I’ve found a good place to walk with Zinnia. It’s near the farm, has flat, wide paths, and leads to a lake where Labs can swim in better weather.

Every walk with Zinnia is special, different, as she matures and explores the world and slips into my life as all the great dogs do. She runs up ahead, then turns to see where I am.

She slips off into the woods to follow a smell and comes right away when called (sometimes, after a few seconds, if the smell is fresh. We can see far ahead on the path, so she walks off-leash.

Her enthusiasm for the woods is infectious, as is Maria’s, and Fate’s. I am surrounded by women who love nature.

Zinnia and I have been walking alone lately, Maria is on a passionate jag with her work, and I don’t want to distract her or bother her, and her walks in the deep woods are more vigorous and long than mine.

In the warm weather, we can walk together in the woods sometimes. My time with Zinnia is sweet, precious. Sometimes, she turns and looks at me, as if to say, “isn’t life wonderful, isn’t this sweet and special.”

And it is, it is. I’m going to journal regularly on my walks with Zinnia. She is alarmed by other dogs, barking at first, then calming. We met a border collie who sliced his foot in the woods, his owner was carrying him a mile out to her car.

He was bleeding a lot, but I’ve seen those cuts before, he will be fine. Otherwise, we walked in peace and silence. We came to the pond, but Zinnia did not run out onto the ice.