Mississippi Moment

We finally got out for a decent walk today. Susan's stomach flu is but a distant memory - although she says stir fry will not make an another appearance for awhile. The long weekend means the whole family is home which is heaven. The thermometer got back up near freezing, the sun came out and the wind died down so we headed out for some air. 

My Cosmo dog coat still stinks but it does work. Most people tossed salt out for the ice which really burns my paws. But I suppose if Susan breaks a hip on the ice then our walks would be pretty lame. This is the season of my three-legged hop which makes people stare - but I need to rotate paws to warm them up. Sometimes Susan warms them up for me and picks out the ice, which is nice of her. I don't want to make a fuss or I am afraid someone will try dog boots on me again. Not funny.

We made it down to the river. There's a nice path leading down to the shore from East River Road. The traffic drone all but disappears when you drop down behind the bluff and you see the river from a different perspective. Usually the mighty Mississippi is a grand, distant scene of barges and bridges. In the winter, down on the shore, it is glistening ice, dark water, chuckling ducks, and dripping ice falls. We sat down on a bench by an open spot of water to watch the ducks and geese.

There were dozens of mallards and Canadian geese hanging out and enjoying the afternoon. The water looks calm but ducks and geese zoom downstream and paddle hard to go the other way. Once they saw I was on a leash they went back to their business. 

All of a sudden they hollered QUACK QUACK QUACK and bald eagle swooped down on a batch of them. It wheeled around and made another dive at one young lady. She dove underwater at the last second. The eagle flapped away empty-taloned. It made me glad I'm not a toy breed!

See that black buoy behind me?
That is near the spot where the eagle almost grabbed a duck. QUACK!

We headed back up the bluffs to the city, dinner and a toasty warm house.