An Autumn Afternoon With Ranger

Today was a lovely fall day, so around five p.m., I decided it might be a nice surprise for Ranger to take him on a walk.

Ha. That's the biggest joke in the world.

Ranger wakes up every single morning of his life, ready and raring to go for a walk. Walks are what he lives for. He taps his proverbial toes all day long, just watching and waiting for me to give a sign that the time is near.

If I go near my shoes, he starts to tremble.

If I put on a sweatshirt, he quivers and stares.

If I brush my teeth (which, for some reason, is a pre-walk ritual of mine), he nearly faints.

By five p.m., if Ranger is still waiting for his walk, his eager eyes are glued to me, his body is twitching with adrenalin, and his vocal cords have kicked in, begging, pleading and whining at me to notice him and have mercy.

Every day is like this. Which is why Ranger and I go for lots and lots of walks.

As we were out walking today, the grey clouds finally parted and a bit of blue sky peeked out at us. Ranger patiently stopped and waited while I took this photo of the glory.

And he waited again while I took some shots of the red and gold leaves on my neighbors' maple tree.

Right after this, I stepped on Ranger's front left paw. He squealed dramatically and I felt bad. But he didn't slow down his brisk pace, or even lift his head from sniffing position. Must not have hurt too much.

As we crossed the street and stepped back into our yard, I was suddenly hit with an idea for an artsy autumn fallen leaves photo shoot. While Ranger gave our front flower border a full sniffing, I held my camera close to the grass and took a few low angle shots.

Warming to the challenge of getting an interesting composition, I took the plunge and lay down completely flat on the ground, still snapping away. I was completely focused on my task, staring with concentration at my camera screen, when a shadow passed over me, and two red shaggy objects suddenly appeared in my shot.

Yes, Ranger had stepped right over the top of me as I lay on the ground. Completely nonplussed by this  turn of events, he meandered up the front lawn, while I quickly recovered from the shock of being walked on by my dog and continued to shoot. 

Oh Ranger, there's never a dull moment when we go out for a walk together. 

Then we went inside. Ranger ate his dinner out of a shiny dish on the laundry room floor, and slept a sleep of contentment while the humans ate a cozy dinner in the dark of an autumn evening.

And while this might not be an exciting story, a walk with Ranger is a very companionable way to wrap up my afternoon. Which is why we will do it again tomorrow, and the next day, and all the days to come.