Back At It

Why is it dogs cannot abide being clean? 

Or maybe it's just this dog.

I planned to be out of the house early today. We were to meet our friends at the park for a walk. These early morning walks get me up and going. Today I have a few errands to run before heading to throw some requests.* I was glad to start the week right.

Love this pop of color!

So we walked hard. Zelda ran riot with her buddy.

It's unseasonably warm. Small bugs swarmed us. Still, it is fall. The leaves fluttered down around us.

While walking across the bridge we saw some creature in the creek. Was it a beaver? river otter? nutria? We were too far to see it well before it headed to the bank and disappeared, but we think it was probably a beaver. And we will keep an eye out on future walks.

Whatever it was, we decided to get down on the bank and look at the spots where it could have taken shelter. Zelda smelled something that was too good. She had to roll...and roll...and roll. The scent was too good (bad) to leave on the bank and came wafting off of her - gross.

Where did it go?

There were options.

The beaver/otter/nutria/whatever has some good choices for a secure home on the far side of the creek.

Yeah. She's a dog.

A Great Blue Heron, well up stream of where we usually see one, was fishing in the shallows. It had caught a big fish.** I tried to get closer for a photo as Zelda dropped to roll in the horror of a smell. The photos were a struggle, but good enough to know what we were watching.

It picked the fish up and put it down a number of times before eating it.

Then it stood up and the chest feathers fluffed out - like in the bird books.

We will get back into the habit of the walk - expecting better behavior with practice. As it was, we were glad to get back to it. Now time to wash the halter and leash and dog.

We weren't this slow, but we will need to pick up the pace.

Stinky dog watches our friends down at the water's edge.

NOTES:

* I've used up my imagination at this point. It is good to have a plan for practice - 15 small cups for candle-making.

**I wasn't aware there were fish of this size in this little creek. It looked like a bass.

### SPIDER ALERT ###

There are almost always interesting spiders and webs on the bridge. Here are a couple.

It's an orbweaver, but smaller than those we had seen before.

No spider, but breakfast caught in the web.