Dan Antion

Disturbing Development – #1LinerWeds

As many of you know, my day often begins with a walk behind our dog, Maddie. I take pictures of interesting views in and around two adjacent town parks. Maddie sniffs. Every now and then, Maddie stares at something in the distance. Usually, it’s nothing – well, nothing I can see. Sometimes she stops and refuses to go any farther. Sometimes she barks in a full on “Danger, Danger Will Robinson” moment.

One of the people she barks at is an elderly woman who walks around the apartment complex where she lives. It’s an old school that was converted to Town-owned apartments. The woman walks with a walker, and we have perhaps been a tad inconsiderate when we dubbed her “the walker lady.”

I do my best to never bring Maddie anywhere near the walker lady. We avoid her route when I know she’s walking, and if we see her, I detour to get Maddie to focus elsewhere. When Maddie does see her, she barks, regardless of how far away the walker lady is. Maddie barks, and the lady gives us the stink-eye.

Monday, Maddie and I were walking through the parking lot to the main driveway into the park. Maddie stopped dead in her tracks. She wasn’t budging. She just stared at the apartment complex. I didn’t see anything at first. Then I saw what Maddie saw. Maddie looked at me as if to sat,

“Oh my dog, she brought reinforcements – now what?”

Then she began barking as if the world was ending.

This post is part of Linda G. Hill’s fun weekly series One-Liner Wednesday. If you would like to join in on the fun, you can follow this link to participate and to see the one-liners from the other participants.

Don’t forget, tomorrow is Thursday and that means Thursday Doors. The URL for my post is listed in the sidebar under our beautiful badge. You can link up at any time. My post goes live at one minute after midnight in the eastern timezone. I hope to see your doors.

Someone is not complaining that our grass is still growing.
I like that I captured Maddie’s breath – even if I chopped off my head. Maddie says I’m not important.
“What are these doing on my porch? There’s no room for my cot.”
The proper place for those bags
“It looks clean, but I need to make sure you got everything cleared off.”
Not only did I clean Maddie’s porch, The Editor put her winter top on the cot.
The tithonias are still blooming
Looking up into the brightest tree on our walk.
I don’t see anything over there, but Maddie does.
We’re still walking just after sunrise
We have been treated to patches of color.
We have a few trees that are trying to show off.
Look at the upper right. The squirrel is picking crab apples
My favorite tree is opening back up
Now that they’ve taken down a few trees, I can see the flag from different angles.

60 comments

    • People free is her favorite condition for a walk. Unless it’s one of the odd few people she likes to see. We work with the timing, the sides of the stree, what park we start with, the long way, the short cuts,\ whatever it takes. I got lucky catching her breath, but I like the photo. I hope you’re having.a nice cool week, Judy.

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    • We pass another guy that sits with a walker in front of his chair, and Maddie loves him. I don’t know what it is about this woman, but I try to keep Maddie away from her. The bunny is doing a fine job. We let the grass grow longer where it likes to eat.

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  4. The three consecutive pictures of the tithonia, the brightest tree, and Maddie are a nice tribute to autumn finery; Maddie is dressed for this season, for sure. “Oh, my dog”?! Seriously? I can but shake my head and reach for more coffee.

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  6. The picture of Maddie in the bright sunlight turning her feathers golden is a keeper. Maddie on her ‘winter cot’ is a sure sign summer is over. I hope the ‘reinforcement’ with Galloping Grandma is merely for company and nothing else. If it’s for more than company, I give grandma a lot of credit for getting out there and walking. Especially when she might encounter that loud red dog!

    Your patches of color are quite impressive. I do like this view of Old Glory. Now, her colors come through no matter what!
    Ginger

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    • Thanks Ginger. Galloping Grandma’s companion seemed to be there for support, maybe just moral support. In any case, I kept Maddie at a good distance until they turned the corner into the apartment. I really don’t want to harass the poor woman.

      Maddie stretched out on her winter cot and slept for about 20 minutes, while I caught up on some blogs and fed a few squirrels. I hope it’s a nice long time before we move up to the next level – Maddie wearing her buffalo plaid vest.

      It was interesting to see the flag from new angles.

      I hope you’re having a great week.

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  7. Beautiful photos, as always, Dan. I love your one-liner and like you, wonder what Maddie sees in this woman. If the weather cooperates, I walk every day and as I do, I talk with the creatures along the way. There’s one dog who loves me rather dramatically. He can spot me across the field and will drag his owner with him to get my hugs. Of course, he warms my heart immensely. 💗

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  8. Uh oh. Was she too stunned to bark? While I love all the photos, Dan, the last tree shot is just stunning. I never take a walk without seeing the sun playing hide n seek with me in the leaves and branches. That cot looks pretty cozy. 👍🏻

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    • She had to check out the situation in silence, Cheryl. But before long, she was barking up a storm. I feel bad for the woman. I try not to get Maddie too close. Walking early, we get to see the sun poking out from behind the trees at the end of the park. It’s always fun. I never know if my pictures will turn out to be useful, as the sun overwhelms the view screen.

