Walk In The Park: Krakens and Petey the dog and, of course, a few deer.

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Krakens and Petey the dog and, of course, a few deer.

Really, we needed to walk.

We had all been inside too much with the past three days of frigid weather. The weather channels all said it was below freezing. It was misty and wet, but there was no ice on the street or sidewalk outside the house, so we risked it.

RELEASE THE KRAKENS!*

DH took Scruffy and I took Paddy. We don't usually have good experiences walking them on a regular leash (we use a double lead and they walk together), but today they cooperated. [This means no one tripped, no one strained a muscle, and no one wrapped themselves around a sign pole.]

Scruffy waiting patiently. I just wanted a photo, but he wanted a cookie!

Paddy always moves...just too distracted. This was the only one not blurred ("If Scruffy gets a cookie, I do too!")

We walked slowly and carefully for the first few blocks, testing the road and sidewalks. Still, no ice presented and we grew brave with each step. The dogs too, hustled down the street, willing to test who was truly Alpha (Our guys still have not established dominance. Each behaves in a manner indicating dominance at times. And they will race down the street, only momentarily distracted by one good scent or a hamburger wrapper, to see which will be lead dog).It makes for a spirited walk.

We were passed by a truck as we walked into the park. "It looked like Petey!" I said, commenting on the pit bull, ears un-cropped, leering out the window on the passenger side. "Too big." replied DH.

It IS nice to have a companion who "gets" your references (to television shows that kept one glued to the tube at 7 years of age. I suspect my children have see re-runs. I think the shows we saw were re-runs, perhaps re-runs of re-runs..).

I looked to see where the truck parked and saw deer running at the edge of the woods bordering the river. "Look at the deer!" I suspect I repeated it twice more. [For some reason one cry is not enough - it must be "Look at the deer! Look at the deer! Look at the deer!"] I tried to be patient as I pointed them out to DH, who must sometimes think I am seeing things or just "making it up" so I have something to write about. The deer moved behind a building and then showed themselves for a few seconds more before crossing the fence into the old golf course. [There were three does, in case you wondered.]

Just before we spied the deer, DH had warned me, "If you are going down the trail, you are going by yourself!" I think we both realized there would be some mud and neither of us wanted to risk ruining such a nice walk. And I had to include that comment as it is perfectly DH.

That was it. We had a nice walk. The dogs behaved. We saw three deer far in the distance. Then we examined one of the neighborhood trees damaged by a storm a few weeks ago. The damage looks terrible from a distance, but only a close examination shows the true violent result of that weather.