The Nose Knows

For one thing, I love dog noses. Did you know that a dog's nose is as unique from each other as a human's fingerprint? Every nose is different, and I love this nose!

And previously, I loved these noses (I still totally love them and get misty eyed looking at them).

We all know that dogs have an amazing sense of smell. While we humans have about five million scent receptors, dogs range from 125 million to 300 million, depending on the breed. They can smell up to 40 feet underground. They smell pheromones on skin or fur, in urine or feces and this is how they collect all the information that tells them species, male, female, what was eaten, what was touched, where someone or something has been and what mood they are in. This is how dogs can tell if someone is sick, is about to have a seizure, has cancer or all the other things that they can do with their noses.

Why am I talking about noses? I have noticed this week that I have been relying a lot on my sense of smell while we are on our walks. Most of our time spent walking is in the dark. I'm not scared, but I don't want to be stupid either. I can't really see very far in front of me and I even if I could spend all my time looking behind me, I wouldn't be able to see much back there either. I want to be safe and I started to notice all the smells of the neighborhood. No wonder I can't keep Henri's attention just on me!

I can smell the different lakes as we walk by them. I can smell sprinklers watering the lawns. I can smell bug spray, probably from someone the night before. I can smell a dryer being run. I can smell the shampoo of the lady that just ran by. I can smell the cologne of the guy walking his dog. I can smell something foul and I don't want to know what that is.

My hope is that if someone does decide to sneak up on us, I will be able to smell them coming if I try to smell like a dog...I mean use my sense of smell like a dog.