I Walked Alone This Morning

I was told one time that even if the photos all seemed the same to me on the same walk in the same field, each walk really was different as well as the photos. That was never more true than this morning as I left with two hounds but made the majority of the walk by myself because Sadie and Stella never followed me.

Stella was back to 'total freedom' since I had plenty of time, it wasn't that hot and I wasn't being attacked by bugs, gnats or mosquitoes. She did not take long separating herself and walked pretty fast out to the middle of the field.

Sadie was the mystery thought. Whatever caught her attention 2' inside the field yesterday did so today. I don't find anything in that area that would keep her there but evidently there is something very small that she has trapped.

Stella headed more toward the neighbor's woods.

And Sadie was nowhere to be seen. I cannot remember anytime in the past 10 years that has happened with her.

I took a glance where I last saw Stella walk and she had disappeared down the slight incline to where I could not see her. It looked like I would be making this walk alone today ... so I picked up my pace and took off.

This gives you a pretty good idea what the weather was like this morning. Rain all around us but not here. Believe it or not, it was not hot yet nor was it humid ... the picture looks as if it would be.

As I was on my way back on the return path I saw Sadie up ahead staring at me. Once I yelled her name, she came running at me in a high speed sprint.

She slows down just enough to run into my knee to let me know she is back on our path.

Stella was going to be an easy rescue as I saw her walking the edge of the neighbor's woods, in plain sight and with the help of Sadie, we could get her walking in our direction toward home.

Stella took her time inspecting the yard ... letting me know it might have been only four days ago but it was time to mow the yard again. While the hounds rested outside I pulled the mower out, filled it with gas and luckily got it mowed before the light rains came.

Lunch was served at the normal time. Heidi woke up from a very deep sleep on the couch, as did Stella behind my office chair and Sadie had passed out in front of a floor fan. It was not raining hard but Heidi walked along the side of the house on the dry mulch before making a right hand turn into the yard.

Sadie and Stella had other ideas ... they were not going anywhere with it raining lightly or otherwise.

By the time I could bring my camera into position Heidi had sprinted from the middle of the yard to the driveway ... then walked as slow as she could up the drive. Obviously she was inspecting the weed eating I did along the fence line. Yes, I could spray with weeds with weed killer and be done with it but that isn't good for the hounds in my book. So I'll continue to cut all weeds as close to the ground as possible and let the sunshine kill them.

An hour later there was still a light rain, hard enough for cars to use their windshield wipers while driving on the highway but not heavy enough to drench the azaleas.

I spent the day in front of the tv and am still not finished. While I watched the first game of the Reds doubleheader, the hounds slept in their normal positions. Then I tuned into the Indy500 Qualifications until 5:45pm ... headed the hounds out for their afternoon walk while I waited for The Preakness post time at 6:48pm, which will put me back in time for some dinner and Game 2 of the Reds / Cubs Doubleheader tonight at 6:30pm.

It's been a great sports day. The afternoon had some hard downpours of rain for a few minutes, then the sunshine would come out ... later some more rain for a few minutes followed by more sunshine.

It was a good plan to mow the yard before the rain. It needed some rain and I was able to cut it before it would grow taller with some rain.

Life is rough being retired in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

It Was Heidi's Day Again

She started by making a left turn instead of a right turn into the yard. I knew then it was below 80° and that she might go for a walk. That walk took her only 100' into the field with her own inspection. She was barking when we returned and tried to run a little until the large bloodhound Sadie took that as a sign to play. She stopped, shook her head and sprinted to the door so she could go back inside.

Heidi Barking For Action

Here's Heidi in between her bouts of barking. Since I will never post a video, or a recording, you will just have to take my word for it. In the almost seven years I have had her I have found she barks for only two reasons ... it's time to eat or she is excited more than normal. Today she must have been excited about our return on our morning walk that was done four hours later than normal. I can explain later.

I could tell she was excited about today. Before I could even lift my camera into position she was already past the FJ. She never goes left but always to the right to relieve herself. So I was pretty sure she was going to join our morning walk at 11:30am. I can explain later.

As she strolled through the tall grass, even though it's been mowed every third day. I even raked that excess grass up the other day but once I had more on the mowing after that I decided I was not going to exert any more energy raking returning dead grass ... that will happen next fall in the 2018 Leaf Project. Yes, the field grew another 6" while we slept last night.

Okay, here's the reason for our late start to the day. Last night around 10:30pm I started watching a 4-star rated movie called Interstellar, filmed in 2014. I had never seen the movie so while the hounds were sleeping and I was wide awake after my three hour siesta in the afternoon, I decided to watch it ... not knowing it was going to take four hours with commercials. I thought about taping the rest of it so I could go to bed and then I could watch it later today ... but the movie was so good that I had to stay up for the end of the movie.

