Heart Like a Dog

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

The Watcher In The Woods…Day One Hundred and Thirty Six

By

My husband served 6 years in the United States Army as a Military Policeman; he is always vigilant about keeping us safe and has taught me to be vigilant too.  Two Fridays ago, someone was watching me when I took the dogs for their walk.  Fortunately for me, I saw him just about the same time Sampson saw or detected him.  We were in the field when Sampson stopped and looked into the woods; about the same time I reacted to a noise I heard and looking up I saw someone stopped and looking at us.  I wasn’t close enough to describe anything about him, except that he was male and wearing a blue coat.  I was a little nervous but didn’t really concern myself about it; I just made the decision that I would not venture out of the open area into the woods, instead I stayed close to the entrance to the park. 

He continued on his path and then crossed the back of the field; Delilah ran up to him and I called her back.  He continued across the field and made his way to the wooded area on the other side and that’s where he stayed; leaning against a tree; watching me and the dogs.  It freaked me out a little but I knew Chet was on his way, so I wasn’t too worried. 

I saw Chet before the dogs did and began making my way towards him, I greeted him with “There’s someone here.”

“I know” he said, “I saw him as soon as I walked in.”

I filled him in a little bit about what had transpired and by that time,  he (the watcher) had crossed the field again and back onto the trails we normally follow.

I said, “I’d really like to know what he is up to.”

Chet said, “We can follow him.”

So we did.  We got into the woods but just couldn’t catch up to him.  Eventually, we saw him again, but never got close enough to exchange words.

Honestly, I think the person I saw was a kid, a lot of kids go up into the park to smoke dope and drink beer, but since I can’t be 100% positive as to what he was up to, I have to be cautious.   I am now even more vigilant than ever; I turn around every minute or so checking 360 degrees to make sure I am not being followed or watched.  Chet is constantly teaching me, about being vigilant. 

“When you come to an area where there is a drop or cliff, look over it to make sure no-one is hiding there.”

When you come across areas like this, you should look over to make sure no-one is hiding.

 I noticed something the other night while we were hiking;  Delilah looks over the cliff too.  Most days she runs ahead and actually goes down and investigates the area below the cliff.  Delilah has great instincts and I trust her judgment; she is a smart and vigilant trail dog.

Delilah Stone...Always Vigilant

 

What the Wild Things Are…Day One Hundred and Thirty Two

By

What a gorgeous day it turned out to be today.  I couldn’t wait for Chet to get home to hit the trail, so I loaded up the dogs and headed to the park.  We did one lap around the trail loop and then headed back for one more time.  Of course Sampson had to stop for a quick cool off in the dirty water.

I like mud...

Once we hit the trail for the second lap, we encountered a woman and her dog.  We had met the dog before, but not his mom.  Once she realized my guys were friendly she relaxed her grip on her dog and started chatting.  I felt like I had to tell her about my neighbor’s dog as I wanted to warn her to be careful in the woods.   Turns out she knows more than I do…she knows what’s up there.

Sarah told me, there are coyotes in the woods.  She knows this because her dog found the freshly killed deer and brought her a piece of it.

He doesn't look that mean....

Sarah said she spent an hour trying to get the deer away from her dog, he finally dropped it in some water and couldn’t find it.  She also said, there are fisher cats in the woods.  She lives much closer to the woods than I do and she has actually seen a fisher cat on her street.  She’s also heard them and from what I understand the cry is bone chilling.

I don't know about you, but this scares me more than the coyote!

 

I shared with Sarah that I have taken to carrying pepper spray and she agreed that it’s not a bad idea to have some spray, whether it be for protection against a wild animal  or something else.  We exchanged phone numbers and hopefully we can make arrangements to meet out on the trails so we have someone to walk with.  After all there is safety in numbers.

New Horizons….Day One Hundred and Nineteen

By

Today when we went to take our hike, there was a woman who was walking up to the park with her two dogs; the problem for me was that she was on her cell phone.  This is the third time we have encountered this woman and all three times, she was on her cell phone.  Don’t get me wrong, if I need to be on my cell phone when I am out, I will be; but for me it is more important that my dogs and the trails have my full attention.

We quickly got the dogs running into the park and huffed and puffed our way up the hill; we jumped on the orange trail and followed it completely around; whew what a workout.  The dogs did really well, at one point we could see two guys and a dog on the trail but they were some distance away, we stopped and made the dogs stop, and then I continued on towards our destination; Delilah immediately followed me, but Sampson was sorely tempted to go and greet the other dog.  Eventually he headed back onto the orange trail with us.

Then we got to the open field and there was a group of three people standing in the middle, naturally the dogs wanted to head that way and we tried to distract them, but the people were headed to our side of the field, and so it was inevitable the dogs went to greet the people.  This is something we will work on, because some people don’t like dogs (GASP!) and don’t like to encounter a dog charging at them on their walks!

Still it was a very enjoyable walk and the dogs got to check out some new places.

New Horizons

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...