The Same Direction

The world is full of interesting things to look at. Lately, we’ve all been mesmerized by squirrels since they’ve been scampering around like there’s no tomorrow, which I guess for them, with winter around the corner, there is no tomorrow.

But each of us is often drawn to something different and boy, was that evident today. The weather changed in many ways. The temperature dropped about 15 degrees, the wind kicked up again, but this time it blew down from Canada, and the rain was increasingly cold as the day progressed.

And let’s not forget the lack of daylight. It’s amazing how quickly the evening gets here. Of course, the dark rain clouds don’t help much either.

Let me get back to the topic at hand — what we choose to look at or perhaps better yet, the direction we turn our gaze.

The day started with a wonderfully long walk with my best friend Monty. Of course, Gretchen decided NOT to bring her camera because the rain was close to torrential, but not quite so. Still, we had a great walk and what we chose to look at were the squirrels. I think we have more squirrels per-capita in our neighborhood than all the neighborhoods in Seattle combined so we kept Gretchen on her toes and her arms fully extended as she did her best to hold us back from leaping up every tree after those furry-tailed rodents.

She took Rosie and Tyson out after that and they looked at leaves.

Well, Gretchen looked at leaves, which are an ever-present layer of yellow and brown detritus throughout Frink Park. I guess that’s where Gretchen’s focus was, but even she has to admit that it’s not always easy to capture the directions we look with a camera. Sometimes you just have to be there and see the detail of every leaf, the way the slugs slide through and over them, and catch the scent of dirt and wetness filling your nostrils.

Rosie and Tyson chose to look off down the paths…

…and then straight at Gretchen because, if they’re patient in their stays, they earn a treat.

Of course, if they’re not so patient they get a treat, but they haven’t figured that out yet!

Perhaps no one has a more focused directional look then Ms. Gemma. She and Oshi compete for who can look away from the camera more than any two dogs we walk. On this day, Gemma zeroed in on a dog playing fetch across the field from their posing spot and Oshi, as is his want, looked the other way. Perrito, on the other hand, is always trying to figure out what looks more interesting and his head changes direction more than any dog I know!

As for Saber, well he looks at everything all the time, but is constantly searching for something to put into his mouth. While Monty and I obey the command…

…Saber DIVES for a nearby stick and proceeds to rip it to shreds.

Only on occasion can Gretchen get him to change direction of his focus and then she quickly snaps the shutter hoping to capture the rare moment.

We dropped Monty off at his house and I was ready to turn my head in the direction of my round, donut bed, but we jumped into the car and headed over to Paige’s house. Now that’s a change of direction!

I thought we’d go for a walk, but did I ever get a treat! We went to the big field and played fetch…

…and then, as if we finally figured out we really liked each other, we played chase. Gretchen so wished she had her telephoto lens to capture the romp, but you’ll have to take it from me (and some of the stop-action photos) to know we had a great time…

…even though sometimes we don’t know which way to look!

When we finally piled back into the car, my direction was solely focused on dinner, some puppy ice cream (yes, they make such a thing) and a nice warm spot on the couch curled up between the love of my family. It was a great day and while my direction must swing to match the variety of my clients’ it’s always, always focused on my family!

Until tomorrow,

Rubin