The Dead Cedar Game!

Who would have thought that a dead cedar laying on the grass near the road curb could be the reason for a Blog Post?

Ray took us out the other evening to accompany him on his walk, and it started out quite predictable. Knowing that he seems to like to know in advance just where we are going, we had given him the “Mailbox buddy” direction.

As an aside, it wouldn’t surpriseย  me if he thinks his name is Buddy by now, although “Ray!” still gets his attention. He has a German Shepherd X friend just down road whose name really is Buddy, so it can get confusing!

Back to the Post! The highlight for us, and probably Ray, is his 2nd poop of the day. He is pretty consistent in these kinds of habits and this particular event invariably happens on a late afternoon/early evening walk. On this particular walk, we had to pass some road construction equipment (water service pipes beneath the road were being replaced), and much of the grass alongside the road had been fenced off to protect it and the trees.

Ray has a number of places that seem appropriate for him to squat which are usually on an open section of grass but, of course, such places are now rather limited.

This time of year is when people start on the garden “clean up” in preparation for Winter, and this often includes disposing of various plants. Disposing simply means putting them close to the road so that our next “garden waste pickup” truck can take care of them.

As we walked along this particular road, we noticed the lack of open grass areas but, on looking at Ray, he was not concerned. He was sniffing along the bottom of the chain link fencing and peeing on the wood marker stakes. He seemed very happy with the circumstances. Towards the end of that particular stretch of road, he did start showing signs of wanting to squat and so we just watched and waited (with bag ready). This was still a typical performance on Ray’s part, but then he seemed to focus on a dead cedar tree that somebody had left on the side of the road. It was about 6ft long;ย  quite compact, and all the foliage was very brown!

Our curiosity about Ray’s interest in it was resolved as he sniffed his way to the top of the tree (remembering that it was laying down!). He then proceeded to somehow get into a semi-squat position over the tree, and kind off reverse down the trunk until he found that “right spot” (whatever determines that!). At that point he went into his fully functional squat position and … fully functioned!

My face could have no doubt told many stories as I watched, poop bag at the ready, as one stool came to a rest across two small top branches; the second one went between the top branches and came to rest within the dead foliage, and the third one, being a little smaller, found a route through the cedar completely and came to a rest on the grass beneath!

Ray got up with a renewed spring in his step and was ready to continue to the mailbox, while I pondered how to best retrieve his stools. It was a delicate operation! Thanks buddy!

 

29 thoughts on “The Dead Cedar Game!”

  7. My parents last dog but one would reverse himself as tight into a bush as possible to do his business.
    It would be balanced delicately on a leaf, and he looked decidedly smug at hs success.
    Barney once backed himself up to a chain link fence on our walk and scored a perfect bullseye through the hole, which was impossible for me to retrieve! Luckily there was no CCTV!

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