Noticing

My walks have recently caused me to think about what I notice. One day awhile back I saw some deer tracks heading the opposite direction and I thought to myself, “the deer could have been in the woods next to the trail.” I would never have noticed. They could have quietly watched as we walked by.
Usually my dog alerts me to the presence of animals, or people. My dog often spots deer on hillsides among rocks, grasses and oak trees. I can only see them when they move, they blend so well with the brown grasses and rocks. Pip will stop, look in the direction with ears alert. If he continues his walk it’s almost as if he is tip-toeing, his eyes never leaving his target. I have learned that I need to go to him at these times otherwise he might take off. Although he has learned that is a very bad, bad thing to do- according to me anyway, not to his dog-sense.
Once, in the fall, we were walking next to a field of dried out sunflowers and we heard a loud snuffling and snorting. I thought for sure that some giant pig had gotten loose from a yard and was snuffling about. I could just see the back of this snuffling animal about twenty yards away. Pip, a little uncertain now, came back to me, his body on full alert. Much to my surprise the animal’s head popped up to reveal that it was a dainty mule deer. I have no idea what it was snorting about for. I do know that Pip and I would have walked right past this animal if it hadn’t been so loud. The goodies in the soil must have been just too good, because the deer didn’t even appear to care to look around for danger. And the wind must have been just right and carried our smell away.
More recently Pip has, on several occasions, alerted me to the presence of a man who has taken to sleeping in the woods- sometimes to the obvious tent that I had somehow totally missed, sometimes to the not obvious figure sitting on rocks. I don’t know how Pip does it but there Pip will be in his characteristic alert poise. If I follow his gaze I usually find his object of interest.
Heavy snow is supposed to be on its way. After the initial blanket of white, everything moving to and fro in the forest will leave a trace, tracks that maybe even I can notice.