Tuesday, July 24, 2012

The day the earth stood still and tumbleweeds reclaimed the earth

Have you ever watched one of those doomsday documentaries where all the people on the planet
suddenly disappear and nature takes back the earth, at a speed that makes your head spin? 
That's what I think of every time I walk down my road.

Here is Smooch sitting in the road outside our front gate. 
Behind her you see the well-traveled path my truck takes once a week going to and fro from town.



Here is Smooch sitting in the same spot but looking in the opposite direction.
Behind her you see the road never traveled. In the past few weeks,
the tumbleweeds have taken over – sort of a tumbleweed armageddon.



Tumbleweeds are opportunistic little buggers. They spread and flourish wherever they can find a bare patch of dirt. 
When they're green and fresh, their points are sharp and prickly. When they're brown and dead and tumbling,
they're downright lethal to my precious pooch's paws.



Our evening walks now are a tiptoe through the tumbleweeds, and we're not having as much fun as usual.



But look at how good Smooch is getting at her sit-and-stays.





So good that my arm remained attached to my shoulder when a pair of bunnies tried to lure her away.

Good dog, Smooch.

14 comments:

  1. Oh! The back of Smooch's neck and head! I'd like to bury my fingers in that plushy hair and just squish them around!

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  2. Evil bunnies eh!;-) now I am going to have that old song about tumbling tumble weeds stuck in my head all day until I download it and hear the whole darn song ;p

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  3. I saw the leash on the ground and wondered just how fast you are. Good dog, Smooch. It's hard to resist a rabbit chase. I know that shoulder jerk.
    I didn't know tumbleweeds were prickly. Learned something.
    Beautiful, lazy, no-rain skies.

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  4. I get a lot of animal product catalogs (you probably do too!) and I keep seeing these really cool dog "boots" that look sort of like the canine version of hoof boots - I wonder if these might work to keep Smooch's pads safe and allow the two of you to do some easier trail-blazing?

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  5. Thanks for the cool close-up. Never having walked in the desert Southwest, I have only seen them in movies or at mach speed driving on Highway 5 in California. I had no idea how they look as they are forming and can now understand how well they propagate. What a nightmare! I don't think Smooch would like a set of sneakers, but they might be in order. OUCH!!!

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  6. Good girl, Smooch!!!

    I had no idea tumbleweeds were evil, prickly weeds. I know they are impossible to get rid of, but couldn't you wander the roadway when they are young and hit them with Round-Up or something similar? Maybe make your walks a little less prickly for the future?

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  7. Ya... that arm being pulled out of the socket, well... I've experienced it a few times too when bunnies suddenly appear. :-(

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  8. We have those tumbleweeds too! And they ARE nasty!
    Could you build some sort of drag for the UTE, to scrape them off the road? The roots are fairly shallow, if they're like mine. Send them on their way before maturity...

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  9. If you get boots for that cowdog, be sure they're cowgirl-looking boots, not something pink and cutesy. Or maybe Nike's for the running dog.

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  10. Wow...I guess that's what a few days of rain and sun will do. Poor Smooch. Maybe you can fashion some hiking boots for her. What a good pup she is.

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  11. I always thought tumbleweeds were kind of neat, blowing across the country side....I didn't know they were such a problem for man and beast...

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  12. Smooch is such a good dog. Shame on those rascally rabbits. Yay Smooch. Boo tumbleweeds.

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  13. Good girl Smooch!

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  14. Have you made a tumbleweed snowman yet? We used to do that in El Paso.

    I always thought of tumbleweeds as the vagabonds of the plant world. Rare wandering spirits.

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