Drop It!

Today, while the sun was rising over the Saginaw river, there was a bit of a melt at the park. It must have been in the mid-30s. While Tibe and I have been sticking to the plowed paths since we have had snow, today we ventured into the untouched snow covered area in the center of the park. Tibe loved romping through the snow, some of it still powdery and not too compact.

One of the great things about walking the dogs in the snow is that you can see the reasons for everything that they sniff. In the spring, summer, and fall, the long moments sniffing random bits of grass, or the gentle pulling to get in a little closer to something, seems inexplicable to me as a human, but, in the winter, the evidence is visible. A rabbit came through here. Oh, another marking from a dog. Ah, this looks like a deer.

This morning, while Tibe tracked another dog who had walked through the park, suddenly he came upon a bone. I do not know how it got there. I do not know what it was from.

We have been working on “leave it!” and “drop it!” at home, but he hasn’t really understood either of those commands. I have almost resigned myself to thinking that they were simply commands for me. If we were playing with a toy and I said “drop it!” Tibe would grasp it harder and play more roughly. Then I would drop it, and he would and we would move on to another toy. I almost felt him mocking me with the “leave it!” command. Really, mom, he would look up at me? Really? Why would I leave this lovely, delicious, unknown thing when I must explore it with my mouth?

I was on the verge of giving up on both of these commands. Then, this morning, walking through the snow, the ice beneath my feet, the horizon pink and yellow and luminous over the lumber baron houses on the other side of the river, Tibe put that bone in his mouth and I said “Drop it!” And he did. And he looked up at me with all of this love in his eyes as if to say, OK, mommy, what next? What next?

I’ll be damned. We all learn. We all continue to change.

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