Natural Wonders, On-Leash

There’s a new walking trail, and it’s near where we live. Next to the new recreation centre, the trail is about one km out --- and the same one km back. A road, a paved path and an unpaved path all run parallel to the tributary to Mission Creek.


Trail

Sandy and I walk there three or four times a week, even though it’s all supposed to be on-leash. I’m learning to lead; she’s learning to trust me to lead. There have been fewer “snarling ball of fury” episodes when we encounter other on-leash dogs.

Besides the dogs, we’ve seen a plenty of ducks, Canada geese, and a pair of herons. They are beautiful standing still, and magnificent in flight. They’re as tall as Sandy, with a wingspan that looks like an airplane. The red-winged blackbirds are out. There must have been a hundred of them today.

One day Sandy flushed a pheasant. It’s hard to say who was the most surprised of the three of us, but it was probably not the pheasant. Living in the grass next to the dog-walking path, you’d think it would realize dogs were going to flush it. But Sandy is no bird dog. She was shocked to see that guy take off right in front of her nose.

Today there were fish. Really big fish, at least two feet long, and thrashing. I don’t know what kind of fish they were. Maybe carp. Maybe even Kokanee; we get those in Mission Creek. Sandy was standing in the water by one bank, and there was a fish explosion on the other bank. She leapt straight up in the air, landed in the water again, and rushed up the bank.


Sandy

Once safely on dry land she tried to look casual.