a friend attacked
Mood:  don't ask
Topic: behave!
Near the beginning of our trip around the field today, we hooked up with our friends and began to go around. We saw "Canine Good Citizen" Del and her owner across by the woods. She was exchanging information with someone, said Tom, who arrived first. There had been a fight. None of us understand why she keeps bringing her dog out at a time she knows many dogs are there. None of us understand why she cannot rehabilitate her dog and none of us understand why she insists on letting her run free in public when she has hurt so many other dogs.

Her husband is a vet and maybe that allays some of her feeling of responsibility since he can stitch them back up again. But that is ridiculous. I often maintain that a good fix is a valuable thing, and far outstrips the damage of many mistakes, but this is not one of them. She knows her dog is aggressive toward other dogs and unpredictable. She has never hurt Reilly, but I do not trust her. I worry because she considers Reilly a 'safe' friend and allows the dog to remain loose, or unleashes her if she sees Reilly and I alone, but I feel uneasy and do not trust her to NOT attack Rei.

We saw Del and her owner return up the hill and the other person come straight back down the middle. It was Dan the Harmonica Man and his schnauzers. We called to him if his dogs were okay, but getting closer saw that his hands were covered in blood. His small black female schnauzer Lila was quickly dripping blood from her ear and it soaked her neck as well. The skin on my arms prickled. Cooper sniffed her and his nose was covered in her blood as well. Dan seemed shaken but businesslike and was taking her to the clinic right now. We were shocked and exclaimed at the running blood and he said that ears are very vascular, which is true, but I don't think I could retain as much composure as he had under the same circumstances. K2 said, Well, what else can you do but get into action? and I remembered other emergencies where I have kept a cool head.

Lila is the smallest usual dog at the field. She is not even noisy, and leaves all the announcements to Amazing Ranger. I supppose one might say that the smaller dog seems like prey to Del, but I don't buy it. Dan says that his dogs ran up to Del and she doesnt like that, but he is just trying to not cause waves. The fact is that Del has a record of aggression to dogs of all sizes, and that her owner is not sufficiently in postion as her leader. The fact is that her owner does not CARE about the consequences of her dog's behavior or respect others of us enough to keep her dog out of range, out of contact or in specific training and is not making it easy for her to be good.

We discussed this roundly and recalled past victims. I do not know what will have to happen for her to stop bringing her dog to a situation in which it feels it must attack and hurt others. Is it worth it to walk there if she is there? We try to avoid her anyway, but as K2 says its a buzz kill to be walking along and spot Del in the field. Dan reported later that Lila is missing a piece of her ear and required stitiches, Ranger had two puncture wounds that were not bleeding- both dogs will be on antibiotics for a week or so. Here's hoping they return to the pack soon and that Del sticks to other situations in which she can control herself.

TidBits
Mood:  chatty
Now Playing: My Doorbell- White Stripes
catching up-

Yesterday Reilly and I met old friend Nicole and her young GSD, Heidi, at the beach for an off leash romp. Heidi is about 1 year old and is tall and lean with E-normous ears. Nicole's last dog, Maddy, also had huge ears, I pointed out to her. She says she just likes dogs with big ears, she guesses.

Heidi is not a shy dog. "reserved" is not a word that comes to mind. She's gregarious and carefree. It does not occur to her that any other dog or person would NOT possibly want to play with her. Reilly is contemplative and reserved, cool and cautious.

Heidi just bounds up and wants to play, Rei says later, kid, I need some space to get my bearings. But Heidi insists and gets Rei to run and chase. Watching them I see that the dog that gets chased is the one who leads the game, and Heidi is a game leader. Rei is happy to play after a while and they run and romp and wrestle. Both dogs are curious and surprised by the ocean waves.

Eventually we meet a belgian shepherd who Heidi finds more willing to run away with her than Rei and they take off down the beach quite far. The belgian's owners are a couple seeming to be having an intimate moment facing each other at the beach. The woman is wearing a large fur hat and a long coat trimmed in fur and dangling leather and furry tassles. Her face is small and bright and made up under that big furry hat. I expect her to have a european accent of some kind, but she doesn't. I feel very plain in my 15 year old leather hiking boots, jeans and well-worn and faded green canvas barn jacket. My "distinctive" hair is all mussed up from the sea wind. I become conscious of the bag of dog poop I am carrying. There I am: responsible, sincere and too capable. Not a fashionable, romantic thing about me. The fur lady doesn't care and remarks that my dog is "gorgeous!!" I smile and say "Thank you!" I am glad that when it comes to dogs, people plain and fancy can talk without all that social assessment.

