Meeting Dogs In The Woods

I knew something was up by the way the dogs were sniffing the path.  I could tell they were picking up the smell of something other than the usual animals that live in our neighbor’s woods.

But when they took off running ahead of me into the woods, I still expected to see the white tail of a deer.  What I saw instead was gray and ran lower to the ground.  I thought it might be a dog, but our neighbor has a yellow lab and when she sees us she runs toward us not away.

So I took the paths in the opposite direction of where I saw the animal running. Fate and Zinnia, still unusually alert.

It was when we were headed back that we met the dogs and their owner face to face.

There was some confusion as a tall thin black dog ran up to me and all but licked my face. Then I heard Fate barking as she does when she meets another dog.  She runs up to them, then quickly turns and runs away.  Which is just what she did to the other long-legged gray dog that was also in the woods.

They all circled around while Zinnia barked as I’d never heard her bark before. It was more the sound of a hound dog than a Lab. When Fate took off running down the path away from us the two dogs followed her.

Zinnia hung back staying with me.

Although I’d never seen her in the woods before (or anyone except our neighbors who own them) I recognized Shanon, from seeing her around town, right away.  We headed down the path together in the direction the dogs had run calling them.

Fate came back quickly as I knew she would.  Either that or she would have been waiting at the head of the path.  Then one of Shanon’s dogs showed up.

By now the dogs were used to each other.  Fate hid between my legs as she often does.   Shanon was confident her other dog would show up, so we headed back to the car.

Fate and Zinnia were both wiped out when we got home.

When I first moved upstate I used to take my dogs Lestat and Skunk for a walk on the abandoned railroad tracks that ran by my house. Halfway into the walk there were two dogs that lived nearby that would often meet up with us and we’d all walk together for a while.  I never met the dog’s owner and they always joined us and left us at the same spot.

That was over twenty-five years ago and I’ve never met any other dogs in the woods since then.

I don’t know if we’ll come upon Shanon and her dogs again.  But if we do, at least the dogs will be familiar with each other. And maybe the meeting will be less crazed.