February Woods Walk

by Maggie Mae Mushko, a border collie

(age 6 years and 3 months)

It was about time! Mommy hadn't taken me to one of the farm since last November. She had some blood sugar problems and couldn't walk very well for a while. But she started low-carbing again, and today she felt a lot better. So we got in the truck and went to Polecat Creek Farm. This time we didn't take Hubert the beagle even though he pitched a fit.

After I got out of the truck, I made Mommy throw my little orange football for a while. Then she put it on top of the truck so I couldn't take it on the trail. So I started off down the main trail toward the creek. I didn't wait for Mommy.

One of the first things I always do when I get to a creek is jump in.

Then I sniff along the bank to see if I can find any good smells.

After I got out of the creek, I walked with Daddy through the field. I saw a big nest way up in a tree.

If border collies could climb trees, I would have investigated further. After passing that tree, we went into the woods and climbed up a steep slope. I saw a lot of interesting trees. LIke this one, which has interesting feet. 

This tree looked kind of creepy.

Here's a closer look. The tree had a lot of holes in it. There's no telling what might be in some of them.

I was tired from climbing the hill, so I decided to rest under the creepy tree and let my tongue hang out.

At the top of the hill, we could see a jump course in a clearing on the next farm over. It's hard to see in this picture, but it's there. Mommy put me on the leash in case I saw any horses and decided to do some freelance herding.

Then we started down the hill. We actually walked on a horse trail that the people next door had cleared. We hope they didn't mind. Here's the trail. The trees to the left are on our property.

Soon we were back in our bottom. Mommy let me off the leash, so I ran around I sniffed a lot of interesting things. I was too far ahead of Mommy for her to take my picture.

Mommy thought this stump was interesting, but I didn't think it was worth sniffing. It's just a stump with a little plant is growing out of it.

This old turtle shell was more interesting than the stump, but not by much.

Soon, I needed to lie down and rest for a bit. This was as good a place as any. Mommy caught up with me and took my picture.

Then I needed to cool off in the creek. Again. Here I'm shaking the water off.

I sniffed around a lot here. The big hole behind me is where Daddy got the tractor stuck last summer.

Soon we started up the trail to the truck. I'm not in this picture because I was a lot faster than Mommy. I remembered my little orange football was back at the truck, and I wanted to get it.

When Mommy got back to the truck, I made her get my football and throw it for me for me to chase. No good walk is complete without a game of football afterwards.

~~~