Reilly stays within a certain radius of me, and Heidi has far outstripped that. Nicole has a fanny pack clown-car-full of dog stuff. She is calling Heidi and squeaking toys. She pulls from the pack a large knotted rope, a squeaky monkey that Reilly really wants, and a kong ball. Nothing. Now the Belgian's owners are calling him too. Eventually the shepherds come tearing back.

Nicole priases Heidi for coming but also puts her Gentle Leader on for the walk back. Heidi complains and tries to claw the collar off her snoot. Nicole endures Heidi's 'hissy fit' stocially. She says Heidi needs to not get her way and be able to handle it. Its not the end of the world. I admire her for not giving in to a dog she obviously loves and dotes on, but wants to ensure she doesnot lose the upper hand to.

We head back to the pile of rocks that marks the place we came in. We meet a woman with 2 dogs coming the opposite way- one is a youngish chocolate lab, the other is a very old malamute mix. She is looking at Nicole and I and our dogs. Her dogs approach Reilly and sniff. The woman walks directly to the dogs and stands right in and over them- I have done this too and I know it is because she doesn't know Reilly and wants to assert her own rank over any possible squabble. I only do this when I see the Rei is uncomfortable with the probing of other dogs, but that was not happening and I rankle a bit that she is assuming such a dominant body position relative to my dog whose only crime is being unfamiliar and brindle. I make friendly noises at the dogs to sort of defuse the other woman via the dogs, to evoke a tone of casualness and calm. Of course there is no problem, and she leaves the dogs alone.

Oddly she changes direction and walks with Nicole and I, as if we all three were together. She says nothing, Nicole struggles with Heidi complaining about her headcollar. Finally she mentions Heidi's protest and hands Nicole a business card. "I'm a dog trainer and I can help you train her so she can run off leash and have fun. my rates are $175 blah blah"
"Well she was doing great off leash earlier but she just ran off with the belgian so she's on her leash now."
I see her game, she goes where the dogs are and looks for owners having a less-easy time with their dogs and offers her services. I feel relieved that she is not offering me a card, and more so since she pulled the body block earlier. I am proud that Rei is not picked out as a dog in need of instruction, but in comparison to Heidi,who has sat down to moan, it is easy to see who is in training.
"you have the Gentle leader"
"She already has a trainer, we go to Canine Consultants"
"I love it when people go to Canine Consultants and then they come to me."
the 'dog trainer' peels off, but her chocolate lab is begging at Nicole's side as she walks. The trainer feebly calls her lab away, but the lab doesnt care. Nicole ignores him but he can smell the chicken in her pocket and jumps up to put his paws on her back. We tell him OFF, and the trainer finally collects him. Her own dog is rather unconvincing evidence of her training skill.

I point out to Nicole how ironic it is to me that she, a vegetarian, is walking happily down the beach with a pocket stuffed with meat. We laugh. She describes how at training class the instructor told them to bring a really desirable food reward, and obviously dogs are not vegetarians. I remember my days drawing signs at the Food Co-op in Cambridge for Mr. Barky's Vegetarian dog biscuits and thinking how bizarre it seeemed that a vegetarian dog owner might inflict vegetarianism on their dog. I don't know if they really do, but Cambridge is a really different and interesting place where people try out all kinds of ways of living. Nicole is a personal vegetarian and makes no judgement on other's food. She made me quite a nice roast beef wrap with cheese, lettuce and asparagus for lunch, in fact.

Today we went back to the field and saw all of Reilly's friends. We met Pete and Cooper who were leaving. Pete loves me. When I see him from a distance, I walk towards him and open up my arms, I dont say anything. He comes running and turns to me for pats and kisses. He is happy to let me love him. Reilly is not jealous today. I have never given Pete a cookie, only pats, and that seems to be fine by him. He does not run up to everybody for pats, and his owner Kevin Number Two asks me what I have done for him? It used to be just Pete who came running to see me, but today his brother Cooper and McTavish also ran to me. They were not so interested in lots of love, maybe Pete said, "Yay it's Chrystal" and they all thought I must have cookies, but after saying hi, and no cookies forthcoming, they went about their sniffing. Reilly hunted mice. I scratched Pete's chest and told him what a good boy he is.

Later we met Reilly's puppyhood pal Sawdust, whom she hasnt seen since last summer. Seeing the dogs recognize each other was comical. They bowed and tumbled and then both rolled onthe ground, it seemed in delight. Unless we just happened to reunite them over a dead mouse, coincidentally? They were very happy, very silly dogs.

