Singer's "Vacation"

Have you ever planned a vacation and then was disappointed after you came home? I wonder if that was how Singer felt today after we took her to Goose Pond. I know I did.

After thinking about it for months, it was a let down to come to the area that I had built up in my mind as a setter’s paradise. One thing surely didn’t disappoint—the geese and their honking can take you far from the urban sounds of cars and plop you right down in the middle of gooseland, where aviary creatures rule. Which it did, at least metaphorically. Singer was slightly enchanted, she looked up briefly towards the pond where dozens of geese swam and honked, then turned her attention to the fallow field just south of the road. She wanted to go exploring, so we took off through the field on foot-worn paths in slightly wet stalks. She got a snootful of smells, I’m sure, which created more dendrites, as Jeff pointed out. Nothing like those smells to get a dog’s brain lit up! Some of you are probably wondering if I pay to get my dog hooked up to a fMRI or something, the way I keep talking about canine brains in this blog…I do like to think about my dog’s brain a lot.

We left after probably a fifteen minute walk through the field (my shoes were getting wet and I was cold.) Then we stopped at Einstein’s Bagels to get lunch, and I was suckered into getting a doggie bagel, which is really just a small, stale bagel for $1.25. Way overpriced, should’ve just gotten a regular bagel for her! Disappointed again.

So I hooked her up after lunch to take her on another walk. We went to Garner Park, one of her favorites. Right outside the park, there’s a street that is split down the middle with a mini nature preserve and small creek. Lots of huge oaks and bushes so you can’t really see across the street to the other side.  As we were crossing parallel to this boulevard, me listening to my iPod and not paying too much attention, Singer suddenly stops in the middle of the street to look at the nature preserve strip. More than a dozen squirrels were playing and chattering in the trees and were now jumping and leaping from tree to tree, then racing across the street RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER! Wow, it was like suddenly finding Big Foot! Or seeing Haley's Comet, or the Aurora Borealis. Even if she was in major high alert mesmerizing mode, and therefore still as stone, I was pretty damn excited for her and told her so. Those squirrels scurried across the street, like they all had important meetings they were going to. One by one, they ran past and into a neighbor’s yard. I really don’t know why she wasn’t tugging on the leash, wanting to at least TRY to catch one. She usually gets so excited that she tries to climb the tree. But it took more than a minute for the entire tribe of squirrels to run right in front of her, sassing her with their tails, and then hurrying off to climb another tree. She got her vacation right there, I tell you. Quite the sight.