Sadie was hot after field mice?? Something was at ground level and she was hopping around faster than my camera could pick up ... why ???

Because Stella was taking off on her own walk at a faster pace than normal, while Heidi was inspecting the backyard for the perfect place to relieve herself. I had to keep an eye on Stella.

In less than 30 minutes after waking up, answering an email and eating a bowl of granola ... I had three hounds going three different directions ... this walk was was going to be hard and challenging. It's never a good sign seeing three hounds doing their own thing in three different directions ... ever!

I coaxed Heidi to return to the path off of the yard. I knew she would walk a little but based on what was taking place I was going to have to leave Heidi on her own and would not be able to linger back with her.  Why ???

Because Stella was moving out too far in front of us and picking her up pace. Sadie was nowhere close and I was still trying to comprehend starting my day four hours later than normal, maybe even four and a half hours later than normal.

I could tell immediately that Heidi didn't really want to walk the the half mile loop, she just wanted to check out the first 100' of the field and most likely would return home while Sadie, Stella and I continued on.

What is it that makes grass taste so good?

As Sadie and I were catching up with Stella before the first turn, Sadie had to make a quick dash to the left to hopefully get Stella back on the path but she was also in the middle of chasing small birds or mice in the field.

Those weren't deer tracks she was glued to ... something was trying to get away, running at ground level, so small that I saw nothing that could be leading Sadie on the chase.

So by this time I have Heidi out of sight way behind us, Stella was heading to my left and ignoring my calls to get back on the path. She had to be "temporarily" taken off her Freedom To Roam program, just for this walk. Sadie was pretty sure she heard me talking to myself out loud.

If you squint really hard you will see a little 'white' just off dead center of the picture ... that's Heidi enjoying her own exploration.

Don't be fooled by that photo. Stella did NOT come trotting over in our direction to join Sadie and I ... I had to walk over to her mumbling to myself, then leading her by her dog collar back to the path. She had no problem with that and actually trotted a little faster than I could lead her.

Sadie stops to check to see if we are really going on this walk or what is going on. Nothing has started smoothly on the half mile trek, yet she was fed breakfast at the normal time and lunch followed four hours later. She is ready to go just as soon as Stella and I are headed in the same direction.

Stella, as usual, cannot understand what all the concern is about so she reverts to her slower than slow pace just a little ways behind me and Sadie. With Heidi outside and in the field I knew it had to be below 80°, her threshold ... but with little humidity, the bugs, gnats and small mosquitoes were attacking me on my arms and legs ... I needed to get this walk over as soon as possible.

Yet we were not even at the halfway point. That still left plenty of time for the hounds to take their sweet time on this walk.

Once Sadie and Stella were finished checking out the back of the field, we make the turn for home and quickened the pace. Both of them walked the path right behind me, too close for camera range and we headed home. I kept Sadie moving by asking her "where's Heidi" ...

She took off running down the return path for the yard where Heidi had returned. Like always inside or outside, any time that Heidi returns inside or is there waiting for us, Sadie will always tap noses with her while on the run.

Stella and I were close to the yard and it certainly looked like Heidi was wanting to play a little bit. Whereas Winston would run or chase Sadie even with a big difference in size, Heidi has never done that with Sadie. I guess she found Sadie to be much bigger than the Greyhound she was living with when I rescued her.

With clean ears and no ticks inside them, it always feels good to a basset hound when they shake their heads hard enough to get some fresh air up inside the long ears. You can see that she is just starting the shaking process while Sadie thinks she is going to get to play a little.

Was Heidi barking because she was excited we had returned or because I left her behind??

Once she shook her head for the final time and then turned to sprint for the door, I decided she must have been barking because she wanted to go back inside where it was cool. Stella eventually showed up and she also trotted to the door to be let inside where it was cool. She was asleep behind my desk chair within minutes of walking inside.

You may have noticed a couple of slight changes in the blog post today. I wrote under the photo instead of on top of the photo as a description or the content that went with the photo. I also did not use small numbers if they were less than ten. A friend who had written a book, told me today that he found out from his editor that any number one through ten was to be spelled out and 11 or above could be typed as numbers.

I tried that here today but I cannot say that I am thrilled with that rule of the English language, so most likely I will revert back to breaking the rules on numbers and punctuation in the English language, starting with my next post.

Within two hours after starting our day, all of us were back on schedule. When it was 2pm it felt like 2pm ... so all is good. Once again it looks like rain but I am hoping it doesn't tonight since the Cubs are playing in Cincinnati. I will be back to my 'early to bed early to rise' routine starting tonight.

Even the shorter day is a good day in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.