Potatoes
Mood:  silly
Topic: kinds of dogues
Laura came home from work yesterday to find Cody happily gnawing on a potato. "What the heck are you playing with?" He allowed her to take it from him- after all a potato is not exactly rawhide- and wagged his tail proudly. (She wonders if he is beginning a sympathy potato diet for Reilly?) She feels a little guilty at work imagining Cody sighing and bored and all alone with nothing better to occupy him that this old potato. Like prison. I joked that Cleo the yellow labrador probably bounces her tennis ball against the wall all day, like in the Great Escape. Laura said that she actually can't because she exiled all tennis balls to be Outside Toys. Cleo has become a bit obsessive with them, she said. I remembered that Laura cleaned the house up once to find no fewer than 15 tennis balls lost under couches and other furniture. Laura breaks off a moment "What do you have?!" - Cleo trots by from the kitchen carrying a potato. "Give me THAT! Everybody OUTside...Let's go!" I tell Laura she better have a look under all her furniture and maybe secure the potatoes. She agrees and adds that perhaps some tennis balls can come back inside.

The Vet's
Mood:  lucky
We went to the Veterinarian's on Friday to follow up on Reilly's ears. She knows the drill: you go in warily, hop on the scale, sit, get a cookie and stand by the door and pray that someone will let you out so you can get back in the car and go home. After signing in, the receptionist pointed out a picture frame on the counter and said all my pets' photos are in the rotation today.

It's a digital picture frame that flicks through the computer's photo banks to show all the photos of the pets that are patients there. Very nice resolution. I did not see Reilly's photo come up- it is actually a photo of Reilly and Raye when Raye was still larger than Reilly and Rei's ears were still on top of her head. I know what the photo looks like because it prints out on all our reciepts. At the other end of the counter was another picture frame- a lucite one with a notice in it: "Due to the increases in cost of our equipment, the prices of our services will go up on April 1st." I find this ironic and would happily go to a vet with less amusing technology for better value. I remember that Finn has an appointment for his annual physical on Tuesday, and I sigh. Then I remember that these vets don't like Finn and have stickied his file with the Bad Kitty sticker. What the heck am I bringing him back here for? I remind myself to book him with a different clinic on Monday.

So Rei was waiting wistfully for the glass door to open and I was lost in puzzlement about Finn's appointment when a woman came out of one of the exam rooms with her li'l shi-tzu. I am used to people being wary of Reilly, but this woman was NOT.

"Oh LOOK, Bailey!! It's a BIIIG doggy!" A strange thing dog people often do is talk TO the dogs, and THROUGH the dogs, rather than directly to other humans. I have done it as well when dogs are friendlier than their humans. Guilty as charged. Its just easier sometimes, the dogs aren't Yankees. As is customary in these parts, their owners try not to make eye contact until they can avoid it no longer, by noticing you talking with their pooch. Then they'll talk with you about the weather, or the dogs. "what kind of dog is that? how old?" etc.

"Yes, Reilly IS a big pup" sometimes I use a deep goofy voice for Reilly if I choose to participate in this game. Reilly and Bailey sniffed noses. I squatted down to pat Bailey. She was wearing a green ribbon on her neck. From this vantage point, I noticed that the lady was wearing white socks with Shamrocks on them, and I remembered it is St. Patricks Day.

"Oh! Reilly, is it? Well, where is her green today?" I notice she also is wearing Shamrock earrings and a green shirt.
"Mm, well- she did have her 'Kiss Me, I'm Irish' bandanna on yesterday..." My mom thought that was funny two years ago when she gave it to Rei and I pull it out for trips to the bank in March to see her.
"Oh come on! this is the ONE day a year!!"
"...but we were hiking in the forest this morning so she didn't wear it today."
"Really, you should get with the program!" I wonder why she is engaging me on this topic so earnestly to join her in her St.Patrick's Day exhibitiousness. Then I remember that I actually DON'T look like every body else ('you don't look 'weird', you look 'distinctive' my husband says.) with my red-brown-gold hair.
"Riiight! -my bad." I didn't tell her my last name is Cleary, too- why dig the hole deeper?
"This is Bailey, after Bailey's Irish Cream."
"I see. how cute. This is Reilly....mmm...Reilly T. Riffic."
The tech came out to admit us to an exam room. I thought as I sat waiting for the vet that under my green field coat I WAS wearing not only a light green wool sweater, but also a burnt orange teeshirt underneath. I was SORTOF participating. Reilly sighed and waited with her nose pointing right at the door jamb.

