A Walk in the Woods

So today's weather in Ohio (in the middle of winter!) was in the 50s. Weird, I know. My mom told me though that because of something with the hurricanes the winds are changing so we won't be getting that cold of a winter this year. Fine by me!

Anyways, since it was such a nice day, I decided to take a walk. I couldn't not take a walk - I didn't have to wear a jacket outside! ME! And I'm always cold. I also love being outside. In the summer, I'm outside every day. It also just felt like the woods were calling to me. So I started walking towards the woods were I felt I should enter.

I've never taken a walk in the woods during winter before, and I realized I'm missing out. There wasn't snow on the ground, but there had been recently, so there wasn't any spider webs! Usually I'll encounter a couple, but all the precipitation must have gotten rid of them. After walking around for a good 15-20 minutes I stopped to listen and just think. I do the best thinking in the middle of the woods. All the silence and slight movements of the outdoors - bliss.

Luckily, one of our dogs followed me. He's a little thing and thinks he's much bigger than he is. One of our neighbors dogs started wailing, at least that's what it sounded like. So lets recap: I'm in the middle of the woods, almost completely alone, and there is a dog that sounded like it's being tortured. Maybe because I read too much or because at work we were having a conversation about Sasquatch today but I started to imagine some huge thing coming at me. Not a completely irrational thought but now that I think about it, I shouldn't have been so scared.

I started walking back to my house and I swear the howls were getting louder. Not only that but my little dog kept stopping and looking back. He only does that if he's interested, so I knew something was moving. I didn't know if maybe the dog was following us or not. Finally, after almost getting back to my house, I spotted a dog jogging through the woods behind me. He didn't even see me at first and I called to him. Then I noticed he had blood on his mouth. At first I panicked. I mean seriously, BLOOD! 'Did this dog do something to the other dog' I thought. But then I remembered that our dogs eat dead deer sometimes (I know, it's really gross) so maybe this dog just got hungry. It didn't seem threatening so I called to it again.

I finally got back on our property and took a look at the dog. It had blood on it's face, green stuff on it's back, beaches stuck in it's fur, and it smelled like feces. I thought I found a lost dog in the middle of the woods. After my quick assessment I noticed another dog coming through the woods. This one had two leaches trailing it. I knew it either got away from it's owner or it broke free from some kind of made-up dog staying contraption.

After calling my Mom and describing the dogs to her, she told me she didn't know who one of them belonged to - the bigger one with the blood on it's face. So I was thinking I found a lost dog! But then we finally contacted some neighbors and we found their owners.

This was kind of a pointless story but it's strange because I wonder if the dogs would have made it home if I hadn't found the one in the woods. They would have had to of crossed a frequently used roadway to get to our house. I like to think that maybe I saved one of them from being injured today. This is why I always follow my instincts. Not doubt I really wanted to go for a walk in the woods today, but I almost felt like I had to. Coincidence or not, I'm glad I ventured out today :)