Not Callie's Paw

There are many dogs who get walked through the vineyard depending on the day and the time of day. There are even some dogs who hang out while their masters work on the vines. Sometimes we meet them, sometimes we try to avoid them. It depends on the dogs in question.

It's been quite muddy lately, so there are lots of prints.

Callie's pretty good with other dogs. She really likes to run and play. She is a submissive girl, having been the runt of her litter, and is rarely aggressive. And she's become very good at coming when I call her to leave the dogs and continue on our way. Most of the time.

The evidence of other dogs is always out there, of course. Some of it is visual, like this paw print from a much larger dog than Callie. Other evidence is invisible, like all the smells that Callie seeks out during her walks.

My favorite time to walk is first thing in the morning. There's rarely anybody about, and we often see roe deer or hares, and sometimes get to chase them.

In other animal news, a bird crashed into one of our windows on Monday morning. I was sitting at the computer, and BAM! I looked up to see a small cloud of feathers outside the window, like you'd see in a cartoon. Then I got up, opened the window and looked on the ground. The poor thing was down there, twitching, with its head curled under its body.

I thought that maybe it had broken its neck. I decided to leave it for the moment since it was still alive, and putting it out of its misery didn't appeal to me much. I checked every now and then over the next couple of hours. At one point it was holding its head up and looked up at me when I opened the window (so its neck wasn't broken), and the next time I looked it had gone.

I'm thinking that it was seriously stunned, but not fatally injured.