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A tad away from the normal path but close enough to be seen by others, it always feels like we are alone in the woods. The dogs are off the leash or on an extra-long hiking lead. We are out to explore. Some might call it exercise or dog walking, I call it “Me-time”.
As so often, our Vader, the only hunter in our family, held up his nose and sniffed.
He does the same to locate his ball in our yard when it -again- landed at a spot we didn’t aim for, like on top of our bushes, or in the wheelbarrow. He is only 50% hound dog, the other half looks like a Dobermann, so logically we expect him to only have 50% success on his mission to sniff the things we cannot see or shouldn’t notice. He sometimes overlooks (under-sniffs?) the ball and I pick it up when he doesn’t watch me, so his dog ego doesn’t get crushed.
But that’s at home so far, outside, he has made me aware of wildlife and other things that I wouldn’t have noticed without him.
Right there in the woods, we discovered a small house, not meant for humans, not meant to be a feeder, but more of a shelter.
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Upon closer inspection, I saw it.
Did you see it?
I didn’t!
But the best half-hunting dog in the world sniffed it 🙂
And when I got closer, I finally noticed it.
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All curled up and bundled up, ready for the first possible snow this weekend.
I gave the dogs a hand signal and we carefully stepped backward. We didn’t wake the hedgehog or he decided to not notice us, and we left and continued exploring.
I love it when humans build shelters for wildlife.
We are such a selfish, greedy bunch, it’s nice to see that some of us still think about others without gaining anything from it.
Whoever build this little shelter. Thank you!
How wonderful that someone built this useful shelter! I’m impressed that your dogs responded so well to your hand signal. Our husky mix Marley needs to be on a leash outside of the fence.
If you have more than one dog, then it gets loud if you call them all by name or try to make them all sit at the same time. Dogs react so well to hand signals, better than to our voices.
I agree about hand signals. I think they are very attuned to our body movements.
What a sweet little soul, just curled up and sleeping away. It was so nice of whoever it was that built the little shelter.
Beautiful shots, and also beautiful experience of having a furry friend who makes us notice things that would otherwise go unnoticed 🐾🐾
Thank you, Luisa. I appreciate it.
You’re most welcome 💙
What a cool thing to do… build a shelter for any who need it. I did not see it in the first picture at all – nature’s camouflage.
I loved the idea and it made me happy when I saw it was occupied.
I’d never have seen it
Me neither.
So thoughtful.
At first I thought the animal was a porcupine! 🙂
What a lovely idea!
Isn’t it?
I couldn’t see what it was. But I was right in my thinking that it was for a hedgehog. That is lovely, whoever did that. 😊
It’s a very lovely idea and I am happy to see it occupied. Thank you for stopping by.
What a nice find. I couldn’t tell what it was until I read on.
It’s not easy to spot, which is perfect. I loved it and had to share. 🙂