Friday. With a manual examination yesterday, Dr. Hoberg ruled out a cruciate ligament tear in Zeno's right leg. That was good news. It could have been an arthritic flare up, a small re-injury to the original tear in the left leg--also, the possibility of a small TIA was not entirely ruled out. The dog is in his later years.

As we walk west on Ainsworth, I'm struck again by the rustic beauty of our area. There are no sidewalks--the dogs and I walk along right in the road. You can hear the occasional rumble of jets taking off from the airport and the low hum of traffic from the old Portland Highway nearby. For me, the highway sounds have become white noise, and I'm kept constant company by the calls of birds, which are so plentiful around here. Our little Pittbull/Basenji girl Tiger though, has not settled well with some of the noises coming from the airport. (I'll include a picture of our little canine freak of nature with this post.*) A neighbor has explained to me that what I thought were fireworks going off in the early morning, are actually blanks being fired to scare birds off of the runways. It's frightening to Tiger, who is scared of many things, especially rain. Her fear of cameras means there are very few images in our files which include her face. My daughter caught this image at our old home in Seattle (with Zeno and my mom behind her.)

One of our neighbors seems to have a small nursery concern, as there are potted plants just past the parking area, and a green house (perhaps they run a nursery somewhere else.) There is some kind of pine tree in the yard with a conical shape, and a color that blends chartreuse with gold. We venture all the way down to 46th today, as Zeno's gait is steady, and he's keeping up well. There, a dirt road leads south to Simpson. Tall trees shade the way. The leaves and bark seem to be those of cherry trees, yet I hadn't thought cherry trees could grow that tall. Just before the we leave this shady path, there is one last giant tree, with a large crop of dried fruit lying all about the silvery-grey trunk. I pick one up out of curiosity. Why not taste it? Yes, sweet, hard and black, the flavor seems unmistakebly that of cherry.