Cheers To Your Dog!
Stories of Joy!
In an effort to counterbalance some of the negativity against dogs being on the trail, please share your experiences of times when someone else's dog brought a smile to your face or brightened your day in some way. We are all aware that there are bad experiences involving dogs but I feel they are overstated and may be overshadowing the good. Thank you in advance to those of you that take the time to share.
One of my best memories may surprise some of you because it is of a young dog with no visible speck of training and was getting into mischief. Surprised, no? Heh. Despite it all I still can't help but smile when I think back to it and I'll be forever grateful for it.
It was a beautiful day. Yet I wasn't fully appreciative of that fact at the time, being well too caught up in my own thoughts. For those with regular jobs, you know how you tend to block out much of what is going on around you and fall in to a state of "auto-drive"? Well I suppose it isn't all that surprising that the same thing happened to me out on the Trail. Day in and day out, hiking and putting in the miles. Not always taking in the wonders around me because they had become commonplace. But one dog was able to shock me out of it for a long time.
I was approaching another stile while crossing several farms and ranches. You couldn't really see into the next pasture except where the stile created a break within the tree line and undergrowth. As soon as I placed one foot on the first rung it happened. A large dog that I was somewhat familiar with ran across in front of me, along the fence line, followed no more than a second by a herd of 5-6 calves. I blinked and stepped off the rung.
"Huh? What.... just happened?"
A moment later the dog was running along the fence line again, this time heading back the way he came from. Sure enough - the herd of calves were hot on his tail. I broke down laughing at that moment. It wasn't something I had ever witnessed before and it brought me back into the moment. The adult cattle were flat out ignoring the spectacle. The third time the dog came running back along the fence he decided to quickly slip through the fence and hide behind me. Three of the calves stopped right at the stile to stare at us, almost challenging the dog to cross back in. I took pictures while laughing some more. A minute later the dog took off down a dirt road to my left to try and find another way to catch up with his new owner. I found out later that he did.
It was unexpected but exactly what I needed.
CHEERS to that dog!