New dog and a change of season

The leaves are falling at my house, and I have a whole new reason to love autumn. It has always been my favorite season, but this year it’s even more so.

I moved back into Coeur d’Alene from Post Falls this summer, and for the first time in quite a while I have real maple leaves falling – rather than ponderosa pine needles. Leaves are great; on the tree, falling from the tree, on the ground. Even the pulverized skeletons from past years’ leaves, tucked away somewhere obscure are great. And year-old leaf mulch even smells great.

Needles are OK on the tree, when still green and alive, but will always be an annoyance to me on the ground. There is nothing pretty about the fall of brown needles in a wind. And needles never go away. They stay brittle and crunchy where they fall – forever.

But falling leaves are only a part of the reason that I am reminded this year of my love for late September through November.

It seems to me that the colors have been a bit better this year than some. I know that weather has a lot to do with it. I think that our weather lately has been great and so, apparently, do the trees. My next-door neighbor has an adolescent maple that has turned an almost fluorescent red.

There are several full-grown, similarly crimsoned trees near my work. They are all gorgeous. My own front-yard maple, so old that its base has rearranged the contour of the yard’s slope and gnarly enough to bear the scars of limb-ripping and trunk-splitting storms, is a bright yellow-gold.

But the colors are not the reason for my autumn excitement this year.

Ever since I was 11, October has meant deer hunting. The aura of everything associated with hunts of the past still stirs when I feel the weather. A lot of my dearest memories are from hunting seasons with my grandfather, or with Ray, my best friend through high school and college.

I don’t hunt anymore. But still, sometimes, the yearnings for those autumns gone by can be almost painful. So, they are not why I love the fall.

As I said, I love autumn, but not as much as my dog loves autumn. And that’s why this fall is so special.

I have a new dog. He is a miniature Australian shepherd, almost a year old, and full of energy and mischief. Back in 1985 I got an Australian shepherd-sheltie cross that was a year old. We were together for 13 years. She was what I call a “once-in-a-lifetime dog.” That’s why it has taken me seven years to get another.

As with Jess, “my old dog” as I now call her, this new dog, Corey, was not planned and was not convenient at the time. But also, as was Jess, Corey is a gem and I can’t imagine how I got along without him.

This being his first autumn, Corey has just discovered the incredible nature of falling leaves. And I have discovered a new reason to love the fall. I don’t know when lately I have laughed so hard as when I have seen his reactions to these first falling leaves.

His initial encounter was with a single leaf, skittering across the parking lot at work – yes, he always goes to work with me. And I’ll admit it up front, he also sleeps on my bed, samples everything I eat and patiently listens to everything I have to say. He never ignores me the way that my other housemates do – my yellow-and-blue macaw, AnnaMaria, and my two kids, Taylor and Sydney.

He chased after that leaf as if it was something still alive. I’d have expected a similar reaction from him if it had been a mouse. That leaf bounced and shifted direction based on the whims of the rough surface and the little breeze. Corey was nothing but silly as he pursued it.

Then on another day when we got home and he found an almost solid covering of leaves across the front lawn, he went bonkers. He tore back and forth in circles and figure-eights, plowing a track with his nose through those leaves.

He tore so fast that he lost traction on the turns and slipped. As a new leaf would fall, he would jump, all four feet off the ground, after it. What a sight!

And he has repeated his craziness with just as much fervor each time he has been in the yard since. I couldn’t possibly even entertain the idea of raking those leaves, which is good news for Taylor, since he is the one who would actually be doing the raking.

I’m loving it – but now I’m wondering – what will Corey do with his first snowfall?