That's My Angel!

Early this morning I found Angel looking longingly out the window. And Soldier looking like I just woke him up. I haven't been feeling well for a while and had to be on meds that made me really tired for the past week, so they haven't been for a walk for a while.

This is what she was saw -- it rained heavily during the night, I listened to it for a long time. The rain must have turned to snow in the early morning hours.

But she sort of gave up hope for a walk and went back to bed. Yes, she is the only one allowed to sleep in our bed.

Seeing the snow gave me some energy so I threw some clothes on, got my snow boots out and took them for a walk. Soldier first with Princess. Then Angel and Princess. It was so cold and practically impossible to take pictures. I finally had to take pictures with my mittens on and my fingers freezing cold.

Here is Princess getting ready for her roll in the snow. She just loves snow and rolling in it is for her the greatest joy. Or a close second after chasing a ball.

You may wonder why I keep my GSD on a leash. Angel only does three things when she is off leash: First she runs and at a great speed for an 11 ½ year old dog. This is fine, of course, but due to her age and her incredible speed I sort of worry she may step in hole or injure herself in some way.

But then I think she won't be here forever and just let her do what she loves for as long as she can. So I usually let her go at the end of our walk.

It's hard to capture her speed, but believe me, she is fast. I have always suspected that her great-grandfather was a greyhound.

The second thing she does is stops and sniffs, and sniffs, and sniffs some more. Not very conducive to moving on with the walk.

The third thing Angel does is strays. She doesn’t go far, she has never run away, but she goes out of sight and doesn't come when called. She is definitely the alpha dog in our pack and I guess she feels she knows what she's doing and doesn't need to listen to me. Hmm, so much for me who's supposed to be the Pack Leader.

This time Princess is tired and can't keep up, but she will do her best to follow Angel, keep and eye on her, and herd her home if possible. Princess is a black lab/border collie cross and she has gone after and brought home all of our dogs when they strayed. Even Bandit, when he was alive and got lost in the mountains. That was so incredible, it saved Bandit's life and made us forever grateful to this wonderful dog. Princess is amazing, so smart, loyal and just plain good.

There goes Angel, heading over to the cows. I know, you can barely see her and I have yet to learn how to insert arrows and stuff in my blog photos. Princess is wondering what to do next...how to help me out.

When she takes off like this, we have a routine: I get in the car, start the engine and honk the horn. That usually does it, but not today. So I get in the car with Princess running beside me. The windshield is full of ice and I can barely see out as I drive down to the bottom of our road, worried Angel may have strayed toward the big road. I can't see her anywhere. So I stop and get out and there she is, running down the neighbor's road along the fence of the field where the cows are having their breakfast. Acting like she did no wrong, she happily jumped in the car with Princess and we drove back home.

So that's why my very smart GSD, who knows every command, understands a whole lot of words in plain English, and on all other occasions is the most obedient of dogs, gets walked on a leash -- until we get home -- when and if I'm in the mood to go through all this stuff with the car, I will let her run. And run she does, like the wind.