Grace is a yellow lab and bassett hound hybrid. As such, she loves water and possesses a powerful sniffer. Her legs are about ten inches long, which gives her a powerful four-wheel-drive pull on the leash. For some reason, she loves to climb steep hills, of which there are many in Meadville. She loves to romp in deep ivy, a common ground cover on the steep hills of Meadville. And she loves snow, the deeper the better. She is a Meadville dog, no doubt.
The instant we step out the door, that nose is to the ground, sniffing sniffing sniffing. She looks up frequently, watching for humans, which she loves, dogs, which she wants to play with, and plastic bottles, the best dog toys on earth.
At the end of our front walk, she makes the call. Which way are we going? I let her nose lead us about fifty percent of the time. If it were up to her and her nose, we would be exploring for many hours at a time, then napping, then exploring more. Unfortunately, I have other priorities. But I can see why she got picked up by animal control last summer. She got out of her previous home and started exploring, ranging far and wide, and when the dog catcher got out of his truck, she ran right up to him and started licking his face. Anyway, my primary job once we set out, is to get us back home or to the church in time for whatever the next priority is. She is never ready to come home. So, we're at the sidewalk and she turns left. She'll probably want to keep going across Morgan on Chestnut Street. I steer her left, down Morgan. This can take us on a fairly short loop around the streets just north of Chestnut - Maple and Walnut. Or we can continue ahead down the stairway into Shadybrook Park with a stream, a small pond and a swampy area. Very popular. From there we can continue in the same direction to North Street or we can scale the very high very steep very popular hill and down the other side into MASH (Meadville Area Senior High) property, where there is a big pond, a big swampy area, and a stream. If we're going for the hour and a half knockout punch (she'll sleep away the rest of the day) we can go over to the recreation complex. All of these places are prolific providers of plastic bottles, the best dog toys on earth.
After dark, she'll usually start us out by turning left in front of the house, taking us up the hill to Elizabeth Park, across to Alden Place - former home of Meadville Theological School - with a big parking lot on the east side, and a big field on the west. Especially in deep snow, she loves the field, where she can poke that face down and run for ten or twenty feet at a time without coming up for air. I call it "face plowing." Her snow-covered face comes up, looks around, then pokes back down for another long furrow. We can do ten or fifteen minutes there if we have the time.
When I wheedle, cajole and pull with all of my strength to turn her toward home, she begins to misbehave, jumping up, biting and tugging the leash, biting my boots and humping my leg. But I prevail, dragging her home to be dried off and settled down for a nap - hopefully a long one.
I could use one of those myself.
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