Posts Tagged ‘dog’
Cyndie’s Views
Rarely a day passes when I don’t receive a photo in a text from Cyndie. Many times, it ends up being the only image available to complement the tales I post. Occasionally, it is the main point of my post. Today, the backlog of images she recently sent me are featured in this post.
Like, “A Man and His Wife’s Dog.”
Okay, he’s our dog. Until he runs away. Then he’s her dog. Or when he chews up something valuable like my glasses. Or plows into me from behind. Or… well, you get the picture.
Cyndie gets the pictures, too. Here are five more to give you a glimpse of Cyndie’s view of this October at Wintervale…
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Longest Disappearance
This morning I am writing while seated near our front door, wondering if Asher will ever return. Moments before Cyndie was to drive off on an errand, Asher bolted into the woods as she was about to bring him inside and feed him.
I had just finished feeding the horses and came up to find Cyndie planning to drive to the neighbor’s place where he had recently made unauthorized visits three different times. She didn’t find him there.
Now she is gone and my walk around in search of any sign of him proved fruitless. This is the longest he has been awol in the six months we have had him.
Watching two squirrels chase each other around the trunk of a tree out the front door informs me that Asher is still not in the vicinity. He has trained them well to seek the highest branches and get out of sight whenever he steps outside.
The sight lines are wide open today, which is a drastic improvement over yesterday morning. While feeding horses yesterday, it looked like we didn’t have any neighbors because of a heavy fog. We could hear cars driving on the road but we couldn’t see them.
At least Asher won’t have any trouble seeing our house if he decides to return. Since his recent forays to the house across the road, we have been making him wear his orange vest to which we attach a leash to restrain him. At least he will be easily identifiable as someone’s pet by that vest.
Cyndie was slowly granting him opportunities close to the house to move off-leash while she lured him with treats to pay close attention to her.
Yesterday, after the fog lifted, we lounged on the back deck with Asher tethered on a long leash. He basked in the warm sun.
I hope that my post tomorrow will be able to describe his return without incident. I may spend today thinking about how big an area we could fence off to contain him if that ends up being a solution.
After failing to achieve control with our previous dog, Delilah, I am hoping we don’t end up in the same situation with Asher…
He’s Back!
Before I finished typing the previous sentence, I spotted Asher slowly walking up the driveway. His orange vest is more dirt colored than orange. He took a big drink from his bowl but didn’t seem the least bit worried that he hadn’t been served his usual breakfast.
I don’t know where he’s been or what he may have found to eat, but he seems rather exhausted and perfectly content to just lie down and rest.
I wish that his return would make me feel just as perfectly content.
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Autumn Walk
The ground has started to dry up after the most recent soaking and the sky slowly grew sunnier and sunnier yesterday afternoon making for a particularly picturesque leash-walk with Asher.
Warm, however, was not how the air temperature felt.
I have no confidence that Asher is able to associate being confined once again to the leash with his recent rash of unacceptable sprints across the road to disrupt things at our neighbors’ but it’s the only solution immediately available in our bag of tricks.
The challenge it creates for us is finding ways to burn off some of his big energy with games and exercises in the house. He got a little wound up in the house but he was amazingly tolerant of being tethered every time we went out.
I thought this flipped-over oak leaf with the deep puzzle-shaped recesses was particularly eye-catching. I didn’t recall ever noticing leaves with this shape on tree branches. A few minutes down the trail, boom! There’s a small oak with the same shape of leaves. Doh!
The trail in the woods offered more mystical nature specimens, especially this classically shaped toadstool.
Had me looking for a troll sneaking around in the trees nearby, especially the way Asher was sniffing the ground.
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Sharing Space
I guess it’s nice to see big and small creatures getting along but part of me feels bad when the pigeons poop on the backs of our horses. It’s bad enough that the birds act like our barn was built solely to provide them comfortable space to raise families. As they grew more at ease around the horses, I noticed they began to show up to scavenge pellets of feed while the horses were still eating, sometimes even stepping right into the pans.
Now some of the pigeons have started standing on the horses’ backs.
I sure hope the pigeons are eating a fair share of the flies that are always trying to share space with the horses’ faces.
Meanwhile, I’m back to sharing space with Cyndie who has safely returned from a trip to Santa Fe where she and her friends’ visit just happened to coincide with the Ring of Fire solar eclipse. Not bad timing on their part.
I took full advantage of her return to opt out of dog duties for the first time in too many days. Asher made Cyndie walk through the dark last night to the neighbor’s house where, for the third time in three days, he wanted to share space with their [I’ve since learned] cockapoo.
She was very unhappy about that, which was just the way I felt the first two times he trespassed over there.
I’m afraid our plan of allowing Asher the freedom to roam our property off-leash has taken a serious turn in the wrong direction.
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Can’t Complain
Relative to the news and analysis of my ongoing experiences being chronicled here, I can report from my thoroughly biased perspective that we are emerging this morning from the day-long soaking rain with fresh anticipation for Cyndie’s return late tonight.
