raw sewage

The asparagus, bravely green, even in the snow.

It was very tempting yesterday on my run through the woods, to stop. The lure were many different kinds of mushrooms, on tree stumps, peeking out through the dead leaves on the ground. But I kept on.

Then I spotted the red-tailed hawk, circling over the meadow. I stopped. The hawk was already flying beyond the meadow, northwards over the woods.

Now that the cattle are gone, I had decided to circle the pond. The earth-dam was churned up with the hoof-marks of cattle. Large cow-pies dotted the fields where the cattle so recently grazed.

Water has found a wide low channel across a meadow and around the pond. I got my left foot wet, not very successful in my attempts to stay to the higher tussocks between the cow-paths.

I hopped a fence, last hurdle on the home-stretch. I was way too hot, over-dressed. I unzipped my jacket and sprinted towards home.

Late last night when I got home from my job in the city, Misty had no appetite. Her stomach was growling non-stop, painfully. She wanted out and in and out and in, again and again.

Persuaded by stinky flatulence from Misty, I finally decided she was sleeping in the laundry room. She was pretty unhappy about that, accustomed as she is to sleeping snuggled against me in my bed. But, hey, even my love for my doggies has it's limits. I really did fear she might have an accident.

When I got to bed, I pondered for a while what she might have gotten into that got her intestines into such a knot. Then I remembered the cattle, all the cow patties and the churned banks around the pond. Of course!

Misty probably indulged in a drink from the pond or the slow streams across the low spots in the fields . Any of that water would have been poluted by raw "cow sewage"!

Now my revised plan includes avoiding the pond and the fields the cattle were in, maybe until we get lots of snow, some hard frosts and ice covers the pond. In the meantime, I have endless other paths to run along.