Life on the Leash

We went up to the family homestead this past weekend. Call me weird - I love hanging out with my parents. Thankfully, so does Tom. The dogs? “Love” doesn’t begin to cover it, what with the vast green yard and the never-ending variety of furred and feathered creatures we encounter when visiting.

We arrived just in time for dinner. Our chatting and laughing was interrupted by shrill commentary from the chicken coop.

“That sounds like trouble,” I said. My Dad mentioned the red tail hawk that’s been terrorizing the chickens, and sure enough, I could see him sitting on the edge of the fence, peering down at them through the mesh.

“We’ll take care of it,” I said, calling Sum to come along. Zeke, unfortunately, is still dealing with his shaky back legs, so he wasn’t able to take part in much of the strenuous activity.

I sent Sum down to the coop to scare the hawk, which he sort of did. It was more of a victory lap in the general direction of the coop (”Hooray! I’m at my favorite place!”), but it was enough to make the hawk move along. Sum then beelined for the pond to cool off, not realizing that it was low and muddy, instead of full and swim-able.

Nice work, Sum:

The amount of wildlife we encounter is incredible … I was greeted by this tableau on Saturday morning when the boys went out for a pee (no, they didn’t spot them):

I encountered the resident turkey family a few minutes later just a little farther down the driveway. Two Moms (go, alternative turkey gals!) and about 12 babies. They were very skittish, so I might as well say that this is a photo of Big Foot:

This chatterbox scolded us any time we got too close to her house:

And the butterfly bush lived up to its name:

Sum had a grand time. He’s amazingly good off leash (as is Zeke), so we’re able to take awesome pant-inducing strolls. He’ll take off down the trail, then turn and wait for me to catch up, or run back to me:

He’s keen to track all of the scent trails, which is totally fine. I trust him. I only have a problem when he veers into the overgrowth … I worry about poison ivy. When he drifts into it, one, “Please don’t,” and out he comes.

That’s not to say he’s the perfect dog. We had some neighbor pups over for a visit and he was tres inhospitable to them … stay tuned.

Poor little Zeke had to take it easy. We did some short walks, but it’s really, really hard for him to resist the urge to run. He forgets his unsteady back legs and overextends himself when confronted by bunnies, chickens, chipmunks, deer, etc.

We packed a lot of livin’ in the past 48 hours, and the guys are exhausted (as am I - the 5AM departure time this morning was sucky.) Had a blast, though.