Morning Walks

Given a choice, the pups will always take Route 1 along the marsh for our walks. The grass is 2 to 4 feet tall now and they can play hide and seek, wade in the muck, fall in the water, find disgusting things to eat and lovely activities like that. Maxim is a regular now on our walks as he spends most days at his grandparents next door. The pups like him as he is a gentle kid. Maxim goes as much for the flowers along the way as for the dogs. For an eight year old, he really loves flowers and plants and says he will be a horticulturalist when he grows up. I see him working in his Babushka’s flower garden and on Sunday he was helping Tanya dig in her new perennials. Maxim always comes back from our walks with flowers for his grandma, though this morning he had red peonies for Tanya from one of the “wild gardens”.

Walking back we pass a number of houses along the road, all with dogs who kick up a huge fuss as we walk past. One house has three dogs. The big dog is chained up but the two middle size black dogs have the run of the yard. Whenever we pass they hit the gate with a thud, yapping long and loud. Some days I hear someone in the yard yell at them.

A few days ago, we had walked passed quite a ways and they were still yapping. I heard a gunshot, small calibre like a .22, then silence then four more shots and absolute stillness. Next time we walked by, no dogs. Only one dog at a house farther on. And the next day, no dogs again. I’m thinking “Uh-oh”.

Now, I’ve wanted to do that myself a few times to a couple of yappy mutts I own but wouldn’t wish it on anyone else’s dogs. I was quite relieved the third day when we walked by to find all back to annoying yapping normal. No idea where the dogs had been or what the “shots” were about.

At one of the houses a girl of about 12 is baby sitting three little girls. They quite often come out to see the pups who of course love the attention, so one day I took their picture. The two middle girls belong to the woman who did most of our wallpapering, Tanya says.