Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

I’ll Take Things You See on a Walk for $10 Alex

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I got my love of walking from my Grandfather.  So many cherished childhood memories involve walking the neighborhood with him.  (My love of thunder and lightening storms comes from him as well.)

The most important thing my grandfather taught me about walking was to keep my head down, because sometimes you find money.

Except I walk in the woods now, so mostly I’m watching out for hazards, such as roots, rocks, branches, poop and sometimes animals.  I also have to keep my head up to watch for other people, dogs, spider webs and wild animals.  It’s a fine line trying to keep my head up as well as keeping my head down.  Many is the time I’ve tripped over a root or rock.

Some walks are better than others.  It’s just the nature of the beast.

Take last Friday for instance.  Sampson, Delilah and I had just stepped into the field and Delilah was sniff, sniff, sniffing around.  I can always tell when she’s about to dive into something and sure enough, “Eck!  Leave it!” I screamed just as she dropped.  Sometimes I can see what she’s rolled in, other times I can’t.  Unfortunately for me, this was one of those times when I could.  Actually I looked down and saw the frog’s legs.

Ewwwwww.

I normally rinse the dogs off after a walk but rolling in frog legs meant shampoo because there was no way she’s going in my house with dead frog all smushed in her fur.

Le sigh.

We walked around the field and headed into the woods, then I noticed something else had caught the attention of both dogs.  Looking down I saw a smashed bird egg, sadly I could see the little embryo of the bird still inside the egg.  (If you’re not grossed out by such things, you can see the photo of the egg here.  Just scroll down past the really cute photos of my dogs.)

This is turning out to be one of those walks I thought to myself as I bent down and gently scooped the egg up into a plastic baggie.

A bit further along, I’m pretty sure Sampson was about to eat something vile, so I “Eck! ecked” again and while I was busy distracting Delilah from the eck Sampson was busy investigating this.

All from Camera 8-4-13 004 I was fairly certain it was a box turtle, but I always worry about snappers so I turned to tell Sampson to “leave it.”  I was so busy trying to distract the dogs and keep them out of trouble, that I almost missed this.

All from Camera 8-4-13 009 There was a book of matches not too far from it, so I’m assuming that someone went into their pocket to pull out the matches to smoke a cigarette and must have dropped their money.  Serves them right for lighting a match in the woods. 😀

I figure it was the Universe’s way of telling me to relax a little and enjoy my surroundings.

A few minutes later, I noticed a couple of trees had begun to turn their spring coats to the glorious colors of fall.

All from Camera 8-4-13 007

Can you see it?  The way some of the leaves have turned  yellow?

All from Camera 8-4-13 006

My footsteps a little lighter, my heart a little happier I headed for home.

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  2. What a great walk. I love the picture of the turtle. I walk with my head down too and john bitches at me as I won’t see the critters in front of me. But if I walked with my head up as I was leaving the hospital after his back surgery I wouldn’t of found 200.00. I of course kept it as who could prove it was there’s and I might as well keep it rather than the lost and found person, right? I’m so going to hell.

  3. My heart would be a little happier and my footsteps a little lighter, too, if I had just found a ten-dollar bill in the woods! Don’t spend it all in one place!

    Our leaves are still green, except for the ones that have fallen during rainstorms. And I love thunder and lightening storms, too! I always have — I don’t remember ever having been afraid of them at all. I only wish my poor Callie wasn’t so anxious about them. Shadow and Ducky don’t seem to be bothered as much by the storms as they are by poor Callie’s anxiety. They both look to me, concerned, as if to ask “why is Callie so upset, Mom?” And for me, thunderstorms bring back memories of watching “Dark Shadows” with Mom every day after school. I used to think the coastline of Maine saw more thunderstorms than any state in the country because of that show. 🙂 Just kidding, but seriously, “Collinsport” — and “Collinwood” in particular — had more thunderstorms than I’d ever seen in my entire life up to that point!

  5. WOW!! I found a penny yesterday (and you better believe I picked it up!) Sounds like a fun walk (except for rolling in dead frog and the broken egg) – we are starting to see signs of fall here already – the trees in our front yard are losing their leaves!

  6. That is one adventurous walk! One can see a lot when out for a walk if they pay attention. I tend not to pay much attention when walking in our neighborhood, other than for cars and other dogs. Walking in the woods is generally more engaging. But we haven’t done much woods-walking this year because the ticks and chiggers are extraordinarily bad this summer.

  8. I’ll take ten bucks and fall colors any day over frog ick! Our leaves our starting to change too. (We don’t get much fall here in So Cal, but the liquidambars change colors and are just gorgeous!)

  11. So, did finding the ten dollars make up for the fact that Delilah rolled on a dead frog? 😉

    I used to find money ALL THE TIME when I was growing up. Now as an adult – not so much. What’s up with that? Although I have hidden money in my dresser or other various places in the house that seem like a good idea at the time and then forgotten I had done that and been convinced someone stole money from my wallet only to find the money months later while reorganizing. Yes, my memory is poor.

  12. And $10 bucks richer! Good for you. My grandfather used to walk all over the place too – right up until he entered a nursing home at age 90…and then he still did – managed to escape several times for his walk. Great story about the dogs – I so relate.

  15. I’m a head-down kind of walker, but I try to look up and be aware of my surroundings too. The wiens are low and fast, and I gotta keep a close eye on anything they might decide to chomp.
    But we don’t have exciting walks in the woods… which they would love and I would hate.
    Congrats on the ten bucks! Look at it this way: it was payment for Delilah’s bath… not quite the take a groomer would get for bathing a large dog, but hey, ten bucks is better than free. But I also like what AnimalCouriers said… funny stuff.
    You know I went and looked at the bird egg… lol… very little grosses me out. But about the frog’s legs… I’m really wondering where the rest of the frog went. I assume something ate it, but why leave the legs? 🙂

  16. How long do your walks last? That’s a lot of activity! I’m glad you found the money and the glorious fall colors. The turtle is my favorite part, since it doesn’t look like a snapper!

  19. Very cool Jodi (except the whole rolling in dead frogs thing). I believe it is a boxed turtle too, we get a few of them around here, but still good to keep the dogs away – they carry salmonella. Nice score on the $10.00 – maybe it was a gift from your Grandfather. 🙂

  20. It really does seem like the universe was rewarding you for good deeds. In spite of the sometimes ickiness of the woods, it sounds like a delightful place to take your dogs. I’m wondering how long you spend on your woods walks.

  21. I believe grampa was with you when you found the $$$$ just saying you had a visitor with you today. Lol

  22. Woo!! $10! Cooper picked up a $1 bill out of a gutter once, and we still call him “our highest grossing dog.” 🙂 I love, love the first signs of fall. It’s my favorite time of year, though now that we are in Louisiana, I imagine fall is quite different!

  23. There’s money in the woods! Grampa was right! And fall is coming too….does it get any better? Glad things turned around on that walk!