Magic Morning Moments

This morning’s walk was full of those magic moments one wants to share. Rickey, one of the pigsters, has taken to eating breakfast with Papa Scotch, and Scotch has accepted it with such grace. The reason Scotch is fed separately is because he was aggressively biting at the pigsters in a fight over the food, most uncharacteristic of the Scotch I know. And yet he is sweet and gentle with Rickey. In fact, when I put them to bed last night, Rickey was cuddled up with his dad while the others were milling around all over the place. Watching the two of them, papa and son, eating side by side this morning was the first Magic Moment.

I took the dogs into the pasture, where the activity level suddenly exploded. A coyote had passed through about twenty minute before, so the scent was fresh and strong. Sadie and Charley, noses to ground, ran in zig-zag paths following the scent from fenceline to creek to tree to fenceline to field to bushes and back again. Suddenly, they both met at the same spot, and nose-to-nose, head-to-head, ear-to-ear, stood in silent consultation as they evaluated the snowy ground. Magic Moment number two.

I was trying to keep up with Sadie, just in case the coyote doubled back, when I heard one of Oliver’s rare barks. He had tried to follow the big dogs, and wandered into a swirl of dried flattened grasses with the flattened access area to the south. Unfortunately, I’d moved on past (to the north), and now he couldn’t figure out how to get out to catch up to me. He hopped valiantly, trying to get over the grasses, but they were just a bit too tall for him. I went back and showed him the exit, and he flew out, pranced at my feet in thanks, and then zipped off after his canine sisters, tail up, ears pricked, little bunny hops of joyous abandon. Magic Moment number three.

But perhaps the most magical of all moments came when I turned back to the house and realized that during our walk-at-dawn, the most incredible sunrise had emerged. It was arguably the most intense, beautiful sunrise I have ever been blessed to witness. A huge deep crimson ball of fire edged with fingers of shining gold crested the hills to the east, black silhouettes of trees standing sentinel-like in front.

I reached in my pocket for my camera, only to remember I had taken it out to download some pictures during my morning coffee and not returned it. Shepherding four dogs back to the house to retrieve it would take time, and with coyotes or perhaps the wolf still nearby (as witnessed by the barking of the dogs on the property to the north east) I could not risk leaving the little guys in the field. And sunrises change so quickly that even seconds count. But it was, for sure, Magic Moment number four, the most magical of all the magic morning moments.

By the time we got back to the house and retrieved the camera, the spectacular crimsons had dissipated somewhat as rose and yellow light spread across the valley – still beautiful, for sure, but not the take-my-breath-away image that is emblazoned in my mind.







May your day be full of your own Magic Moments.