I love spring. The part of spring when the green is intense and the smell of growing things is knee-wobbling. (Makes me wish I had a scratch n’ sniff blog.) Maggie loves it too. I can only wonder at the complex scents sucked up through that long snout of hers; noted, registered, deciphered in a millisecond. It’s all I can do to pull her away from the moist grasses and muddy creek beds of Whitemud Ravine. It must be blowing her mind, the stories they tell. Come to think of it, she has been extra distracted lately. Those canine brain cells must be bursting with all the sensory data flooding in. Over the last few days, I’ve been trying to capture her nose at work. It’s difficult if not impossible. Even if her body is still, her snout is not.

Yesterday was beautiful and shimmery after 24 hours of rain. Our two hour walk through Whitemud Creek was wonderfully smelly, but full of mosquitoes. Today, under a threatening sky, the day-mosquitoes were just as bad, but we spent less time in the grass waiting for me to take a good picture (a futile exercise) and more time on the trails. Let me rephrase that, I spent less time in the grass, Maggie wandered in and out, following her nose, reading her molecular treasure map.

And then I remembered this picture from last year. Thankfully, Maggie was just interested in a sniff of fat caterpillar, not a meal.

Oh to be a dog for one hour. Sniffing the fragrant air and the just come to life foliage. No dog asses, please, and no humping either. The other stuff. The myriad smells of spring. And then I’d have a nap. A snack. And then a nap.

 2:30PM/20C