Stella & Henry Go Walking

The sunrise was much much better than this photo shows. I guess it's hard to keep the camera steady so soon after waking up and before having coffee. The day started early though, 3:52am as the dog next door was outside barking at something. I was told last weekend all their dogs sleep in the bedroom with the door closed. Guess not all the time. I did not hear any coyotes, so not sure what had irritated the dog, but he was barking his ass off in the 'attack mode'. Needless to say, I never really got back to sleep.

There is going to be a picture similar to this that I took when I moved here as I leaned over the back fence to get nothing but the mountain and the vacant land leading up to it, framed and mounted on the wall in my new house in Indiana. There is just something magnetic seeing the Huachuca's. 

If you would have seen the hounds and the dog this morning while I was on the computer, drinking coffee and starting my day officially, you would have never guessed that a dog walk would be in play only a few hours later. It had been months since our last walk. During that walk Heidi gave it her best shot but we cut the walk off short for her, as I saw she was struggling. 

I had no idea that Stella would want to go on a walk today. She has not been in the mood lately to do the walks due to her hips. She will be 12 years old this summer.

Proof that Henry will drag all that he can from the bedroom in back and down the hallway, out to the backyard before he is caught. He does this every morning.

He then acts as if he has no idea how the blanket got there, nor what I am talking about. Complete innocence.

When I asked Stella if she wanted to go on a walk today I got a little response. Her ears perked up with a slight whine telling me yes. I wanted to walk just her and not take Henry with us. He loves to walk and has his nose to the ground going twenty different directions. Today I wanted Stella just to enjoy her own pace.

You might have to zoom in to that gate to see Henry and Walter. Henry was upset and was barking and howling at the same time. He did not know that I would come back for him at the end of Stella's walk, where he and I would take our own walk. I heard him howling the loneliest howl a basset hound can make ... a block away.

The 25' retractable leash works well for both hounds.

When Henry and I returned I tried putting on a large collar for Walter with the leash already attached. He wasn't having any of that idea and slipped out of the collar then took off sprinting. By the time he calmed down, hearing me tell him he didn't have to go for a walk ... he was panting and breathing harder than the other two hounds that did walk.

It wasn't even 15 minutes after our return that the two hounds and the dog were down and out for a late morning nap. 

You would have thought Walter had walk a 100 miles but he never left house. 

 

Rancher in back doing a little fence work to keep the few head of cattle he has roaming behind the house within the range.

This is the deep natural wash that is about 100' from the back fence.

So that was the highlight of the day. Hot and sunny as usual here in the 'Wild West'.