Joy On The Rutland Nature Trail - Part 1

We had a sudden and surprising "warm" day, so I loaded the dogs into the car and headed for the nearby Rutland Nature Trail. The dogs were ecstatic and even Seamus was running!:

Jack had been so well behaved that I brought him along. But before we even got to the car, he began chasing the chickens and refusing to come when called. I decided to take him anyway, but put him on an expandable leash:

We'd barely begun when we came upon what I assumed was a dead deer. But on closer inspection, it turned out to be a Holstein calf. I never did figure out how it got there:

Jack was fascinated. In fact, he turned out to be a real sniffer, determined to follow every interesting scent along the trail. I was glad I had him on a leash and cancelled any impulse I might have had to let him off it:

But mostly, this was simply a day for great joy. The dogs ran and wrestled. You can see Clover ambushing Daphne as she ran by:

They ran ahead, I called them, they ran back:

Seamus quickly wore himself out and quit running, but Daphne continued to run, smiling all the while:

Great fun:

Even this crabby old codger was happy:

I could see the bridge up ahead and apparently, so could the dogs. They accelerated and I had to holler at them to keep them from going too far ahead:

We crossed the bridge:

The little brook beneath the bridge was lovely and peaceful. But this was just a brief excursion, a chance for the pooches to run and play, so we turned around here and began heading back to the car. I'll post Part 2 tomorrow: