Pumpkin wars, Canine edition

 Saturday November 1, 2025

Ember's morning walks are now in pretty chilly weather.  On the plus side, she's getting used to me wearing coats, gloves and stocking caps.

Also on the plus side, this year's Halloween decorations did not freak her out the way they did a year ago when she was a nine-month-old puppy.  Now, at a "grown-up" (almost) 21 months, she's calmer with a lot of the distractions of a neighborhood walk.

However, on November 1st, she spotted a pumpkin about the size of a soccer ball, sitting at the base of a tree, within leash length of the sidewalk (almost).  A squirrel had already gnawed a bite or two out of it, and it had a very attractive handle (stem).

Ember dragged me across the yard to the pumpkinand started an intensive investigation of it.  The garage door of the house we were in front of was opening, and the man of the house was stepping out to his truck in the driveway.  "Help," I said weakly.

Ember picked up the pumpkin by the stem and started to trot in the direction of my house.  She looked proud, but I was still trying to convince her to "drop it" or "leave it".  Too bad, mom, I've got hold of it now, she might have said.  I got no photos of her proud prancing!

The gentleman in question followed us down the block in his truck, and when we got to our own yard and I kind of shoved it away from her, the pumpkin rolled down the driveway and across the street.  The neighbor man stepped down from his truck, retrieved the pumpkin from the gutter where it landed and drove off.

I felt guilty, so I bought the pumpkin pictured above at the grocery store and left it with a note of apology on the porch of the house from which she had swiped it.

Sunday, November 2, 2025

Not wanting to repeat the problem, I avoided that side of the street on Sunday morning's walk.  It was even chillier, leading to a heavier coat.  We walked the other direction around our "normal" neighborhood loop.  We had two episodes related to a dropped treat in the street. Ember laid down and refused to leave the middle of the street, ignoring two dogs who walked by with their human dad, and avoiding an alert lady driving her car, who rolled down her window and asked if we were OK.

Anyway, I managed to convince her to come out of the street and put Mommy on the sidewalk (that's the puppy's job, don't you know?) in time to avoid two more cars driving on that street.  I thought we were going to make it home smoothly when on another side street someone's cat decided to sit and observe us.  Ember, not to be outdone by a cat, treated this one the same way she does The Prisoner.  She sat and watched it.  Cat by garage.  Dog on sidewalk as it crossed the driveway.  Children enter the picture, a couple of doors back the way we had come from.  Laughing and playing.  Dog is now completely ready to stay put.

But I did eventually sing her (and I do mean sing) to the tune of "The Candy Man".  "Put mommy on the sidewalk, that's the puppy's job..."  "The Puppy Dog walk.  We're on the puppy dog walk..."

Whew... onward.  We almost made it home.  We walked down the far side of the street where the pumpkin theft happened on Saturday.  Only I did not spot the pumpkin someone had left at the base of their mailbox, right next to the street.  And fully within leash length of the sidewalk!

"Oh, goody!" thinks Ember.  "Another soccer ball".  She immediately chewed off its stem, so had to put her teeth into its flesh to pick it up.  She rolled it into the gutter, then eventually got it into her mouth and agreed to carry it home.  I often let her carry her prizes home because then I have a better chance of getting them away from her!

This turned out to be the case on this particular morning, too.  We got her into the garage and loaded up into the car, while mom put the pumpkin on top of the car, shut her in, and took the "walk of shame" back up the street 3 houses to put the pumpkin back.  I took this photo after I put it back.  You can see that it's missing its stem!

Anyway... we shall see if tomorrow we can avoid any more pumpkin adventures.  Maybe people will start taking them in?

Life is good.  Spark on!