One aspect of caring for non-speaking others that I deeply dread is my inability to interpret their expressions of needs or wants. I can’t say that Cyndie deals with these situations any less stressfully than me, but when she is taking them on, I am relieved of sole responsibility.
I’m pretty sure I misread Asher’s whiny pleading last night. I had made the mistake of getting too close to the road with Asher roaming off-leash and he suddenly bolted for a house on the other side of the road to harass their dog while entirely ignoring my attempts to command his obedience.
He was thrilled over being able to lap up whatever was in bowls on their front steps (cat food?) and manically sniff every nook and cranny around their property, peeing on only half of them. Their little barking Bichon Frise-like breed dog had retreated to their back deck. Luckily, Asher was too curious to be confrontational and merely invaded its personal space when conducting a full inspection of their deck.
Our wonderfully sweet octogenarian neighbor, Eileen, was bold enough to grab Asher’s collar when he finally trotted up to meet her. I was busy panicking that he was going to jump on her and knock her over. Since I hadn’t brought a leash along on this walk, I tried walking him by the collar close enough to our property before letting go so I could run with him back to the safe confines of our property.
Asher made a U-turn and went right back to their front door. Eileen stepped inside to grab a leash to loan me so I could get him home.
Inside our house, Asher whined and paced from door to door, wanting to get back outside. I assumed he wanted to go right back over to where that little dog that barks all the time lives.
All this was happening in soaking rain. I can’t complain about the long, slow precipitation. It was perfect for our recently planted grass, but it made it complicated to step outside with the dog. Asher persisted for so long that I decided I needed to put on his vest with a leash, get myself geared up for battle against the elements, and take him for a walk.
He didn’t poop right away. He made me walk several circles through the thickest woods before he finally relieved himself of what looked like uncomfortably loose excrement.
No wonder he was whining.
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Mia Protecting
Our dog, Asher demands a lot more attention than the horses so I gave him an extended session of intense physical play thinking that would earn me a chance to switch to looking in on the horses later. Getting down on my hands and knees in the front yard, Asher and I wrestled hard as he challenged me to take away the variety of balls he would bring my way.
Whenever I got a free ball, I would throw it as far as possible for him to chase. After he pounced on it and turned toward me in a crouch, I would provoke him from afar which would trigger him to charge toward me at full speed. That enabled me to practice my best evasive moves at the very last minute to avoid a collision.
It really helps to be able to see him coming.
When I made it out to check on the horses, they were milling about in the paddock. As I was making my way toward Light there was some movement among all the horses and Mia started backing toward me. I assumed she was just making space for Light who was in front of her. As I adjusted my position to come around in front of Mia to approach Light, Mia pinned her ears back.
I was the only one near her and that signal, combined with the backing toward me a second earlier, helped to clarify who she was “talking” to. I don’t think she wanted me bothering Light at all, whether I had good intentions or not.
She didn’t need to tell me a third time. I retreated to the other side of the gates at the overhang and watched from a distance. Mia stayed beside light as they slowly made their way toward the far side of the large paddock.
Later, as I was coiling up hoses in front of the barn, I kept hearing one of the horses let out a scratchy squeal. I guessed it was coming from Light but never witnessed it.
Mia and Mix were in view, so I knew it wasn’t them. When I stepped around the corner to look, Swings and Light were just standing there like nothing was going on. Light may be going into her heat cycle, in which case I will give her all the space she needs.
I’m impressed and rather pleased to see that Mia –notoriously the lowest-ranking member of the herd– was stepping up to control activity for once and not just reacting to what was going on around her.
That doesn’t mean I gave her a free pass when she nipped at my glove as I held it out for her to sniff as I was picking up empty feed pans later. That was just being unnecessarily snooty on her part. Too bad I can’t wrestle the horses like I do Asher.
By the way, he doesn’t get any free passes from me, either. I can’t let him win all the time or he’ll think he’s the boss of me.
I mean, I know he is, but I don’t want him to think that I know he is.
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Side Views
Asher and I spent a little time out behind the house yesterday morning in the space that I think of as our “side yard.” It produced this collection of views that caught my eye…
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I hope these provide a sense of the beauty and tranquility that we are blessed to enjoy in our little paradise. Maybe not so tranquil for the burrowing rodents that Asher seeks to root out, but otherwise, heavenly in the fall, under majestic old trees on a bright, sunny day.
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Autumn Scenery
I started to title this post, “September Scenery” before I realized it’s already the eleventh day of October. Since it doesn’t feel at all like October, I went with, “Autumn.” I needed to mow grass again yesterday because it is still growing, despite the mornings starting frosty in our low-lying areas.
It might be frosty, but it really doesn’t feel like October.
I wasn’t able to give Light any extra attention yesterday because my time was constantly being demanded by Asher. Cyndie headed for the airport before Asher and I were out of bed in the morning and when he wasn’t begging me to distract him from loneliness, he was searching for where Momma could possibly be. She flew out of state with friends for a few days to celebrate each of their different milestone birthdays occurring this year.
Asher didn’t seem too happy to discover it was just him and me and he failed miserably when it came to employing any self-soothing skills.
His skills of stealth in the woods were still as keen as ever, though.
