Mornings were never my favorite. Getting up at 4:30, showering, getting ready, making breakfast, dealing with Rory, leaving Rory, and sitting in traffic. All just to hurry to a cubicle and sit. It’s was stressful and left me feeling like a zombie. After I quit my job and mornings were spent with Rory, everything changed. The crisp air, the birds & the squirrels. Feeling the rhythm of the day was amazing. We’d get up and make breakfast and get John off to work and then the day was wide open for any kind of adventure. Once John left, Rory and I headed out. Often on foot or sometimes by car. It felt so good to hit that morning air and not a dark cubicle. To move. To be in nature, however suburban it was. Some days we’d hike up and around the big hill. Clouds hanging softly in the hillsides. Sprinklers going off, creating little rivers that I would imagine were up in the great PNW. Rory would avoid the streams at all cost of course. Some days I would sit at a picnic table and journal and pray while Rory sniffed every little thing she could. This freedom to go slow in the morning was like nothing I had experienced.

Some days we took the big square around the neighborhoods and past the grocery store (and a stop at Starbucks). But I think our favorite was the car ride to the park a few minutes away. Rory knew where we were going and by the time we parked she was ready to bolt out the door. I’d attach her long line and open the door and she would tear off with reckless abandon under the wood fence to the tall pines where she knew she would find the tree squirrels. The park was at the bottom of a hillside and had a variety of squirrels occupying the grassy areas. Rory hated the little ground squirrels, their high pitched noises made her run back to the car. Luckily most days we didn’t encounter them.

I would hurry along after her, having to go around because I couldn’t go over or under.  She would be doing frantic circles between the trees trying to pick up the scent. Only a few moments needed and she knew where they were. Or she would get lucky and they would be on the ground foraging and she would chase them up the trees. Literally up the trees because she would use her nails to attempt to climb the tree herself. She would back up and get a running start up the tree. She would try and try and hastily bite at her long line that she blamed for not being able to make it up like the squirrels. Lol! Once done with that endeavor, she would go back to circling around the trees following any path the squirrels had left in the grass. The sniff was so intense she would start making noises like a clucking chicken or rutting pig. It made me laugh with joy. Watching her get out and explore every morning. Sniffing and hunting like she was born to do. The self-named lunatic farmer, Joel Salatin, often talks about letting the animalness of the animals happen for a happy healthy animal and I was so grateful to give Rory this opportunity after years of hanging out at home waiting for us.

One exciting day, Rory was on the hunt of two squirrels that had been chasing each other up and down various trees. She followed them to the lone tree closest to the hill and she was barking up at them while they played tag through the tree. But then the unexpected happened. One of them fell out of the tree right in front of Rory. I watched with sheer dread as I had no idea what she would do if she actually caught one of these little guys. They stood staring at each other, both surprised, for what seemed an extra long amount of time. But then they both came to and the chase ensued. I was following behind trying to stop Rory and shouting cheers to the poor squirrel to get ahead. Up the hill he went and so did Rory. Finally it found another tree and was up. Relief. She wasn’t eating anyone today. Would she have eaten it? Shaken it? Smothered it in kisses and wanting to cuddle? Luckily we didn’t have to find out.  Getting her back down the brushy hill was huge task in itself.

We did this routine everyday.  Sometimes I would just sit on the sidewalk and watch her sniff, chase, run, climb until she started to wander too far and I’d have to catch up. To have no time limits, no demands on our morning was the ultimate freedom. My days no longer start with squirrel chases but those mornings will always be a golden time of life for me. Just me and my walks with Rory.