Our vet prescribed Reilly a fish and potato dog food. Not in honor of the Irish, but because we want to see if Rei's ear inflammation is caused by a food allergy. She has no organisms of any kind in the ear canal, but her ears are itchy and warm and red and her antihistamine- benadryl- is doing nothing anymore to help. So let's try to eliminate the source of the reaction. Laura laughs in response- "You're going to end up being one of those raw-diet people..." Who knows...

On the way out of the vet's, Reilly parks facing the door and I stop to pay my bill. The receptionist tells me they only have a 7 lb bag of Fish-and-Potato food, but that she can put me on the list for a big bag, which should be in later the same day. Another woman enters and stops in front of Reilly, regarding her, so I say something like, "she's friendly." and the lady pets her and speaks with her a bit. The receptionist hauls out a huge bag of Fish and Potato- 30 lbs. that this woman was evidently on The List for. So I ask her if her dog has ear inflammation allergies too.
"No. Digestive," she returns, "It works really well for him! he used to not be very interested in his food, but he likes this and he doesn't throw up anymore."
"That sounds good.."
"Since he can only eat this food, I crush up some kibbles with a rolling pin until it's a powder, mix it with water and cut out little doggie biscuits to bake up for him. HaHa! People think I'm crazy, but- YA know! :D "
"hmmm..."
We complete our transactions and go outside to the car. FINALLY- thinks Reilly. The other Fish and Potato lady is heaving the bag into the passenger side of her SUV- she says "Only thing is, it gets expensive!"
I agree and smile weakly- whattya gonna do?
"AND, sometimes his breath is a little fishy!"
THANKyouuuu...
good bye!
:D

Back with a camera
Mood:  special
Now Playing: the old main drag
Topic: Ma Nature
Took the camera today, and explored off path a lot. It is surprising how it can take you an hour going in, then you realize you need to go back and it only takes you 10 minutes to go back efficiently. We found a quarry we didn't see yesterday, climbed a ridge in the woods that runs s-n, which means if it is glacial, it is more likely an esker than a moraine. Its quite steep and pointy, so I imagine that it might be earthworks like the serpent mound, or something like a mayan building covered over with trees and leaves. imagine!

We are lucky to take this walk now, between the snow cover and the leaf cover- everything is open and you can go investigate large rocks you might partially see off the path. This is how we found a new quarried stone. I also noticed - now that Jeanne showed me what to look for- drill holes on other stones that we had not noticed before. I went back to take pictures.

One thing you notice in the forest is how goddamned noisy you are, crashing around, snapping twigs and tripping yourself. I saw not a single squirrel. Its a quiet wood that I think sees few people. A real joy, peaceful and alone. Rei was very happy and would leap logs, lean into turns and race back to me. She trotted ahead, and followed me off path, circling around and meeting me and circling around and meeting me. She is strong and fast and sure footed and when I remember Reilly later in her life, I can sort of tell now that this is the highlight reel I will play to remember her young.

We climbed the ridge- it is interrupted in two places, one where the mendon road goes through and one where the brook goes through. This brook comes down jumbled boulders and forms little pools and falls over fallen trees. Rei waded and drank and we hopped rocks to explore the far side.We followed it down to the forbidden land, marked by a particular stone wall in the woods. Stone walls are all through these woods- once upon a time nearly all of New England was bare of trees for farming and logging- there is very little old growth remaining. Consequently the stone walls marked boudaries of property and fields and with all the farmers long since gone to places like Ohio, the land was left to run wild again and all the old pastures and orchards are the forests Rei and I are exploring today. Everyone left for Ohio because Ohio is not full of rocks like Massachusetts is, due to our glacial terminus history, and you can grow things much more easily there without busting up a plow and chucking rocks out of the way.

I am excited to walk here this weekend with Jeff and with Laura when she comes up, all before things get too leafy. It is cold- 30 degrees when we began our walk at 9am, 40 when we ended at 11- so we have not had any ticks. That fact keeps it fun.

At noon we went to the vets, where the microscope showed that Rei does NOT have ANY organisms in her ears. No yeast, no bacteria. That the brown stuff is scabbing and sloughing of irritated cells. We determined that her antihistamine is not preventing her ears from reacting- they are still reacting because of her allergies. But what is she allergic to? We are going to try to eliminate food as a source and will try an 8 week course of fish and potato dog food. It is a skin-beneficial recipe and has Omega 3 fatty acids to help improve her tissues. Since Reilly is not a complainer, I do not seem to catch her ear issues until she is quite advanced in them. I hope this works.

