Ahh, spring! The crocus push their yellow blossoms through the leaf litter of the dead year, returning songbirds sing, and a young dogs fancy turns to...walks in the wood! It’s early on the first Saturday of spring and I set in my chair reviewing the many spring tasks inherent in owning an older farmhouse. Tippy watches me a bit, then, making up her mind, saunters to her ‘closet’, a reclaimed kitchen base cabinet from our remodeling projects. Pretty head down, she presses her slight weight against the pressure catch held door, then sits back, allowing the light hinged door to swing wide. I smile watching her disappear into the cabinet’s recesses till just her round ass and swaying tail announce her location. Finally she steps fully in, to turn and present her muzzle first loosely holding her dangling leash. She returns to sit before me, leash dropped at my feet and the cabinet she has yet to learn to close gaping in my view.

I hide my smile behind a book, teasingly ignoring her swishing tail. Moments pass, and then a sharp yap demands my attention. “ A walk, huh?” I question. She stands, her delicate paws on my knee and smiling pant reflected in her sparkling brown eyes. I’m sold, willing to do anything to see that bright joy remain on my lover’s face, but still must tease, it being my nature. Reaching awkwardly behind me, I raise the window at my shoulder and extend a hand, drawing it back fast with a mock shiver. “It’s cold out!” I exclaim, pulling the pane shut with a bang. She leaves my knee, returning to her closet to emerge with her little jacket. I laugh, having never seen her retrieve her jacket without my specifically telling her to, as she spins a tail wagging circle around her leash to drop the jacket in my lap. I give a chuckling OK, telling her I’ll need my jacket as well and pointing to the coathooks by the front door. She stretches on her hind toes, a paw tapping my heavy winter coat as her eyes look inquiringly in my direction. “No, too heavy” I tell her. She jumps sideways to questioningly paw my barn coat. “No, not that one either” I say. My jean jacket with the light blanket lining is investigated next. “Yeah, that’s a good choice” She catches the jackets hem in her teeth and twists her neck side to side till it drops to the floor then drags it by the collar to my chair. Grabbing up her jacket, she leaps in my chair as I stand then lifts first one paw then the next to have me slide the sleeves up her furry legs. Standing paws pressed to my abdomen, she lets me snap the jacket closed along her soft white chest. As my own jacket gets fastened, she holds her leash impatiently before me, then stands perfectly still as I reach along her back under the jacket to push the ring of her harness through a slit to fasten the swivel on.

Looping the leash over my wrist I move for the door and fill my lungs with the new air of the day, thinking as she bounds out before me how I’d been contemplating a peaceful hike today as I sat, and wondering briefly if she had read my mind. Ahhh, spring!