Stella's new adventure started as soon as the walk did. As usual she headed away from Sadie and I. By the time I looked back to see where she was, she was already past the north edge of the yard, heading next door. I yelled her name and for some strange reason she reacted immediately with an 'about face' and trotted toward our path.
It was much cooler this morning so I thought I might see some running from her but that 50' trot was about all the energy she had. At least while she was within my view.
She continued to walk as if she was exhausted, could barely catch Sadie and I ... she never did because she stayed behind supplementing her diet.
So Sadie and I quickened our pace and took off for the morning walk.
It was still very wet from the heavy dew this morning. I am going to have to go back into my library of photos for this time last year and see if I was having the same problems on the first walk of the day. That shows right there that my memory is suspect yet something 40 years ago I can remember in detail.
It was good to see some flowers return since they baled the field. These were just off the edge of the field in the fast growing brush at the top of the gully. It's the spot that Sadie would like to jump into instead of walking into.
As I walked back looking through my 200mm zoomed lens, looking for Stella. I did not see her in the middle of the field, nor the area where we left her. I didn't see her anywhere near the wooded area behind my neighbors house or near their drainage ditch ... in fact ... I didn't see Stella anywhere.
Then as I glanced along the horizon without the camera, I spotted her ... in an area she had never been except for the few times she was chasing deer and a strange dog visiting the neighbors during Christmas last winter.
She was further north than she had ever been, between my two neighbors to the north. For her to go that far from the area I left her, in the amount of time it took me to walk ... Stella would have had to trot at a fairly fast pace to get to the area where I found her.
Was her slow walk an act to fake me out? It has happened before ... LOL
Sadie didn't care though. She ran a lot in her walk this morning and finished it with a sprint to the house. She was fast enough that I almost didn't catch her with the camera.
Around noon when all of us went outside after our lunch, it felt like rain, looked like rain but no signs of anything on the weather radar in our area ... all to the north of us.
Stella was more interested in going back inside to start her afternoon siesta rather than taking a walk. She did not move from this spot until I started walking to the door.
Heidi got this far, not even into the yard when she turned around and headed back to the door to be let inside so she could sleep on the couch.
Sadie just looked confused. She didn't even do her normal begging to walk and fell asleep within minutes of going back inside. It was like all three hounds had been zapped with low energy ... strange because it was a good ten degrees cooler than these past few days.
By noon I had very few pictures, not enough activity to blog about and had no plans to fill the afternoon with anything outside the normal day. I did help the economy this morning by spending money on groceries if if my shopping cart looked right ... I took home less food than I normally do. It's amazing how fast money goes when you are buying nothing but basic food.
It wasn't soon after we were back inside, that it was I not Sadie, that needed to get out of the house and head out for a walk. After looking at Stella during that walk I am not sure she was keen on the idea.
With the grocery shopping being the 'hit' of the day, things were almost too quiet. Once again I started a book, only to put it back on shelf after reading a couple of pages. I looked through the alphabetized DVD's and scanned sports talk shows on tv ... nothing there. What to do?
A siesta ... the hounds thought that was a perfect idea and were glad to see their training is paying off in these early years of retirement ... my daily schedule is becoming a lot like their routine.
For the first time in a long time there was no dreaming. That seems to be a big problem lately in my nightly sleeps ... strange confusing dreams.
By the time we woke up this afternoon, both water bowls (3qt & 1qt) for the hounds had been emptied. Heidi was trotting to the door to let me know she had to use the bathroom facilities outside. Stella was still in a semi-state of sleep and didn't know if it was really time to get up or not. Of course Sadie was bouncing up and down on her front legs with excitement ... thinking we were headed for a walk.
We almost were until I stepped outside with Heidi and saw the thermometer I hung on the wall the other day had it's needle above the 90° mark, enough to prevent any confusion if it was really that hot or not.
It was back to having all outside activity suspended until 8pm tonight. A much better time to take that last walk of the day, which would make the 3rd one today.
We will be back to watching Reds baseball tonight, reminding myself that its a rebuilding process that was decided by the team owner and GM. That means 2017 is not the season where wins are important but getting young players experience playing baseball everyday at the major league level.
I think it is more like "lets cut salaries by the millions of dollars, have fireworks every Friday night after the games to draw a sell out crowd and increase our profits". But that is just thoughts from a lifelong fan that hates losing at any kind of game.
With that last thought, I'm headed to the kitchen for one of many tall glasses of ice tea tonight and get prepared for that 8pm walk with Sadie and Stella.
It's hot and too quiet here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana
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