      She slept on that cot for twenty minutes – out like a light.

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  9. Oh my dog, Maddie, I hope your “dad” gave you extra love and treats on that horrible day of the evil walker lady and her deathly companion. So much stress on such a lovely girl, I would give you lots of pets if you would allow it.

    Nice one-liner, Dan. Maddie reminds me so much of my kitty in heaven, who was afraid of everything. I used to think, “if only I could get in that little head of yours and make you understand…” Have a wonderful Wednesday and give all of the furry kids some love from me.

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  10. Oh, Maddie–reinforcements?! What in the heck is up with that??? Dan, that is such a perfect quote–I laughed! Glad the porch is cleaned off. I mean first the reinforcements and then schmutz on the porch…get with the program. The raindrops off the tithonia is very pretty. Your neighborhood is so beautifully decked out for fall.

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    • Thanks Lois. In my defense, I pruned the Rose of Sharon bushes on Saturday. It was supposed to rain hard overnight. The bags were only there one day! They get moved to the street for pickup on Monday – sheesh!

      Maddie was perplexed with the extra person helping the walker lady. I thought she might remain silent, but once she figure it out, she was off to the races.

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  11. Wow, it seems like a long time since we have had an appearance by the walker lady. I love the fall color in your photos–it seems drab here by comparison. The long shadows in one of your shots were really impressive. I noted your neatly bagged yard waste. We are now required to use those kind of paper bags too and I have bought a stack of them, but have not used any yet. I enjoy seeing so many shots of Maddie and the bunny seems especially cute this week.

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    • And, like you said earlier on your blog, getting pictures from different angles. I am carefully picking bright spots out of the drab, Mike. We have mostly muted colors.

      We can take our brush and leaves to a dump, but they pick up the bags each week. COVID restrictions limit us to 3 vehicles in the dump, do the bags are faster.

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  12. Hi Dan – oh Maddie … you entertain us with your thoughts and determined nature – to keep everything and everyone in order. But glad the human carers are paying close attention to you – as you do to unwanted walker ladies around. Yes – clever catch of the breath in the photo by ‘your man’!… cheers Hilary

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  13. She’s a great listener that’s for sure. I love the new angle for flag views, the show offs, and oh that perspective on the Tithonias is wonderful!

    It’s been really cold here in the mornings 27 yesterday and about the same this morning. How cold is it there after sunrise?

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  14. OMG poor Maddie. I’ll just bet that woman is part of a bigger organization that intends to eliminate us all. I’m sticking with Maddie’s gut. She knows something is a miss. And now there are two. Terrific photos, Dan

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  15. Sounds like a MIB moment. Seriously though you need to look into the services of a Psychic Dog Walk Advisor. There should be an APP for it. Select a desired route and alternate routes will be provided at points of psychic disruptions. Everyone gets home safe and happy… even the walker lady.

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  18. Dogs are a good judge of character wonder what it is about walker lady that has Maggie barking. Those red leaves again, just beautiful. I so enjoy my virtual trip to New England

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  21. Looks like Maddie wore herself out barking at the (double) enemy! I hope she recovered well. :-) It’s interesting to see what will bother animals. My first horse hated pigs and one of the places we rode past had a plethora of them. Fun times! The horse with my in my gravatar looked askance at little scurrying squirrels, as if they would bother her, a quite tall horse. But as one of our friends says, “You never know you know.”

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  22. Lovely color on the trees! I think dogs get more excited by the perceived dangers they encounter regularly. With mine, it was the mail carrier and the guys who came on Monday to steal our trash.

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  23. The old lady may be a ghost. Maybe Maddie is indeed sensing something about her that you can’t sense yourself. Trust the dog. What disturbs the dog like that is most likely bad for a human being.

    Last year in December, the dogs in my neighborhood suddenly began making mournful, howling sounds deep in the dead of the night. All of them, howling anDC wailing like bereaved people. Some cats joined them too. The cats were worse. They sounded even more like people than the dogs. Several cats crying like that at once is too disturbing. I hated those sounds. A few days later, one of my neighbours died. He lived downstairs directly below my house. He died in an accident. The night sounds stopped. I’m still spooked.

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  27. Hehe! In our neighborhood, there’s “Granny.” Granny has a teacup terrier called, no kidding, “Barkin Shug.” Barkin Shug is one barky dog and Granny walks her at least 10 times a day. We all hate that dog. Granny came over with gifts for Sassy the morning she left for college, and she talked to us at length about Barkin Shug. Turns out Granny took Barkin Shug in because someone in the family wasn’t caring for her properly. Granny herself said she now enjoys church more, and even enjoys grocery shopping (!!!) because she can’t take Barkin Shug. We LOLed and LOLed and hate the dog a little bit less. Sadie didn’t understand the conversation and has not altered her behavior toward Granny and Barkin Shug.

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