Olde Towne Dogue
Mood:  surprised
Our guide, Jeanne, showed us some new trails in the H-Woods. The most interesting yet. Rei and I followed Jeanne onto paths we had not explored before in the southern Woods, where we found an old stone-lined well, a fieldstone cellarhole, another stone chimney and several granite quarries that were in use from the 1600's to early 1900's. We hiked along the Old Mendon Road, which is now a forest path, but once was the road that the granite was hauled from the quarries along to Mendon and Milford. The quarries are large boulders cut with straight lines into slabs, with drill holes along the sides. We found 4 quarries and lots of huge slabs that'd make fantastic front steps if I could get them out of there. Some of the quarries are square holes with the hewn rock on the sides.

The forest is stilll leafless and rather dry, and the Mendon Road path is wide. Rei loves hiking with me - I think- possibly more than going to the field with the dogs. She runs ahead and sniffs everywhere, she jumps logs and looks back and returns to me for a cookie. When we were off-path looking for quarries, she woudl climb onto any rock I stood in front of and show me she could stand on it for a cookie. I guess she knows I like her to climb rocks from luring her up them at the field, so now every rock must be stood atop. Jeanne nearly stepped on a rather slow snake (it being a cold march day) and I kept Rei from it, because I did not want her to kill it, which she surely would. Jeanne did not point and that is for the best because her opinion of Reilly as a great dog might have gone down a notch if she had pointed, said "Look!" which usually inspires Rei to bolt over and sieze the poor snake, shaking the bejeezus out of it.

We checked out the deer spine- still there. And Rei found and began to eat a large cookie with blue frosting that someone dropped. Generally the woods is free of litter, but his was by the access road where things are more travelled. Important things I learned are that, yes, we CAN walk here, that the other path I had seen is public too. One path has a bridge "in the Boy Scout Style" over a stream, so the scouts have been around.

I asked Jeanne about the things I saw at Gummere Woods yesterday- she said that chimney is not terribly old either, and that the shore area contains boxes for birds and wood ducks- projects funded by the Land Trust and done by the schoolchildren in town for class projects.

In the South Woods today we walked to the edge of the property where it abuts another parcel. This parcel is owned by a woman who wants no trespassing for any reason- no hunting, no walking, no archaeologists. Rumor has it that she has many old indian sites on her land, including - maybe!- an underground room. We did not walk on her land, of course, but we stood on the edge of it looking at her orange signs a while and talking. It is quite strange to be that deep in the woods and see signs. With so much quiet and depth at our backs, to find an edge. Another day, with Jeff along, I hope to follow Jeanne's directions and take that stone wall up to the brook, and follow that up to some falls and pools that come down from the ridge she told me about.

I feel very fortunate to have now 'discovered' so much very cool protected land in the town I grew up in. I am glad to know of these trails, and have equipped the Field Waggin' with a comb and roll of duct tape, so we can de-tickify after such hikes. It is too cool to not go in and see, and this is still a great time of year to do it, before it gets leafy in there. We can go back in the fall, but its apt to be well-hunted. It is possible that Laura has been horseback riding in here long ago. When she comes up with the dogs in a few weeks, I will take her up there, too.

It was a two hour hike, with lots of looking and exploring and digesting of finds. We crossed another stone wall into an area with boulders that had smaller stones piled atop them like cairns. We saw three or four, but that was not all of them, Jeanne said. The area is full of blueberry bushes, and we discovered a rut mark, where male deer scrape up a lot of surface litter and pee in the hole to announce themselves. We did not find any antlers, only the rut mark and tracks. The forest is beatufiul, and full of old treasures. We are very lucky to have preserved this land, In April, archaeological digging will begin in earnest again, and if I have time I may be able to volunteer to help sift and so forth on Fridays. In the meantime, Reilly and I have new choices for hiking together. Not just the field anymore. I think these trails will be good for Raye as she tunes up for the summer camping season, too.

