Does this pass the smell test?

Dog-walking time this morning was about 5:15 am. SiSi and I headed down the driveway and then South along the township road.There was almost enough daylight to see by so I turned off the flashlight and humored SiSi as she explored and inhaled whatever aromas she was encountering along the road and the roadside. I'm still trying to figure out if dogs have some sort of mental filing cabinet they use to match smells with creatures.

SiSi relaxing after a walk

Photo by J. Harrington

As we walked about a 10th of a mile or so, the light levels increased enough that we could see about that far. We turned and started to head back toward the house. That's when the first whitetail doe came bounding across the field on the East side of the road, left across the road and disappeared into the woods on our property. SiSi was mildly startled, since we rarely encounter other critters during our morning walks. A second doe stayed in the field, headed North, parallel to the road, and was waiting in the neighbor's drive to observe SiSi and I as we passed by. The "driveway" doe didn't cross the road while we were still outside.

what does a whitetail doe in Summer's grass smell like?

Photo by J. Harrington

When we walked past the area where the first deer had crossed the road and entered the woods, SiSi had to recheck all the aromas she could find. Perhaps that filing cabinet simply holds smells until the dog can match them with flora, fauna, or individuals? I'm still clueless and SiSi's not talking.

The Past

Louise Glück- 1943-

Small light in the sky appearing
suddenly between
two pine boughs, their fine needles

now etched onto the radiant surface
and above this
high, feathery heaven—

Smell the air. That is the smell of the white pine,
most intense when the wind blows through it
and the sound it makes equally strange,
like the sound of the wind in a movie—

Shadows moving. The ropes
making the sound they make. What you hear now
will be the sound of the nightingale, Chordata,
the male bird courting the female—

The ropes shift. The hammock
sways in the wind, tied
firmly between two pine trees.

Smell the air. That is the smell of the white pine.

It is my mother’s voice you hear
or is it only the sound the trees make
when the air passes through them

because what sound would it make,
passing through nothing?

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