Charlie's Choice

Unexpected results present themselves when you allow your dog to make the choice of where you walk. Sometimes, to shake up the routine of our weekday walks, I let Charlie choose our direction. Oftentimes, she takes us to Thom Field, a local high school athletic field, where she has the uncanny ability to find lacrosse balls in the woods and marshy area along one side of the field. We play some fetch with the found ball and then she gets to bring her "treasure" home with her. Because of her skilled nose, we have quite the collection of lacrosse balls at home now.
But earlier this week, we took one of these "Charlie's Choice" walks and ended up at Whitewater Park in downtown Wausau, where Charlie got to play with sticks and swim in the calm pools before the rapids. It was a beautifully unexpected walk and the "treasure" of this day was watching Charlie romp and play with such joy and me feeling like the luckiest dog-mom in the world.