Running with Wild Lady and Wonder Woman

 There have been few joys in my lifetime as marvelous as an early morning run with my dog.  Twenty years ago, I trained for my first marathon with a cocker spaniel mix named Jack.  These days I run with seven year old Lady, a german shepard who has never had the slightest interest in living up to her name.  Once on the trail, she becomes Wild Lady.  One morning, she ran off the trail in front of me.  I heard a high pitched scream, then here came Lady toward me with a raccoon in her jaws.  After another wildlife encounter with a skunk, she now wears a leash, but she doesn't seem to mind.  We are a pack.  


Lady races through the cold morning with joy and wild abandon.



There is something so deeply satisfying about running through the woods.  Lady feels it, and I do, too.  Normal life disappears and it is just body, breath, pounding feet, and drumming heart.  There is the sound of the forest; and the roots, rocks, and hills that make up the running path.  Deer, heron, hawk, an owl, squirrels in abundance, armadillo, the occasional otter as we pass by a lake.  These are the neighbors we have come to know and treasure. 





Although I look nothing like her, I sometimes feel like Wonder Woman when I'm on the trail-- strong, effortless, maybe even beautiful.  Other responsibilities disappear, and my dog and I, we are just flowing along between the land and sky, beneath the trees, as long we can before turning for the car, and the children, and our secret identities as housewife and semi-mild mannered suburban house dog.