Fall fever

You can smell it in the air. That sweet, pungent smell of rotting leaves. But it’s not a bad smell. It’s the smell of change. Mother Nature is changing her wardrobe, and shedding her attire. But before she does that, she puts on a beautiful display. And the show is just starting here. With several weeks until the grand finale.

Her highness LOVES the fall. And we canines do too. The evenings are cool, but the days are often warm and colorful. The fall photo shoots have slowly begun- but won’t be in full swing for a few weeks.

She came home from the dreaded Dollar store the other day. Wearing that “Do I have a surprise for you,” expression- which usually signals some kind of appalling attire. The FG is already planning his escape.

And speaking of escapes, we had some excitement on our constitutional yesterday morning. It was just after 7AM, and the sun was already up. Einstein and I reached the road and all was quiet. We were doing our typical SPAT -sniff, pee and trot and we were walking on leash, ahead of her highness. It was rather warm yesterday- a contrast from the past few mornings when she could have been wearing gloves- it was so chilly. Anyway, we’re rolling along, and suddenly, her highness is aware of heavy breathing. Right behind her! She turns around and finds Max – our neighbor who lives on the property next to us. Max is on his own. Which is very odd. Clearly he has escaped. Her highness says hello and Einstein and I swing around. We all do the obligatory butt sniffing circle dance – and we agree that all is right with the world. Max and Einstein do the play bow and start attempting to wrestle. Her highness is concerned, because traffic to the golf course will be starting- and she doesn’t want Max to jump out into an oncoming car. She decides to head back toward Max’s house- with all three of us doing circles around her. As we start heading back, she spots one of Max’s humans who is heading toward us on the road. She reaches us and explains he just took off when let out. She cannot for the life of her, catch him. He dodges her every time she tries to grab him. So we all head back toward their house, knowing he will follow. Just as we approach their driveway, who appears from the golf course but Jackson aka Pig Pen and his human! It’s a canine street party! Before 7:30 AM. To solve the problem of capturing Max, Jackson and his human go down the long driveway and right into Max’s house. Meanwhile, Einstein and I are just standing there watching a comrade being corralled. The door shuts. Busted. He is contained. We wait for Jackson and walk back up the road with him.

We have come to the conclusion that Jackson is probably the best behaved dog on the road. True – he will run off his property to greet us – but he usually comes when called. Well – unless there is a mud puddle or body of water that he spots – then even the good dog becomes deaf. I guess we all have our vices. Some of us more than others.

I think Max took off because he has fall fever. Either that, or his humans brought home a bag from the Dollar store too…

Have a good one. Peace and paws up.