More New Haunts, and old ear problem
Mood:  not sure
We walked in gummere woods today for the first time. Its a pleasant path through the woods along the shore of lake ripple. I decided since I use the Land Trust properties (on which dogs are allowed) a lot that I'd support them by joining and paying member dues, and since I joined the GLT, that I'd feel welcome to explore the other properties they own. this is one of them, and I know because I designed the signage. The path takes you by a fireplace with a chimney- I'll get a photo tomorrow- in the middle of the forest, as if there had been a little house there and only the fireplace remains. Someone placed a log in front of it to sit on as you look at the fire. If there WAS a fire. It has ashes in it and dry leaves, and a single stem of thorns growing out of it.

these lands are pretty cleaned up, but they feel like places where when I was younger, teenagers used to hide and drink, and whatever follows drinking. There arent a lot of bottles around now, but it seems so accessible and yet private that it seems like that sort of place. We walked all along the lake as far as the Lions' Club land, which is used by scouts, Lions and soccer kids. Other spurs led to orange signed NO TRESPASSING areas, which I dutifuly satyed off of. On the way back, we met a woman with a black greyhound wearing a red dog jacket about 15 yards down the path through the trees.

We called out, "Helloo! We're friendly!"
she said, "Is he friendly?"
I said "yup!"
"what kind of dog is that?" as if that makes a difference? I already said we are friendly...
"She's a greyhound-lab mix" longer, vaguer, truer answers aren't what I shout out to wary strangers.
"Does he bite?"
"No, she doesn't bite anyone. Look Reilly, it's a real greyhound!"
They come over and the grey sniffs Rei, who looks uncomfortable and circles her butt away. She eyes him from the side - the kind of look that sometimes is followed by a lifted lip if she is really uncomfortable. I hope she doesn't do that, and she doesn't.
Seeing that Rei is afraid of Jay the Grey, his owner explains that he is sometimes too friendly. She tells him to give Rei some space. Rei goes off to the woods and scratches the ground. Jay follows her. I say I'll go this way with you, and we do. Rei wants nothing to do with Jay, who seems disappointed, and she trots ahead. Jay has longer fur than I thought, longer than the boxer and staffie, but not as long as Rei. He is a gentle guy. I notice he is not on leash. Everything I have ever read about greyhounds has said that you can never let them off leash or they will run away. Jay's owner says that is not true, that if you treat them like a regular dog they will be just like a regular dog. Jay is a retired racer and she has had him since he was 2 years old. I wonder if this is true for beagles, too.

I bought a tick comb for the car, because I don't want to keep entirely out of the woods now that the days are warmer. A little Frontline and a combing before we jump back in the car and we should be good to go I think.

At the store, Rei met a golden puppy. She loved her in every way more than Jay- sniffing, wagging and bowing. The puppy was happy and goofy like golden pups are.

We also met Marlene, who is a vet tech and the wife of one of Jeff's buddies from high school. It is purely coincidental that Jeff and Mark both live in the same area, which is not where either of them grew up. Marlene noticed Rei's ears, and told me the thin brown coating I have been cleaning off her ears is yeast, and not as I hoped- residue from the medicine we gave her when the tresaderm caused inflammation. She said that the only way to keep the yeast at bay was to clean the outside every other day and flush once a week. She explained that the dog's pH allows yeast to grow and that the cleaning with a more acidic wash will help. Rei has allergies that cause her ears to itch and make extra wax, which is prime real estate for things to grow in, thus she gets ear infections of yeast when her ears get wet at all. I am bummed because the vet said to clean her ears only once every 3-4 days and to NOT flush them. erg. I need a better-explaining vet.

At the field, trucks dragged the boulder we used to have the dogs jump up on off to the edge of the woods. They also bulldozed the brush 10 yards back into the treeline on one edge, and pushed over the pussywillow tree, cracking it open and tipping it over. I am very disappointed because they stopped at a point that could have spared the tree if they had chosen to be a bit more careful about where they shoved all the rocks and brambles. It is the only pussywillow tree I have ever noticed and is a good size. I pulled off a twig from the new growth, which I can reach now that three is on its side. I wonder if you can root a plantable tree from a twig like you can with some plants?

Noisy
Mood:  lucky
Topic: Ma Nature
Today is calm, rainy and no one is around. I am still very drained from an intense weekend of rather bad hockey, in which I played one really good game and a rather ordinary to bad one. I am happy to be home alone and hitting the RESET button.

Rei and I walked up at the golf course today- it is still too early for golf season. We avoided the Rawsen's backyard line where the pond is on the 7th hole and stuck to the construction site across the fairway. The mud is thick and deep and the trees are bare. The sky is slate grey and hung very low. very large stumps and twisted roots have been dragged into heaps from their rooted places where the homes were built. There are huge rusty trucks, wheels and attachments for trucks on the open hill and piles of gravel and topsoil. It makes for interesting stomping.

