Found More Deer! In Bubblewrap

I hadn't taken the dog out for awhile, and this morning she was nudging me and then pouted at the top of the stairs when she saw I was going out without her. Later this afternoon I took her out and it was so much fun! At first, I have to get warmed up and wonder why I'm hiking at all.

But then, the dog makes it fun and I get the second wind after warming up, sort of like with cross-country running--once you're warmed up it's fun.

I guess I realized I should wear sort of camoflague type jackets. I was told I could wear any jacket in the closet and I picked out this enormous bouffant puffy coat that was sort of a Michelin Man coat. Bright, bright, shocking blue. It just looked like the warmest one and then once I was on the hill I realized how ridiculous this coat was for "tracking deer". Here she comes!" said the deer, "It's an Oompa-loompa...We may as well stay here and see if it's something we could eat because this sagebrush really sucks." Wait, what is it from Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory? An oompa-loompah or is it the Blueberry Boy? I figured once I was up there, at least if I tripped and fell, I would slide all the way down because it was like I was wrapped in bubblewrap.

Just thinking...I wonder how that would be for a romantic get up? Bubblewrap. Naked, but wrapped up at least a dozen times, in bubblewrap and then taped up. I have no idea why that came to mind. Pop, pop, pop, pop. You know, it would be a good way to find out just how obsessive-compulsive your man is. If he can't stop popping the little bubbles, you know there might be trouble ahead. That would be weirdest mental disorder ever. Someone who has to be popping bubblewrap all the time.

So anyway, I have no idea why that came to mind. I guess it was all that fresh oxygen.

So I went up there with the dog and we sort of went a different direction, same kind of but I took a short cut to a different area, which wasn't as high, and I had just come over the hill and there they were. It was kind of weird. I mean, it was me and the dog but sometimes I knew things the dog didn't know and then other times there was this voice in my head saying, "Respect the dog". I don't know where this "respect the dog" saying came from. I've never heard anyone say this but I felt I was telling myself to give the dog some credit for having the nose and to let the dog take the lead even if I sometimes wanted to take short cuts. Too, I wondered if dogs like that sometimes need to have their egos stroked a little bit, like, they need to know they're appreciated by being allowed to lead.

I came up over the hill though and there they were, 2 deer which had been sitting or lying down and they got up and were moving away, seeing me in my amazing bright blueberry coat, which covered me from my head (hood) to my knees in Michelin Man wonder. Then, 2 more deer came up from the ground. It was 4 deer altogether. There were no more than this, just 4 of them. I sat down in the snow and watched them for until they were over the other hill. Just 4 today. THEN, I was the first, before the dog (shhh, don't tell the dog) to find pheasant!

Maybe it's better to wear bright orange or a neutral color if no one else is out there. But there were just blue and brown coats to the side and then black coats which were too nice to wear for hiking around.

At one point, I got stuck in the middle of a sagebrush thicket, and all the branches were pulling on all the bubbles of the jacket and I did a full turn, turned all the way around, in a circle, to get out.

Oh, so the pheasant! Yes! so weird. Then we were walking back and I decided to let the dog have some fun and I followed her as she was sniffing around for, I thought, small animals. All of a sudden, I saw something moving before she did, and pointed it out to her, as it was running, thinking it was a rabbit, but then it took off and flew! Two went flying, 2 pheasants, just took off and I was staring, shocked, and the dog still had her head down in the sagebrush. I kept saying, "Misty, look at the pheasants!" but her nose was buried. I think she has the nose and I have the eyes.

Then, I let her go down the path but I was done for the day and didn't feel like there were more deer to be found in close proximity. But I let her sniff around and followed her and she took off and finally I put her on the leash again.

I still like holding that leash with my left hand. The only time I switched was when she went tearing down a hill that was particularly steep and icy and I switched to my right to have more strength. I wonder if this is how it with most people? If lefties hold the leash with their right hand unless they switch it over? and if most righties do what I do, and like to have the right hand free for balance or something else? I was taught to hold a leash with my right hand and then have the dog to my right side. All the obedience classes my mom went to and taught...lots of experience with dogs. I think I remember holding it in the left though and then taking up the slack with the right. I can't remember. I can't remember which one is correct.

Anyway, I had fun, and I like it when she takes off fast down a snowy hill, because I have to practice my footing and balance which is fun. She's pretty good about being considerate and stopping.

At one point, though I said to myself several times "respect the dog" there were a couple of other times where I thought, "dog needs to know who the master is". I didn't think this literally, in these words, but I wanted to go down a hill and she pulled me the other way. So I let her lead since she was sniffing and flipped her head that direction, like, "Come on! This way!" but I thought too, there's probably a time to go with the dog and let them lead and then times to make sure they know and understand that you're in charge.

What's weird, is that I think I'm discovering very late in life, that I have some kind of natural instincts too, for finding things maybe? I don't know. Both times I've gone out, I got to the deer right away. Oh,and I don't really know for sure if those birds were "pheasant" or maybe something else? what else could they be? cornish game hens don't really fly that high do they? I wonder if it was grouse. I don't know what the difference is.