The Deer Hunter

It started off a day pretty much like any other lately. First morning light creeping over the hills, a sultry mist hovering over the valley...

...the gold and red leaves in the trees slowly lighting up as if on a dimmer switch...

...frost clinging gently to the ground.

The dogs were let out. They greeted the deer as they do each morning with excited yips and yelps, running back and forth on the deck. 

And then...Albert saw something...there...up in the trees on the steep hill behind the house... a deer, no doubt. The urge too strong to resist, he broke free, leaped up the stone wall that holds back the hillside as if on wings and ... disappeared ... into the woods ... the woods where cougars lurk waiting for tasty morsels... 

(Look carefully through the window above...you'll see Albert getting a running start...)

Ahhh, and there's the naughty Albert, back safely (in prison...for his own protection) with Jake ... after a two hour deer hunt. After being covered with mud and water and burrs. After a bath.  Just Albert, not really much of a deer hunter, after all. Silly dog. You had us worried.