They shoot dogs here, don’t they?

Hi Y’all, 

Should be a fun week.  Weather is supposed to be great for hiking around.  Leaves are startin’ to turn pretty colors.  My Human Momma says they make the paths look like quilts when they fall off the trees. 

I’ve been asked a couple of times why I don’t hunt…well, I retrieve.  I do like to track and my Humans hide things for me to find.    Yep! Up in a tree! 

 The geese know that I won’t chase them.  I go get what I’m sent to retrieve and in this case it’s an orange bumper from the water.

Then here I am last winter retrieving a bumper from a statue in the garden.  You can see one more waiting for me.  Then I go back for the last one.  Then I always check to see who or what has strayed into my territory.  Here I am tracking along the shore. Up in the mountains my Humans know if my nose goes down and I track across the porch that someone has been there in our absence. This is me trackin’ but I gotta pay attention to what I’m doin’ cause this is snake, cotton mouth and copperhead, and alligator land.  In the mountains I gotta look out for bear, rattlers and copperheads.  So leavin’ stuff alone is paramount if I wanna be able to tell my stories. 

Divinia and Indiana,  I guess you could say I hunt “carefully” for things specified by my Humans so I don’t get hurt.  Since I’m a retriever my main job is to go get things. 

My Human Papa used to hunt and had a retriever like me to bring back the geese or ducks once they were downed.  Sometime before I was born he stopped hunting, but still likes to have us retrievers around.  I’m definitely not allowed to chase things ‘cause the Humans say that could lead me into a bad situation where I’d be hurt, ‘specially since I’m “off leash” unless I’m where there is something called a “leash law”.

Saturday we checked out the farm and there wasn’t much color.  Here I am checking the pasture fence.  The cattle are gone now, although even the humans can still smell where they’ve been.  I have to be careful not to cross into a field where animals might be.  A cousin, brown like me but a German Shepherd Dog, was shot and killed when he crossed into a field with sheep.  So, my Human Momma is really, really strict that I stick to the fields that are used for hay and don’t stray into ones leased for grazing. I’ve never seen a sheep ‘cause I don’t think they are running them down here since the “incident”. 

Deep in the woods I pause to read the “Posted” sign on the tree I still get to appreciate running free as long as I obey the rules.  There’s still not a lot of color, but each day there is more. The Humans think that color will peak by next weekend at 3000 – 4000 ft. It’s already peaked at the higher elevations. Hope to have more pictures for you tomorrow. 

Don’t miss reading about Jake G. Retriever, USAF Retired.  My Human Papa and his Human brothers were all in service, so the sacrifice Jake made and how Mogley helped was especially moving.

See y’all later!