Who Goes There?

Barley, a dog, investigates smells near the base of a tree. The recent snowfall reveals that the tree was recently visited by another dog approaching from another angle.

A fun consequence of taking Barley for a walk the morning after fresh snow has fallen is that a pretty substantial proportion of the pedestrian tracks you come across are from other dog-walkers whose day started a bit earlier than your own. This lets our puny human eyes see in much starker terms which landmarks have been of interest to other dogs. In this photo, note the human footprints that walk across the frame behind the tree; and note also, the smaller footprints of a dog whose trajectory made a wide swing away from the human footprints to visit the tree before swinging back as they rejoined their person. It was very clear in context that Barley was interested in all the spots where prior dogs had left their footprints, but I don’t think Barley was using the footprints as her guide, her nose already being such a sensitive instrument. So it’s nice to be given a limited window into what she’s sensing from time to time.