June 19, 2010. Saturday.
Situation: As it turned out, yesterday I never did any work in the afternoon. I needed work on the brakes of my car and took it to Sears because they could work on it right away; but they couldn’t obtain all the necessary parts, so one of the workers gave me a ride home, and Ezra drove me and my equipment to and from work that night. Moi had gone down to Jazz’s with Atlas yesterday in the afternoon; she came back early this morning, and she and the Boy (visiting from NYC) have gone to breakfast, I believe, after taking the Boy’s car to Kantz’s for an inspection. Right now Atlas is downstairs sitting in front of the kitchen door, whimpering and barking occasionally, because I think he’d like to go outside. Mway is lying down in the hallway just outside the office here. I already took her out this morning to fetch stick in the back yard and then fed her (before Atlas arrived), but now I believe she’s waiting for a walk. I’m waiting to hear from Moi and the Boy.
State of the Path: Moi and the Boy come back about 11, and Moi, in a cheerful mood for the first time in days, decides to take both dogs for a walk, keeping Atlas on a leash, and not bringing the stick. I follow along. Moi seems to have gained some confidence that she can better control Atlas, as Atlas pulls her along down to the creek. Both dogs take dumps and pees; Mway dumps on the board in the path near the wigwams. Moi wonders whether she can take Atlas off his leash. I tell her that I’ve taken both dogs on a walk before without leashes, but that was back at Christmas time, and that I had a stick as a means to put a leash back on Atlas before we came to the house. Moi decides to keep the leash on Atlas.
State of the Creek: At the tree stand, Mway goes into the water, and Atlas follows, with Moi behind him and managing not to get pulled into the creek. I eat some of the raspberries that I see have ripened (I would eat more, but the seeds stick in my teeth). Farther down the creek, Mway goes again in the water, and Atlas follows again. This time Moi lets go of the leash, because the bank is high, but she’s able to grab it back when Atlas follows Mway back to the bank.
The Fetch: On the way to the clearing, I ask Moi if she knows what the yellow wildflowers are (the ones I first noticed yesterday or the day before, and which are coming out now in more numbers). She says, very provisionally, that they might be a type of crown vetch, but I don’t think so, and unfortunately I don’t have the leisure today to try to identify them. Up at the clearing, Mway stops in anticipation of me throwing a stick, but of course we have none. At the walled garden, after Moi and Atlas disappear from sight, I pull a stick from one of the dead sumacs on top of the barn wall, and Mway and I venture out onto the path again. I take the side path along the orchard, just for the sake of a day’s trampling of the weeds, but then we turn back to the clearing. Mway fetches the sumac stick as though she hadn’t already fetched a stick previously this morning. I watch as the stick falls and rustles the goldenrod before it hits the ground, and Mway zeroes in on where it landed, then dashes back, with the goldenrod wiggling in her wake. Where I stand to toss the stick, I look approvingly at how much of the goldenrod is staying smashed down.
Addendum: Later in the day, before Moi and I both go to work, we take the dogs for another walk. Or rather, the Boy takes Atlas for a long walk down to the creek, and when he gets back, I simply take Mway out in the back yard to fetch stick. I use a small stick I find on the bench, perhaps one from a lilac bush. After a few fetches, Mway starts to chew at the stick, until first it breaks apart in half and finally, after a few more throws, splinters into little pieces. I find another stick in the yard, and she promptly chews that one to pieces too.
