the channel, but it didn’t hold my weight, and my boot went plopping through the ice into freezing water.  Since my rubber boots (no more than a year old) are split open at the seams, they easily fill with water – they are about worthless, and my socks are always wet after my walk.  At the far end of the skating pond, the path is impeded by one of the sumac trees on the bank that fell over this past fall and pokes its branches into the path – since the weeds are down now, you can easily side step it.   The few inches of snow that fell here this past weekend from the big snowstorm that whammied the Big Metroplis are still on the ground.  The path itself is pitted with human foot prints, mostly iced up, and dog paw prints.  It is not bad walking, but I bring my own walking stick, because it can be slippery at places.  At the seeps down by bugland, the mud is frozen.   By the old orchard, I have noticed in the last few days a very strange animal path, like I’ve never seen before.  All over the place you see rabbit and squirrel prints, but there is an expressway of them running along the old orchard, a straight, deeply worn path of paw prints.

State of the Creek:   The water is at its typical height; it is not frozen and is still running despite the very cold weather the last couple weeks; only in a few places along the banks and the exposed tree roots are there a few small shelves of thin ice.   The last few days, you can hear the creek gurgling over the rocks.  I didn’t notice this today, as my attention was on the dogs.

The Fetch:   Atlas loves to come along for the walk and follows along fairly well.  Like Blue used to do, he wanders off frequently, but for the most part he keeps to the circuit with Mway and me, and ends up with us in the clearing behind the garden, where I always throw the stick for Mway.  The last few days I have been pitching the stick into the still standing areas of dead goldenrod, to get Mway to knock them down.   Today my hope is merely to try to throw the stick without Atlas interfering too much.  I brought two fetching sticks with me, because I know how Atlas acts.  Sure enough he behaves as I expect: doesn’t play fetch, but rather snatch-the-stick away-from-Mway-and-run-off-with-it.   I try to outsmart him for Mway’s sake: while he’s running away with the first stick, I throw the other one in the opposite direction.  Mway goes after that.  But Atlas then drops the first stick, and runs over to snatch away the second stick.   As the dogs tug, I find the first stick, throw that one.   Mway knows what I’m doing, what we’re trying to accomplish.  She runs after the first stick now.  Atlas drops the second stick, looks up for a moment, smiles; he’s not going to be outsmarted.   First one stick, then the other; on and on, back and forth.  After a while I snap a leash onto Atlas, and he pulls me back to the house.   Mway, however, doesn’t follow us to the door; instead, waits in the backyard, chewing on one of the sticks, in anticipation of my coming back to throw the stick in our usual fashion.