Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Blocking

The weather has been chilly and clear lately and I have been so needy of outdoor time that I've been walking a lot more than usual. Tanya, though still working on the whole trotting-alongside-her-master-faithfully bit, is a great walking companion. But she stops to sniff a lot. She pauses at bushes, fences, rocks, trees, lumpy patches of earth, cats, cat shit, cat hair, and the empty Wendy's containers that the local population never minds leaving on the sidewalks. This morning, we were doing the walk thing and she found a dead squirrel in some patchy bushes. I wasn't watching closely and the situation didn't register until I looked down just in time to see her bury her nose into its bloody fur.

I pulled her away and stooped down to look at it. It's weird to see a squirrel dead. They're such hyperactive animals, so reminiscent of that one kid in first grade who got hopped up on the Kool-aid, that it's otherworldly to see one down for the count, totally still, not even breathing.
Sometimes I get annoyed with Tanya stopping to smell every rock, tree, and Wendy's wrapper. And then, other times, I'm pretty glad that she gets me to slow down, stoop down, and fully appreciate the walk.

3 comments:

kristan said...

Good thing you didn't absent-mindedly say, "Git it," or she might have un-buried its liver.

Andrew said...

Wendy's... I've never really understood that one. Square hamburger patties. Strange.

sarahww said...

Yeah, the square patties are just a little disturbing. What was Dave thinking?

K, that will give me a complex that will inevitably force me to say "Git it" next time she finds a dead animal.