This turned out to be a glorious day. I managed to get the three of us out the door before Sam fell asleep, so she was awake for our walk. We ran into two women who had the nicest two dogs. One was a short Bernese Mountain Dog that tried very hard to herd Ella and the Rhodesian. Those two had a blast ignoring Claus and just rampaging around. Ella started bleeding again from her cut, but I'll clean it out and she'll be fine. We walked around the pond a bit on my favorite path with pine needles on the path and ferns everywhere. On the way back we were surrounded by a group of Martens (or maybe starlings - glistening smallish black birds) that were taking a morning constitutional in the reservoir and flying in swathes through the trees. Bark and leaves kept dropping from above, and the noise was quite raucous. Samantha just took it all in stride. She didn't seem to notice the birds much, actually. She kept leaning back and staring at me, but when I kissed her forehead, she just grinned and turned her head forward again. Oh, and she also kept rolling her head to the side, and when I loudly smooched that, she'd giggle and stare ahead again. She fell asleep as soon as I got her in the car, and stayed asleep when I put her in her crib. She is so sweet when she is just limp like that.