The air is still, and the temperature is in the high 20's. The bright sun is peeking out from between the broken cloud cover. Winter solstice signals short days and long nights. A rabbit on the hillside caught Zivon's attention for a moment. We see the same rabbit or maybe her partner again a couple of more times.

Walks with Zivon afford exercise, fresh air, and partial solitude. Zivon looks forward to them because he gets the previous night's news stories left by the local animal life.

Zivon operates on a different plane. He smells the activity and nuances of the characters of the night, closer than I can imagine. Fresh tracks are everywhere in the snow. The coyote, moose, deer, and rabbit tracks are identifiable. Some of the tracks are unidentifiable, possibly raccoon or porcupine. Earlier, I saw evidence of porcupine activity in the wood lot. An eight-foot-tall sapling had the bottom reaches of the trunk denuded of bark. The top was green and vibrant, not yet realizing that its life-giving supply of nutrients from its roots has been cut off.

Zivon meanders amongst the trees, tangling his lead, but he knows where he is going. He lives in a different world filled with smells unavailable to me. He has a different experience of walks, and this is so foreign to me as to be unknowable. The woods are filled with smells, on the trails, in the footprints, on the grasses, in the air. Here and there is fresh coyote shit, the leavings from last night's rendezvous of the local pack.

Zivon puts his head down and is concentrating on deciphering the news contained in the scent. When he puts his nose in the coyote track, what is it telling him? Does it tell him that the coyote family is getting enough to eat and adapting to the presence of the bull moose who has moved into the coyote's home territory? When he puts his nose in the moose track, what is it telling him? Does it tell him that the moose is a bit lonely waiting for his partner to arrive so he can do his bull moose romancing?

This is my flash non-fiction practice for today.