When Asha was a puppy, she was intriqued by birds. She wanted to get close to one so she could give it a good sniff. Whenever she would try to get close, the bird would fly away. Asha doesn’t give birds the time of day now. She is SO over them. Then, there were the squirrels. We have lots of squirrels around here and they fascinated Asha. They even talked to her, which only increased her interest. But, whenever Asha would try to get close to one, it would run up a tree. So much for the squirrels. They can scamper all around Asha now and she just ignores them. But, there is one type of wild life that is plentiful in our neighborhood, that is Asha’s current obsession AND that has the good sense to stay on the ground where Asha might one day actually be able to get up close and personal. Rabbits, or, as I like to say when we see one “Asha, a wabbit!” We can’t leave the house without smelling where they’ve been in the yard and to be on the lookout for them during our pre-dawn walks. This morning we had the luck to come into contact with three, count them, three rabbits. Asha has never been able to get close enough to one yet; but, she got to watch them from a very short distance this morning. 

Perhaps I should download the song “Wild Thing” to play to Asha. I can just hear it now…

Wild thing
I think I love you
But I wanna know for sure
C’mon on, hold me tight
I love you

Wild thing
You make my heart sing
You make everything groovy
Wild thing

Last night, I took my camera along with me on my walk with Asha. I live next to a neighborhood that has many large old Victorian style homes and the neighborhood really gets into decorating for Halloween and Christmas. It is a several block area that is aglow with lights and massive decorations at this time of year. My picture taking was actually quite unsuccessful because, when I attempted to take a shot without my flash, the lovely colors of the lights came out but everything was blurred due to the slow shutter speed. When I used my flash, everything was washed out. At any rate, here is one picture I took, which I cropped and lightened quite a bit in Photoshop.

When Asha stays at home on my work days, we do two walks a day. The first one usually takes place at around 5 or 6 in the morning and the second one takes place when I get home from work in the evening. Due to it being the time of the year when the daylight hours are few, both our walks are done in the dark. Asha dozes the daylight hours away snug on the couch or bed or stretched out on the carpet somewhere. 

The good thing about it being cold outside is that I don’t worry about putting “acceptable” clothing on. It doesn’t matter that what I have on are some old blue and green plaid flannel pj bottoms and a flowery sleep shirt and that the combination makes me look like a Salvation Army reject. I just slip my bare feet into my high top squall boots, pull on my ankle length down coat, slap a warm cap on my uncombed hair, and away we go. No one will ever know…unless of course I get run over or have a heart attack out there somewhere. Then, the fashion police will know. But, at that point, will I care? I think not. So for now, this will just be my little secret.