Backyard Hiking Again

On Sunday, Ranger, Ceilidh, Sue and I hit the trail just up the street from our house for the first time since October. The guys were jazzed to get out for a run and checked out all of their favorite places, looking for treasures.

For about half of the hike the dogs enjoyed a rousing game of "Follow that Sue", in which Sue goes tearing around the woods and the other two try to keep up. On the back side of the hike Ranger and Sue disappeared and I couldn't hear their tags. That usually means that they are up to something. When I whistled them in, Sue appeared, smiling and smelling quite musky. Ranger was a little tougher to call in, but when he did come he presented me with a nice javelina leg. They had both obviously been rolling in the carcass and were in a state of stinky high heaven.


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The things you find on a hike

Yesterday, I took the dogs for a short hike behind our housing area. We often do this little two mile loop and often we find interesting things on our treks. This time, we found what looked like what was left of a wild turkey carcass and a couple of coveys of quail. We were down to the last 1/2 mile of the hike when we ran across a Husky on the trail.

I saw her before the dogs did and figured that the owner was somewhere near. I leashed my guys up and prepared to go on with the end of the walk. But, there was no one anywhere about. The dog was obviously well fed and had recently been brushed, so I figured she was being a typical Husky and had gotten out and gone for a walk on her own. I was able to get all three Tollers connected to one Flexi-lead and used Ceilidh's leash on the very thirsty Husky. Luckily she had tags on with her phone number and I was able to quickly get her back to her relieved owner. I'm always glad when there's a happy ending.