A Morning Stroll

Yesterday I joined an old friend for a walk at Green Spring Gardens. My friend brought her three-month-old puppy, Josie, along. Puppies and pansies are not a great mix, so instead of staying alongside the manicured garden beds, we headed for the trail through the woods.

The woods trail emerged into a clearing where there is a man-made pond. I’m pretty sure this puppy had never seen mallard ducks before. Her body language betrayed both fascination and caution: wiggly pulls on the leash, followed by doubling back behind her human and peaking out from behind, ears pointed forward. 

We continued on until we came upon two Canadian geese a little further out from the pond’s edge. Josie took no notice of the geese as a leashed dog twice her size headed towards us on the path. This was one of several older “friends” she greeted playfully, but respectfully, that morning. 

Quick to sniff noses and rise on back legs to gently paw at her acquaintances, Josie also got low, rolled on her back, and showed appropriate deference to her elders. This pro-social canine behavior was well received on all three occasions. Very impressive for such a young gal, I thought.

Our final brush with wild pond life was the bale of turtles sunning on the far bank of the pond. Moments after we noticed them, the sun ducked behind a cloud and all but one of the eight or nine sunbathers slid backwards into the water. Pretty sure Grandpa Turtle must have been snoozing to have missed the “okay everyone: at the count of three we’re back in the water”.

Typically I head to Green Spring Gardens for the flora. But today was all about the fauna.