It's Cold But We Walked The Field

As the temperature dropped near freezing, we still had time for a walk this morning - Mountain Hardwear down parka w/hood, gloves, camera. Someone mentioned it was hard to tell Sadie and Stella apart in the photos. I agree, so I am going to put the pink John Deere collar back on Stella. It fits better than the red one I found in a drawer and it will be easier to tell them apart, not only for you but me as well.

Of course I didn't think about before this range of photos. A couple of ways to tell the difference is, Stella's collar is bright red, Sadie's is faded red. Stella has a distinct black streak in her tail and Sadie does not. After this post though, just look for the pink collar on Stella, it's the collar she was wearing when I brought her home.

If I feel cold, then it's cold not only for me but Heidi also. She has been outside twice this morning but nothing was photo shoot quality. She also likes to walk under Sadie toward the water bowl and guzzle non-stop as Sadie sits above her and watches ... giving her the stare down this week. Water protection seems to be Sadie's theme of the week. Where Stella will come to me to move Sadie out of the view of the water bowl so she can drink water from that same bowl, Heidi doesn't care ... it's her water too.

Another successful walk this morning with Stella leash free. I had to say 'no' once, she came running toward me. Another time I had to remind her we were "going home" and she changed direction and headed back on the path with Sadie.

We were just outside with  no plans for taking a walk since it was early. Once they knew we were going for a walk, they came running toward me.

Once they saw me walking toward the field, they knew we were walking. It didn't take long for them to start their aerobic excercise with noses to the ground.

As we take that first turn to the right ... the coast is clear ... no unexpected deer or other animals.

This next photo is too blurry to put on a blog but I wanted to show you that nothing stops a bloodhound when their nose finds something. Even if that means Stella walking under Sadie and lifting her hips off the ground ... all for the same target.

Very little was said today during the walk. They searched the field and stayed as long as they wanted with what they found ... them came running to catch up with me.

It never fails, they may veer a different direction on the way back home, but once I say "let's go home" they both line up on the worn path to head back.

There was just one last thing they wanted to check out before coming back inside the house.

The yard takes a beating in the winter months. Mole traffic is running rampant. There are lots of tree limbs to be picked up and added to the new 2016 burn pile. Yet, the winter has been much warmer than normal here in the 'tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Stella Continues To Do Well Unleashed

My thanks go out to blog readers, Bethers and Cat … they let me know after my first post this morning that all of my photos were not showing up on the pages I had transferred from the first WordPress blog. I think most of the problem is not the older blog posts but the pages in the red banner.

As I write this … those problems should be fixed since I spent most of the afternoon rebuilding the photo file here on WordPress by adding the photos directly from my hard drive. That of course gives the photos a new and updated file name when I updated the pages with those new photos.

We still had time for the afternoon daily hound walk. It may have been close to 60° but it felt a “cold” 60°, if that is possible in the ‘tropics’ on the first day of February.

While the 152 photos were uploading into the “media library”, I WOKE UP two bloodhounds, grabbed the camera and we took off for a walk. For some reason Heidi is boycotting all walks outside until the outside temperature reaches 70° … that should be a couple of months from now.

It was a strange walk.

Sadie spent the majority of time walking right beside me and Stella edged her boundaries out a little further by ignoring me more and more. At one time I thought it might be time to put her back on a leash. I didn’t carry it, so she was saved today.

She did come when I called her name eventually.

They had a slow start. They were waiting on me and I was waiting on them to move forward to start taking photos. Maybe the are starting to protest in their own way.

They finally moved down the brush/tree line together but it is not long before Stella falls way behind and goes into her first stage of ignoring me calling her name. She didn’t look happy as she ran toward me.

As they turned the corner … Sadie for some reason came back to my side walking slowly, too close for any photos with the 55-200mm lens. Stella headed for her favorite spot to the right … but today I decided not to let her go that way and called her … she veered left and followed the brush/tree line.

Her and Sadie decided they would team up on the ‘ignore game’.

As we made the turn to return home, they were back to waiting on me. Ten acres of field to walk in and Stella has to walk in front of me … slower than slow … her normal pace. She always walks in slow motion dragging her paws if she is not playing or running. When I would stop to let them walk ahead … they would stop.  LOL

Like I said … it was a strange walk today for the hounds. At least the sun was out and a LOT warmer than normal for February 1 here in the ‘tropics’ of Southern Indiana.