I love a walk. Somehow my ordinary suburban neighborhood transforms into loveliness at dusk when the four of us set out.

Side note: We have ditched the scooters for a time, due to the duskiness of the evenings and the desire to have peacefulness instead of bloodshed these last few evenings.

We see bunnies hopping about, truly believing they are invisible to us. We grin and the children giggle together because we know their secret. Nighthawks zoom above us..if we are late enough. We walk to the streets behind our neighborhood with the large limestone mini-cliffs carved out of their yards and the huge trees and beautiful landscaping. Note: This would be the neighborhood behind ours, not my actual neighborhood. It is fun to venture into their beauty out of our ordinariness. (Nothing wrong with my 'hood, just enjoying theirs.)

Sometimes we head to the park down the street for a bit of rambunctiousness to close out the evenings. Other times we walk and talk while the kids run ahead, mailbox to mailbox as became our custom years ago. These are good times.

But, the really fun parts of evening walks are...

Doggie Noses!

Yes. Doggie noses. Big, little, black, brown, pink, sniffing, shivering, excited doggie noses. In our world of alleys and privacy fences, dog owners (or the dogs themselves in some cases) cut little portions off of the bottom slats of their fences or burrow tunnels in the ground below so that the dogs have a window to the world beyond. A window that usually is only big enough for a nose. No eyes, ears, bodies or paws do we see. As we walk the kids scour the bottoms of fences listening and looking for the familiar sniffing noses. When the find one, they squeal "Look! A doggie nose! Hi, little dog! Hi!!! Hello, doggie nose!"

We have a few familiar noses we see and talk to often and periodically find a new friendly nose. Last night we had a dog chase us behind his fence. He barked and followed us as we walked on the sidewalk. We could not see him and this was not a dog house that we knew. The kids carefully looked over every inch of the fence and sadly found no burrowed out ground or sawed off slat for the yapping dog's nose. It was strange and a bit sad to leave that dog, not knowing what his nose looked like.

Good stuff, those doggie noses.

Posted by stephanie at October 31, 2007 03:25 PM

Steph, thanks for stirring a great memory. I always thought it was odd that people would go to such elaborate lengths to allow their dogs that window on the world. (I didn't, however, think it odd that the dog would help himself to a sniff of the world.) But now I miss that Texas oddity. That really is good stuff.

Posted by: Rita at November 3, 2007 09:50 AM