Sadie's 8th birthday

Today Sadie turns eight years old. Three years ago I didn't think she would live this long, and here she is active as ever. She hasn't slowed down, despite her graying snout. I didn't have a party or do anything special for her. In fact, I didn't do much of anything as I still felt exhausted from yesterday's hike. Winds started picking up early in the afternoon and I'm glad I didn't take off today for Prescott. I hate driving in high winds and hiking in high winds isn't any better. The cold is also coming overnight, with lows near freezing.

I couldn't resist taking the dogs out on their evening walk around the Oaks. I now bring their gallon water bowl, fill it with ice cubes and water and then place it at one street intersection so that the dogs can drink at every lap. Today I took Sadie, Zeke and Minnie. Sweetie and Sammy stayed home, although Sweetie almost went along. I still need to practice with her some leash manners, as she has a tendency to bolt and not come back until she's frothing at the mouth and exhausted. Sammy seems resigned taking it easy in his golden years and shows no excitement at coming along unless he feels rested. That is his perogative. He's now on a doggie aspirin regimen I started him on yesterday, since his body seems to have developed immunity to the glucosamine he's been taking.

I started today's walk at 5:45pm. Wind-swept lenticular clouds spread across the horizon. By 6:15pm the last of the sun's rays burst into fire reds above the mountains. The dogs were enjoying dragging large stumps around, Zeke continued to chase after desert rats, and I just kept my brisk pace around the laps. We ended up doing close to five miles!

Today's nature spectacle was watching a young Great Horned Owl hold tight in an oak canopy, its feathers blowing in the wind as its body swayed with the breeze, yet never losing its sight on me, even as I got closer to the oak tree it was perched in. The bird stared at me for quite a while before it got bored and flew off. Last week's spectacle included a heard of at least 20 deer that ran in front of us, surely spooked by coyotes hunting them. Even the dogs were spooked. Shortly afterwards it got too dark to see much of anything, and both Sadie's and Zeke's collar lights were turned on. Those new LED collars really help see the dogs run around at night.

I love living here. There's always something that inspires me, excites me, or just plain startles me.