Rei and I - or more accurately *I*- scared up two whitetails among the high ridges of dirt on the edge of the last stand of trees between the 3rd fairway and the 5th. They flicked off into the trees very quickly and even though I showed Rei the tracks and she leaped off on their trail, it was far too late when we got to the spot we saw them and we never caught them up. Still Rei was excited and ran through the woods, jumping logs and hurling through brush. I don't know if dogs can pretend, but she seemed to be having a great deal of fun flying through the thickets, even though the deer were gone. She came back and sat as if to say, "Did you see me? Wasn't I just FLYIN' through that brush?" I asked for her paw and gave her a tiny cookie.

We went around the 3rd and 4th, whch border the Last Stand and we looked hard into it and tried to walk quietly, but we did not see the deer again. On the 5th, we kept to the edge of the Stand, but here it was former cornfield and is now weedy, so we crossed into it and walked around. The birds were very loud in the trees. Robins, and loud birds I don't know by their call. Rei checked some holes for rodents and snakes, and climbed on top of a four foot pile of mulch to sniff and place a mark. We saw bluebirds here a week or so ago, but in two return trips I have not seen them again. Back by the trucks again we saw three kildeer- shorebirds that come inland to scurry around baseball fields saying PEEEEEEE! A particularly large dumptruck came on the muddy road so I called to Rei with a quick "Hey, REI." and she hopped over to me from behind a section of four foot-ish corrugated pipe, I gave her a liver treat and we leashed up and returned home.

We met Izzy (a yorkie) on the way home. She calls to us when we walk by her house, and she can't come out. Sometimes she gets her owners to let her out to see us. She is very small and has a short, sensible haircut. She turns herself into a U shape so she can both face you and show you that she'd like it if you scratched her rump. She is a very cute dog with silvery-gold silky fur and is never a pest. She gives terriers a good name. Buster is the other terrier in our neighborhood, a Jack Russel, and he is also a good dog. Very much a confident terrier personality- happy go lucky and fearless but fearless about licking you, or about asking Reilly to dance. His best friend is a kitten. I don't know if I would be a proper terrier owner. I am good at Reilly.

I brought Reilly to meet the Sharks this weekend, she waited in the car while we played and hung out with us for beer afterward. Colby observed that Reilly loves adoration but not so much affection. I thought Rei represented herself well and was reasonably sociable. She wagged her tail in greeting and perked up to people who were eating anything. She met Xena, our friend's german shepherd, but Xena was very talkative about her stresses and did not seem particularly interested in Reilly that day. Xena wanted to get her owner's attention, perhaps to have a drink, and had a list of things to say. Xena is a good dog, too and in less busy circumstances they could have had fun just being dogs.

Good enough dog
Mood:  not sure
I need to lay down some things from my dog-reading. One is the idea of the good-enough dog. We all are aware of dogs that are not trained much and those of us who train our dogs have hopes to achieve a level of reliability or performance. We take the dogs life very personally, doing things for her because it makes us happy to do them or if we project a lot, because we think she is unhappy without them. Or bored. I am gaining an expanding awareness of my own and Reilly's situation- what is and isn't necessary. What I want and need and what we dont need. I want a close connection with my dog, I really feel that the 'second dog' ghost has left the building and I am focused again on bettering my Rei-link. How strictly does she actually have to be trained for the life she leads and the character she possesses?

She is a companion dog for me while I work, while I move about the world. She is a hiking buddy, a rugby pal, a fan of raye's at sports, a dog who must be welcome at the store, the bank and visiting friends and family. She is good at all those things. She is quiet at work time, she is friendly without jumping in social situations, and she plays well with me. She is good off leash when hiking, but I have squashed the desire that she be SO good off-leash that I never have her on one. Although it is imprssive in a way when dogs are not on leash, and follow along at heel, I think that it is foolish to make that a goal with this dog simply to be proud of ourselves. Rei is an interesting dog, and independent of me, which maybe I did not expect in a dog, but I have certainly learned to appreciate.

A recent read stated that Adult dogs don't need playgroups. I had been wondering if perhaps while Rei and I both enjoy the field, maybe she enjoys just hiking with me more. I wonder if the constant social radiation dilutes things and as such isn't "quality time." Maybe the emphasis on distant time together rather than intimate time together has taught her to not be snuggly. By that logic ALL the dogs at the field daily would be aloof. They aren't. Another book I have rates dog breeds on various qualities, including "affection" on a scale of 1-5, most dogs being 3s and 4s. Chow chows and Afghan hounds are 1s. Labs and Goldens are 5s. I'd hesitate to rate Reilly that low, because she IS silly, and she DOES want to play and she DOES come to me for attention, just not like most dogs.

