We took our old girl, Rose out for a woods walk yesterday morning before last night’s storm which brought 12 inches of snow.  Rosie will be 14 years old on Dec 27^th and can no longer take walks through the deep snow so won’t get many chances to get out in the woods for the rest of the winter.

She was quite excited when we pulled into the town forest parking lot and leaped out of the car with a couple excited barks.  These days it’s just one or two leaps and that’s the end of her speed moves.  Mostly she ambles along sniffing out all the interesting scents of other dogs and of course the wild animals.  But her body posture and smiling face radiated joy letting us know how happy she was to be out in the woods instead of our usual neighborhood walks.

It was rather cold out for a December morning, just 5 degrees F.  My toes were quite cold when we got back but Rosie’s lab coat kept her nice and warm.  😉 Being pretty deaf now she usually keeps us in her line of sight.  She  only “got lost” briefly when she followed a scent into the woods and lost sight of us when we continued walking down the trail.  Mark went back for her and found her standing looking around for us.  She was glad to be “found” and was ready to head home.

good old Rose

old cellar hole

good smells

making eye contact

river almost frozen over

time to go

oak leaves frozen in stream