Walking with Monkey 2023

The difference between friends and pets is that friends we allow into our company, pets we allow into our solitude. ~Robert Brault,American writer

I Monkey here.

I think Mama was trying to hide the news of this year’s Walktober from me — she probably didn’t want to have to do two walks! Huh.

But I found out, and I’m raring to go. Fall day? Check. Leash and harness? Check. Link to the official Walktober post? Check.

Let’s do this!!

Mama has been to Douglas-Hart Nature Center previously but never with St. Dallas. Naturally, I was eager to prove I could behave and not bite a stranger’s arm off, so after being on my best behavior for a while, I wore her down.

Here I am, sniffing out the best starting trail:

Somebody clever carved an owl and a squirrel from a tree:

There were lots of tall, tall trees:

And some things with trunks that reminded Mama of rhubarb:

There were decorations for Halloween:

And something that looked more like Christmas:

Who tossed these yellow balls all over the ground? Doesn’t matter — I wasn’t interested in them much:

There was just a little bit of Fall color:

Along with some berries:

And pretty flowers:

There was a prairie windmill-thing:

And a pond. Mama talked with one of the workers, who was fretting over how low the water has gotten. He said they have no way of adding to the water level unless Mother Nature brings some big rains:

We saw lots of bird houses but not so many birds; we only saw one squirrel, but Mama wouldn’t let me chase him. I know she’d love chasing critters, too, if only I could get her to try! Silly Mama.

We saw several other visitors (but nobody with a dog). I got a lot of compliments, and I even let some of them touch me!

Finally, here I am on stage, taking my bow:

Okay, that’s it. Time for a snooze. All that fresh air and exercise makes me one happy, relaxed dog (and gives Mama time to put this thing together!) Hope you enjoyed our walk — see you next year (don’t worry, I’ll be posting before then, heh heh!) And I’ll get lazy Mama outside soon for her own Walktober post.