A poodle jumps over a log. We had been walking through the trees for a while. But it was not the normal trees in an open area, logs, branches, entire trees were scattered about the ground. It was a logging area, so it was not too surprising. However, even though the strange terrain worked for me, I wasn't sure if a poodle would be agile enough.
Instead she flies through the air, leaping about as high as an average person would, and landing lightly on the other side. She has no trouble with the footing, and just jumps repeatedly like a kangaroo. Unfortunately she has a leash on her, and drags her owner behind. Instead of walking her, the owner was being dragged.
We finally reach the stream. Water flows through a ditch in the trees and undergrowth. The other side is easier to traverse here, so we use rocks in the stream to get across. The poodle scorns those, and instead just gracefully flies over the several foot wide stream, landing effortlessly on the other side.
The banks of the stream get incredibly tall here. Steep as well, but the poodle doesn't seem to care, as she skips and jumps over rocks, through the trees, through bushes. This is where one of our dogs fell in the river, he just slipped and fell over the side. But it doesn't seem like the poodle is in any danger of that. She seems more sure footed than most people.
We finally get to the edge. This is truly an extreme plunge. A pretty sheer slope going a long ways down to the water. After finding a shallower part, we can make our way down to the Penobscot river. Unlike some rivers and things, this one doesn't really have a shore, as the sheer hill starts up pretty much right at the edge. But the view is amazing, out across the river that's wide enough to look like a lake.
Whether the poodle can appreciate the view or not is questionable. But discovering her leaping abilities may have been just as fun for her.
This is about three things: dog, landscape, dog-in-landscape. But you don't have much of a grip on any of the three.
ReplyDeleteMy preference, you can probably guess, is to concentrate on the dog--this is Della, right? I'd rather read about the worst dog in the world, which Della isn't, than the prettiest landscape.
Of course, my preference may not be yours. But something is broken or unrealized or unjelled or flat here, and if it were mine, the fastest and best fix would be to push the poodle, downplay the landscape.