You might think that’s just a shot of one of our paths into the woods, but look closer…
Sometimes Asher can hide in plain sight.
While he and I were playing with his Jolly Ball in the front yard I heard a familiar screech overhead. I figured I knew what it was but Asher’s wrestling prevented me from being able to turn my head skyward right away to look. The screeching continued enough times that I finally pushed him away so we could both look up.
Sure enough, it was a bald eagle. Three bald eagles, in fact, were circling surprisingly low directly over our heads. I wondered if the screeching was a comment on our activity. Both Asher and I stared for a while as the three majestic eagles circled higher and higher away from us.
I wasn’t quick enough to capture a photo before they were too high to easily see.
Plus, Asher was back to bashing his Jolly Ball into my leg so I would resume wrestling over control of it.
Since Cyndie wasn’t home when he went to sleep last night and won’t be home when he gets up this morning, I’m hoping it will be a little easier for him to adjust to her absence and sync up with my solo routine for the next few days.
It’s not that big a deal for him, but I fear my sanity depends on it.
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Neck Pain
Why does my neck hurt this morning? Maybe it has something to do with being flipped head over heels by our lovely dog yesterday. You’d think by this point I would be smart enough to not turn my back on him when he is charging with all his energy in a manic spasm of invented urgency.
I was walking through the woods from the house toward the back side of the barn while Cyndie lagged behind on the driveway above with Asher. The first thing I noticed was Mix getting startled by the sound of Asher bolting over crunching leaves on the trail. I glanced behind me to see Asher coming and looked back in the direction of the horses because now they were all getting jumpy.
Wanting to settle the horses with an assurance it was only the dog racing toward us, I barely got a word out when Asher plowed directly into both of my legs, sending my feet in the air and my upper body to the ground with such speed that I’m not entirely sure what hit first.
My right arm underneath me hurt but so did my shoulder. The headache came later. Did I hit my head? I’m not sure. This morning it is my neck and back between my shoulder blades that are registering complaints.
Do these kinds of collisions hurt the dog, I wonder? Did he protect his head and neck when barreling into me and somehow hit me with his shoulder/side? I have no idea. He seems to be no worse after the impact.
In the end, the most important question has to do with prospects for him maturing enough to stop thinking that running into people at full speed is acceptable behavior.
We should probably put in an epic effort toward getting him to obey a “STOP!” command.
STOP trying to roll in manure!
STOP going into the landscape pond!
STOP digging up Cyndie’s garden!
STOP trying to jump into visiting vehicles!
STOP running full speed into John!
We were really looking forward to having a dog that didn’t need to be leashed full-time, but it has presented a number of different issues than we ever had to deal with when we had Delilah.
I’m looking forward to discovering if I’ve learned to not turn my back on him when he is racing anywhere in my general direction.
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Irrepressible Digger
Our dog, Asher, runs with a hop that conjures thoughts of a bunny or a leaping whitetail deer. Someone suggested his bouncing down the trail reminded them of Tigger from “Winnie the Pooh.” That struck a chord with us because it precisely describes how his energy looks as he springs in the air. His nickname could easily become, “Tig” because of the way it rolls off our tongues when we see him prancing out of the woods to join us on the way to the barn in the morning.
However, even more than being like Tigger, Asher is 100 percent a digger. He LOVES to dig and he is very, very good at it. When he gets manic and explodes into hyperspeed zoomies, his antics are often punctuated with what looks like an uncontrollable need to dig between huge figure-8 lap rotations.
He pauses for just a second or two and unleashes several strokes against the earth that send turf flying, instantly creating a hole deeper than the trenches made by the resident moles.
Trying to stop him is worthless because the digging is over quicker than words of admonishment can be uttered and then he is off again with another race around some imaginary track.
Maybe his nickname will become, “Dig.”
Yesterday, I was working on a variety of projects that had me moving between the shop garage, the manure composting area, and back near the labyrinth. I came out with Asher and we wrestled in the front yard for a while with his favorite “Tug-N-Toss” Jolly Ball before I wandered off to accomplish whatever I could. He didn’t follow me.
I figured he would run through the woods for a bit and then either return to me or head up to the house to lay on the front steps as has become common of late.
He remained out of sight long enough that I figured Cyndie had let him back in the house but as I came around the barn one time we practically bumped into each other. I immediately noticed his hackles were raised but I didn’t know why. It was clear to me that something was up.
Stepping into the barn, it was easy to see what he was excited about.
He had dug after one of the many burrowing critters that frequent our barn. He dug so much, he turned up two rubber mats and completely dislodged one of the bricks supporting a wood cabinet.
There was no evidence that he achieved any reward for his effort. If there was a rodent in the immediate vicinity, I’m sure it got the message there is a new sheriff in town.
As fitting as it would seem to call Asher, “Dig,” I hesitate to use that moniker because it sounds too much like a command to do exactly that. He doesn’t need any extra encouragement from us in that regard, that’s for sure.
I like it a lot better when he looks like he’s having “fun, fun, fun-fun-fun!” leaping with that big bounce down the trail.
That’s what Ashers do best. Hoo-hoo-hoo!
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Relative Something 