This afternoon I decided to take advantage of the beautiful fall weather and use my lunch hour to walk the dogs.

Time is a tiny bit tight, but if I am quick and efficient I can come home, change, grab the dogs and get out for about 35 minutes.  Even with changing clothes, I can still manage to get back to work having only been absent for just about an hour.

The weather was a little on the cool side today so it was a great day for walking.

I tried to capture the beauty of the sun peeking through the trees.

Sampson was running free while Delilah was on the check cord.  I worry about her wandering too far away from me while she’s trailing the leash, because I’m afraid it will get caught on something.  There are a lot of small limbs and branches still scattered about from the hurricane we had back in August and they make for challenging navigation at different times.   Delilah has gotten hung up a couple of times; luckily for me (and her) she has been close by.  She is very calm when this happens and just stops and waits for me to untangle her.

Today I thought she had run off but I pulled out my little whistle, giving two short blasts and shouted “Come on,” and she came right back to me.  After that I held the leash until we were past the temptation spot. 🙂

In our little neck of the woods there are a couple of large boulders and the dogs love to run up there and sniff around for chipmunks.  Today I notice an area just off one of the boulders because Sampson noticed it.

His entire head was inside there and I could see the earth moving with his investigation.  Of course I called him away from there as quick as I could.  The last thing I want is a fisher or coyote to get startled by one of the dogs.

I was reminded this morning of some forgotten challenges that adopting an older dog brings into a household.

When we brought Sampson a 13 pound bundle of joy home, common sense told us how to puppy proof our house.  It was easy because Sampson’s head barely stood  a foot off the ground.

When Delilah joined our pack it was a totally different story.  Delilah’s head was about 2 1/2 feet off the ground and while there were certain things Delilah couldn’t reach with all four feet on the ground, most things were easily accessible by standing on her hind legs.

I quickly learned that everything had to be picked up off the floor, furniture and counters; as nothing was sacred to Delilah.   Thankfully she was never a ‘shoe-chewer’ instead she favored paper.  Paper plates, paper towels, paper napkins and occasionally yes just plain paper.  If you had a snack of crackers on a paper plate and forgot to pick it up, it would be destroyed when you came back in the room.  If it had/has the faintest whiff of food on it; Delilah would/will find and destroy it.

It is extremely frustrating trying to puppy-proof your home from a fully grown dog; especially when  you have Mr. Canine Good Citizen for the first dog sitting there watching.  Many a day I came in and said to Sampson, “Can’t you be a role model?”  Those were the days I wished I could communicate in a strait forward manner with my dog.

Now-a-days Delilah favors bounce dryer sheets, but on occasion she will still find a random napkin or paper towel.  She also loves to greet you at the door with your gloves in her mouth.

I was reminded of those frustrating habits by my friend Laura this morning.  You may remember Laura, she is the one with the animal sanctuary in her backyard. 😉

Here’s what she wrote. ” I SWEAR you and Delilah are in my thoughts CONSTANTLY these days. I’m thinking that Ginger is my Delilah. She’s into EVERYTHING and chews up just about everything.”

Ah yes,  those were the days my friend.

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