Wednesday Pack Activities (10/22/2025)

Ruffers, Lucy, Tozai, Bear

Griff, Alfie, Carl, Dylan

Adventure Pack

The Chautauqua trails were full of people today. Right before the pack hit the trail, I had a surprise reunion with former pack members Taco and Monkey! Monkey recognized me and went nuts with wiggly excitement saying hi, while Taco just hung out and accepted a few head pats and neck scratches. After that, Ruffers, Lucy, Tozai, and Bear hit the trail and to hike through the meadow and over the mountain. They all put their noses to work at some of the same points of interest. I got a photo of their investigations as they all sniffed the same spot on a tree trunk. Bear often waits to poop until we pass a particular stretch of trail at the end of our hike, after we have already passed the dedicated compostable dog poop receptacle at the trail head. Today, we walked through that area at the beginning of the hike and lo and behold Bear immediately did his business. Tozai started harassing Lucy and Bear on our way down the mountain while everyone was on leash, with a lot of hikers around, in an attempt to find a partner in crime for rambunctious play instead of measured walking. They were both tempted, but responded to my interruptions. Tozai made several attempts to stir the pot before he settled down. Ruffers kept entirely out of the fray.

Variety Pack

Griff, Alfie, Carl, and Dylan also scoured the landscape for interesting smells. I was a little late snapping a photo of them in action - they had all been zeroed in on the same one spot, but started to disperse by the time I got the camera ready. The afternoon sun felt warmer than I expected and we took a very easy pace as Dylan was panting pretty heavily from early on in the walk. Carl has been grumpy about other dogs we've passed on our walks this week and made a bit of a fuss again today. I think Alfie saw a squirrel somewhere ahead of us at one point based on the way he perked up, but I couldn't pick it out amidst the varied landscape of autumn leaves. When dropping Griff off, I got a laugh when a rabbit crossed his path not 5 yards in front of him on his way into the house and he didn't even flinch, in stark contrast to how Alfie and some of the other pack members would react.