The Autumn Dog

She disappeared amongst the layer of fallen leaves; red, orange, yellow. I called her name but she stood still hoping to escape my eye in a game we played every fall. Moving in a slow turn to survey the forest floor I spied every inch, searching for a simple movement that would clue me into her whereabouts. But she was always very clever and could hold a stance longer than I could. My golden retriever was playing chameleon and she LOVED IT! Her beautiful blend of golden locks were the perfect color of autumn, and amongst the leaves she was invisible. I could only imagine what she was thinking as she held her pose as I surveyed the land before me. Did she think I was blind or just plain incompetent at finding a DOG amongst the vast forest floor? Every year it was the same…. the leaves would fall and my trusty companion would bound into the woods to frolic amongst the once plush green foliage of spring and summer. It was her favorite season. And now as I think about it, it makes me smile to remember her and our long walks in the cool air.

It was autumn that brought about my best writing… the stories that would fill pages on pages of the adventures of a group of animals in our special woods. Sequoia, my golden, made autumn come alive when all around life was being extinguished with each chilling whip of wind. She would bound through the leaves in search of her animal friends, sniff out voles, and discover new additions to the small woods behind our house. Our walks were leisurely strolls as I wrote stories in my head and strained my eye site to find my partner hiding behind tall white oaks and discarded piles of leaves. We marveled at the purple blossoms on nearby bushes that suddenly arrived when all others shriveled up. We experienced vultures eyeing us from their perches far above us and found ourselves wondering why they stayed for the winter.

 

As the leaves began to turn their rustic colors, our lawn too,would take on a new look of clutterness…but  Sequoia and I embraced the joy of raking leaves and hiding within them. I taught her to run and jump in them just like I had done with my two children and my niece, from California, who had never had the joy of living through a real autumn. Later, my golden would teach her best friend Max to play in the leaves as well. They would run in circles, throwing themselves into the piles and coming up with a coat of leaves instead of hair. They were silly and I marveled at their child-like antics as I rebuilt their leaf piles. 

 

Sequoia is gone now, like the leaves in autumn. But the memories of her remain close to my heart. And as I grab Max from his owner for a romp in the woods, I know we will both be searching for our best friend who still runs with the wind and is …invisible amongst the leaves of autumn.