Wind Songs: Cleaning Up Files

Walking on trail adjacent to Cedar Butte one day in early summer, the world was still green and even though it was sunny it was not too warm yet.
Kory was with me, and was happily bopping from sage bush to sage bush, enjoying her adventure in this familiar place, as though it was her very first time here instead of her 41st time.
I love that about dogs.
I love that about her.................

Although the unyielding heat of deep summer was not here yet, most of the flowers of spring had now disappeared.
So when I looked over to my left I was surprised to see these pale yellow flowers growing in the crevices and cracks of a large section of wavy lava rock.
The desert at this time of year was still green, still growing and still beautiful..................

We were walking on dirt double track.
The Suburban by this time was about 3/4 of a mile away.
I remember this day.
I had no idea where I was headed. In truth, it didn't really matter. I watched Kory for a few minutes as she happily wandered on one side of the trail and then the other.
Everything was new and wonderful and magical to her, and I remember smiling at the simple and straightforward goodness of my dog.
I liked having her around...................

We had walked a mile on trail when the story unexpectedly became more complicated, and when how far we would walk on this day unexpectedly got answered.
I stopped in the middle of the trail and turned east, looking at still more pale yellow flowers growing among a small section of lava rock.
Snapping a few quick pictures I turned back and scanned the cedar trees to my right.
Looking for my dog.
Often I can hear Korys' jangling tags before I can see her, and I stood motionless for a few moments waiting to hear that familiar sound.
Nothing.
I called out to her. Nothing. No jangling tags. No happy puppy eagerly running back at my call.
I called louder, and then louder still.
Nothing.
Where the hell did she GO? I had only spent a minute taking pictures. How far could she get in a minute?
I already knew the answer to that. She could be anywhere. In any direction.
She could cover a lot of distance in a very short period of time when she was highly motivated.
But I hadn't heard that familiar squeal of delight that she always let out when she was on the trail of a bunny.
I had watched her cover over a mile in just a few minutes one day when she was on the trail of a jack rabbit.
But there had been no happy squeal...........

I walked up the trail a short ways, consistently calling out to Kory, and then walked back the way I had come, all the while calling to my dog.
Nothing.
Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat.
Almost half an hour later I finally resigned myself to the fact that my dog was gone. Gone where, I had no idea. But she was gone.
Reluctantly I called LC, brought him up to date, asked him to come out and help me look for Kory, and also asked him to bring a bunch of water with him.
We may be out there for a long time...............

Kory and I had walked beyond a split in the trail.
If she did not reappear by the time LC got to me, I would walk up the rocky incline heading up Cedar Butte and he could continue further down the trail we had been walking.
Hopefully one of us would track her down.................

I continued to call to Kory for the next 20 minutes until I could barely see LCs white truck approaching in the distance.
He was a mile away from me and I watched as he pulled off Big Butte Rd, and headed in my direction.
He stopped briefly at the Suburban and I wondered why at the time.
A minute later he continued heading towards me, and a few minutes later I watched as he climbed up and over the short rise close to where I was standing.
As he reappeared on my side of the rise I looked through the windshield and saw the familiar and funky ears of my dog.
I was relieved to see her but............WTH?.................

She had somehow circled back on me, and headed all the way back down the trail.
LC found her sitting in the shade of the Suburban at the trail head presumably waiting for me to return..................

After I loaded into the truck LC turned it around and headed back the way he had come.
When we arrived at the Suburban Kory and I climbed out.
As I opened the back door of the vehicle so she could hop in, something caught my attention on the ground.
I guess she had chased a bunny after all.
And she had brought part of it back to the Suburban for safe keeping................

These were taken a few weeks ago.
We have been in a holding pattern of warm and sunny days, with nights right around freezing, for weeks now, and on this later afternoon we took our energetic pup out once again to roam and run.
Green was a distant memory....................

The town deer (that have spent all summer in small groups) have finally banded together into one large herd, as they predictably do every fall.
There has been one young buck living with the girls all summer, and we wondered if the large bucks would make their return.
One did just recently.
An eight pointer who is VERY hard to take pictures of.
The others are all watchful but also very used to us.
The buck won't let us get anywhere close to him, and continually bounds away at the very sight of us.
I'll keep trying..................

These were taken a month or so ago at the "Little Grand Canyon" AKA The Gravel Pit, that is located a couple of miles out on BLM land.
It was again late in the day and I was alone with Kory..................

I had parked the Suburban on the trail and together Kory and I walked the perimeter of the gravel pit before heading down into the pit proper.
As my dog happily wandered up and down the rock hills in search of bunnies I watched as rabbits covertly ducked into small spaces between the rocks, in quiet attempts to dodge the hairy bunny killer.
The light was beautiful as it always is at this time of day.
And even though BLM land was the same dry and brown color it had been for a couple of hot summer months, we were now into early fall.
The world FELT different. It LOOKED different................

So...........we walked the perimeter, we delved down into the depths of the pit, and then we walked the perimeter again.
The first time was for Korys' benefit.
The second time was for my benefit, because the sun was beginning to get low and the shadows were beginning to get long.
A beautiful time of day...............