Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

It's Not All About Delilah

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The tag line of my blog is, “Life With Sampson And Delilah….the 411.”

Sometimes I feel like it should be called “Life With Delilah,” because it seems I only blog about Delilah and the challenges she brings to the household.

Tonight I was struggling with a topic and decided to look through some pictures and see if I could come up with something to blog about.

When Sampson was a young puppy we got into the habit of hiking every weekend.  We have lots of trails in the area in which we live and Sampson absolutely loved exploring them.

At that time I already had the idea to write a children’s book about Sampson so I took lots of pictures.

Here are a few of my favorites.

He had run ahead of us on the trail and when we turned the corner, there he was resting on the rock.

Walking this trail is what made me fall in love with walking in the snow.   I love the play of sunlight and shadow in this photo.

When I first taught Sampson how to drink from my water bottle Hubby wasn’t very pleased. He quickly realized the benefit when we started hiking.

This photo was taken not far from where we currently live.  I loved this photo so much I had it blown up and framed. I love how they are both looking ahead, contemplating what the trail holds for them.

See….it’s not all about Delilah. 😉

How do you find a topic when you aren’t sure what to blog about?

 

 

Which Would Scare You?

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As I’ve mentioned previously, the local LaCrosse team has commandeered our field, which makes getting into the park on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays a bit difficult.  The way I’ve been managing this is by trying to get home on my lunch hour on Mondays and Wednesdays in order to get our walk in.

On Saturdays I just wait until later in the day.

My friend has it easy, as her entrance is not anywhere near the field.  Today it dawned on me, all I have to do is use the alternate entrance.

DUH!  WHY DIDN’T I THINK OF THIS BEFORE?

I made a very crude drawing of our walking area and the two entrances.  You may laugh if you’d like, I’m well aware that I am not an artist. 🙂

I told you it was crude.

The brown dots represent trees but there are probably a lot more.  There are a couple of other trails as well, but for simplicity sake (and my poor drawing abilities) I kept it to a minimum.

We arrived at the entrance the same time as a man on foot.  I asked him if he’d mind if I let the dogs out.  He didn’t.  He was a thin man, glasses and a golf cap.  He kind of reminded me of a geek.  We sort of walked into the woods together, chatting a bit.

Just after we entered the woods Sampson saw someone and took off.  A few seconds later a jogger ran past.  He was big and beefy.  I apologized for Sampson and he said, “He’s a nice dog.”

Now which man would make you nervous if you were a woman walking alone?

Yup, it was the nerdy guy that freaked me out.  He was heading down the orange trail so I stayed on the yellow. We did a quick cut through and went to the orange trail in the opposite direction.

I usually carry my camera in my back pocket but I switched it out and put my pepper blaster back there.   When we eventually found our way to the orange trail, Delilah’s leash snagged a really large stick.  I picked it up and used it as a walking stick.

Luckily for us we did not run into either guy again, but we did have a scary dog encounter.

It took place up near the entrance we had used.  I was planning on walking the dogs down the orange trail for a bit.  Sampson was up near the entrance while Delilah and I had started on our way.  I called Sampson but he didn’t respond.  I looked and saw him still and stiff.

I started walking toward him and that’s when I noticed Tia the German Shepherd.  We have walked with Tia before but it was a long time ago and Tia has grown into quite the big girl.

Sampson was tall and stiff  and while Tia wasn’t in a full poised to spring position, she wasn’t standing tall either.  I called to Sampson over and over again, but he wouldn’t turn his head.  Meanwhile Tia’s mom was calling Tia with no response either.

I saw Tia’s lip raise in a slight snarl.  I had Delilah on leash and didn’t know what to do.  I couldn’t approach Sampson with Delilah because I know she would have dove right into the middle of it, but I had no-one to hold her either.

Thankfully Tia’s mom got in there and diffused the situation enough so Sampson turned and started back towards me, then Tia feeling brave since Sampson’s back was toward her, ran closer to Sampson to get a good sniff in.

At that point I realized there was not going to be a dog fight and so Delilah and I approached and Delilah rushed right up to Tia who ran towards her mom with her hair all up on her back.

Later as we were leaving the woods I saw Tia’s other mom walking in, baby on her hip and Tia on leash.  I stopped my dogs and put Sampson’s leash on and waited until they had chosen the path leading away from us, then we left the way we’d come in.

Yes there was a bit of excitement but it really was easier than trying to get thru the LaCrosse people to get to the woods.

And I’m happy because I have my lunches free again. 🙂

And truthfully, the two dogs staring each other down scared me way more than the geeky man.

To Boldly Go Where No Dog Has Gone Before

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Yesterday I shared a little bit about an early morning walk I took with the dogs on Friday.

I had sent my friend a text asking if she and Brady were around for a walk, but hadn’t had a response back.  I figured we would just head her way and see if we ran into them.

On our way, we ran into one of her neighbors, Mark and his dog Bruno.  Since he was heading the same way we were, we walked together, chatting a little as we went.

The best way to describe our walking trails is like this:

My road ends in a cul-de-sac, if you went straight you would head up a hiking path to the field, just before the field the path heads up the hill to the right and if you went straight out that path you would enter another cul-de-sac.  My friend’s house is the second house on the right hand side.  The first house belongs to M & M who have Tia, the German Shepherd.

Just as we got to the top of the trail, near my friend’s house Bruno and Delilah started to play.  I made the mistake of dropping the leash.

As soon as I dropped the leash she stuck her nose to the ground and she headed out of the woods and into my friend’s neighborhood.  I snagged Sampson and said, “Go, Go, Go, Go, Go, Go” and started running back the way we came.

Delilah kept going.

I quickly realized she wasn’t responding, so Sampson and I turned around and headed out to get her.

Meanwhile Mark and Bruno were walking home and I could see Mark trying to get Delilah’s attention, but she ignored him.  She had wandered into M & M’s yard and their garage door was open.

Yup, Friday morning at 7:00 o’clock, Delilah walked right into M & M’s garage.

I was horrified.

Mark meanwhile had started walking down the driveway and was almost to the garage.  I got to the end of the driveway and started down myself, Delilah decided she was done in the garage and stepped off to the side thinking she could head over to Brady’s house, Sampson  meanwhile saw the open garage and decided to investigate like Delilah had.

Luckily for me as Delilah dodged out of the garage, Mark stepped on her leash and handed her back to me.  Sampson returned when called and we headed back into the woods to finish our walk.

Whew!

I will not be dropping her leash again anytime soon.  I swear to God, if she falls down a friggin rabbit hole, I’ll hold onto that leash and follow her down.

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