It is true that when we all walk together, the dogs go off-duty somwehat and you are paying attention to your conversation, the dogs go afield. Walking alone, Rei and I stick together and I feel connected to her. She isn't sticking to me more because I am calling her back to me- I don't need to- but because she knows I am *with* her. We are a pair, not a mob. We can stick together w/o a lot of shouting, calling. It's a path in the woods, we both know what to do.

Reilly's Mythbusters- we meet an American Staffordshire Terrier
Mood:  special
Topic: kinds of dogues
Walking up on the golf course, we met Rawsen and his dogs, an elderly male boxer named Balsa and a 1 yo Staffordshire terrier. One of the 3 or so breeds commonly called a 'pit bull'.

I have actually envisioned for a while what might happen if those two came boiling out of their yard after us, for other dog people in the neighborhood have told me they are not well-supervised outdoors and that as a pair they sometimes corner dogs that go by their front yard, and that it is intimidating to meet them. We had met them once before at the field when the Staffie was a new puppy, but these guys do not go to the field as a rule. I sometimes imagine stupid things like dogs fighting and things I could try to stop it if it ever happened, probably all either foolish or impossible. I was even thinking this today on the way across the field. As usual everything was fine.

When we came back to the pond hazard behind Rawsen's yard, which abuts the golf course at the 7th hole, the Staffie was out and barking and ran around the weeds to where it could see Reilly. It was very small. The dogs had a nose-nose faceoff and the staffie wagged and wagged, but approached Rei very directly. It strained to sniff her high face. Rei put her ears back and lowered her rump. The staffie tried to go around and sniff her butt, but Rei twirled her butt away from the dog, and kept her face forward, butt low. Some bluffing went on, and I growled NO!!! and Rawsen arrived on the scene just behind the boxer. Lots of surrounding and sniffing, and Rawsen trying to catch the staffie and her scooting out of reach. Rei was really anxious to be surrounded by strange dogs trying to get behind her. I caught the old boxer, and Rei trotted away, ears back, wary. The staffie went with her, and eventually we caught her as well.

then we got to talk.
Rawsen says that his little brown staffie is a 'type A personality,' that he had to beat her off of a Rottweiler recently in a park. "The owner was pissed" he conceded. He says she is a great people dog, which is consistent with what I hear about the 'pit bull' breeds, but that he just can't predict what she will do around other dogs: sometimes she's great, other times she is aggressive. He held her collar the whole time and did not release her even when Reilly came back and began keening and play-bowing to the dogs. He said he just doesn't know what she will do if he releases her and furthermore that when she gets wild, the boxer joins the fray. The boxer is fine with other dogs on his own. He says she has no fear at all, and based on her small size compared to Reilly - she weighs less than Cody, I estimate about 23 lbs- she certainly was sure Reilly was no danger to her physical self at 72 lbs.

And Rei is obviously a pussycat. Reilly is barely assertive, never mind aggressive, and does not fight. If pit bulls are delightful, affectionate-to-people dogs with a spunky attitude and no fear than Reilly is sort of the opposite. While sometimes adoring and radiant, she is not physically affectionate, she is independent and active with a quiet attitude and much reticence. A cautious dog. I think what Reilly really wants most is to hike with me and explore and hunt.

(sidebar- Katz on Dogs says adult dogs do not need play groups with other dogs. Reilly enjoys the field and I enjoy that she gets along with other dogs and develops and practices her dog manners there, but I wonder what- if anything- would be different if we did not go to such social things as frequently. Would she be lonely for dog play? Would she be different with me? since her social physical outlets - bumping and wrestling other dogs- would not be as exhausted?)

This little staffie was the runt, said Rawsen. She is not stocky and broad but lean and very much of a puppy-build. She has small eyes and her ears are small, but her snout is very short and her whole head is blocky. Her coat is very short. Reilly has small ears but Laura insists, she does not look like a pitbull. Her coat was very close, much shorter than Reilly's, short like velvet. Reilly has much longer hairs. I petted the staffie, and she was very soft and firm and wriggly. She was friendly to me and cute. Not a care in the world, a very confident dog.

Rawsen, who has owned a pair of Rottweilers, the boxer, the staffie and a male Chesapeake Bay Retriever said the Chessie was the meanest dog he ever owned, and had to be put down.