Then this morning I woke to a glorious Saturday morning. I fed the kids breakfast and decided to take an extra long walk with my dogs. We headed out to a patch of forest on the edge of town that I had discovered a couple days ago. It was wonderful walking through the trees. Little undergrowth and grass like a great lawn. I wandered here and there, following various paths made by grazing animals and people walking through. Very quiet and no other people once I got away from the dirt bicycle path that leads to town. The dogs ran circles around me finding good smells and chasing birds. Suddenly, up ahead, I saw a large male zebra standing on a little knoll watching us. I stopped to gaze at his beautiful form through the trees with the sunbeams filtering down through the leaves. What I didn’t see at first was the other zebras in a small herd down in a little hollow. My dogs suddenly took off down the hill and too late I saw the male wasn’t alone. I called Breasy who half obeyed and stopped her run at the zebra herd. My little Mara has never learned to obey in the heat of the chase. The group of mothers and babies took off up the hill towards the big male with Mara hot at their heels. I managed to get Breasy to come to me and snapped on the leash to avoid two out of control dogs. Breasy minds well but sometimes the excitement of seeing Mara careen after whatever has gotten them going is too much and she forgets herself and ignores my commands as much as Mara. By this time, the male zebra was not taking kindly to a little dog chasing his herd and now the chaser became the chased. I was screaming at the top of my lungs to Mara to come but she was now running for her life and not able to obey even if she wanted to. I watched helplessly as the male zebra ran with outstretched neck and open mouth inches from Mara’s tail. Then he jumped forward with his front feet trying to crush Mara but in breaking his stride, Mara was able to sprint away from him. At that point, she decided that chasing zebras might not be as harmless as chasing goats and children (favorite pass times of hers, which I do my best to discourage) and decided to obey my commands. She came to me and I took the lead off Breasy and snapped it on Mara instead. The zebra herd had stopped running not so far away and while I knew Breasy would ignore them if I told her to, Mara might quickly forget her brush with death and decide the fun was worth the risk of another go. The excitement of the zebras over, the dogs and I continued our meandering through woods with a heading toward home. Once far enough away from the zebras that they were hidden by the trees and I figured Mara had forgotten them, I let her off the lead again. The dogs ran merrily around near me as I walked until suddenly Mara’s ears pricked up and she ran off like a shot into the undergrowth that was a bit thicker in that part of the forest. I heard a sound ahead in the bushes and Breasy took off after Mara. I only hoped it wasn’t more zebra or even buffalo, which sometimes pass through the area. The sounds got louder and I recognized the chattering of monkeys. Relieved, I followed after the dogs, not quite the direction I had planned to go, and soon found them tearing around under the trees from which the monkeys were throwing their insults in loud voices. Quite the wildlife day it was turning out to be. I again managed to get Mara to come and snapped on the lead. Once away from the forest, I took the risk of letting her run free again. By this time though, she was finally getting tired from all the rushing around and followed me obediently home with Breasy. All in all it was a glorious walk on a glorious morning.