Urban Jungle

After several false starts in the shape of overnught frosts, it appears we might finally have welcomed Spring in Chicago. My dog walk yesterday was glorious, sunny and warm. I took her over to the beach (alas, can't let her off) and through the park. This was my view.

That's part of the Chicago skyline; the John Hancock building to be exact.

Mind you, it's not always plain sailing, this dog-walking. Apart from the fact that she goes mental when she sees other dogs, (either crying or barking), there are the devil-geese to contend with. We have hundreds of Canadian geese around the lakefront and the newly conserved North Pond. How come they haven't gone back to Canada anyway? It can't still be that cold up there surely.

On Monday, there was almost an incident however. We rounded a corner to find ourselves trapped between a busy road and a goose family. Teeny goslings, and rather large parents. Before I had time to think, the bloody dad had spotted the dog and rose up in the air protectively, running towards us and generally being a bit scary. (Having been bitten by a friend's goose in my teens, I had no wish to repeat the experience.) The poor dog nearly had a heart attack and started backing away so desperately that she almost got her hind quarters bashed off by a passing Ford Explorer. The goose however, realised that if the dog had to defend herself she would probably win and backed off enough to let me run away with her.  (All this time the traffic lights were on red, giving the stationary drivers a terrific lunchtime cabaret.)

As a result, yesterday's walk had me zig-zagging all over the place as I attempted to stay well away from the sodding geese. Since they associate humans with food, they have no problem approaching us so it was a bit of a job to keep a safe distance.  I thought I had found a safe, goose-free walk near the harbo(u)r but if you look closely at the picture above, (near the top right of the path) you can see two of the beasts parading around, ready for war.

I was planning our getaway but we were also surrounded by other dog-walkers which causes equally stressful situations at the moment. (She's going to K9 University next week for some socializing.)  And then I realised what the real problem was:

I need to get my eyes tested again!

Ferocious aren't they?

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