Stiltgrass and high steppin'

Sometimes I feel like it's one step forward and two steps back with this dog.  A couple of weeks ago Maya was truckin' along using her damaged foot and generally making great progress after three weeks in the hospital with the best of attention and physical therapy while we were in Peru.

Then, from one day to the next she stopped using her leg. It seems she irritated her paw by gnawing on her nails, so, I guess like cutting a nail too short or maybe breaking one off, she didn't want to use it. The first week was pure setback. Then last Friday the vet left her foot uncovered to allow the irritated paw to air and cure itself, but in the time it took me to drop her off at the house and head to the office, she managed to rip into her bandage and bleed all over the place—despite wearing a big cone-shaped collar on her head! We had to rush her to the local vet and get her bandaged up again. This week she's been out of her cone hat only to go for walks and occasionally to eat.

Today, finally, she showed signs of getting better. I took her up the mountain—the second time this week—and by taking the hilliest route forced her to drop the leg now and then. At one point, on a soft, flat stretch, she voluntarily dropped it for four or five steps and did that two or three times during our ascent. As reward I let her run free for the walk back down, and in total we covered 2.35 miles. She was in her glory while free and even occasionally seemed to let her damaged leg hit the ground, though it was a bit hard to see for sure. Anyway, she didn't let it deter her from enjoying a romp through the woods.

This was the second time this week I've taken her to the mountain. Sunday, while Meche and the kids were at the beach, Maya and I went for a hike. We met a guy with a Brittany spaniel and I unleashed Maya so she wouldn't be disadvantaged. They ran around for a while but since the Brittany was a roamer—and had a small cowbell on her collar and a GPS tracker—she and Maya didn't spend too long together. Maya's good at coming back and even though the Brittany took off and was out of hearing range for a good while, Maya stayed obediently close by. Good girl.

I'm pretty sure this is Japanese stiltgrass.

Maya in stiltgrass.

From the Brittany's owner I learned about Japanese stiltgrass. Bummer. That lovely, bright green, feathery looking grass I've been seeing on the mountain is an immigrant! Damn. Apparently it came in during the early part of the 20th century packed around pottery from China! As I walked today, it really changed my perspective. I've always liked that the mountain is so obviously old farmland. I can easily imagine someone moving their dairy cattle
up and down the slopes to different pastures during the year. And this being an old settled area of the country, it has been farmed since well before the American Revolution.

Yet, who am I to be prejudice? We're all invasive species, no? Even the Native Americans can't really claim they are completely original to the area, and are descendant from early invaders traveling the Bering land bridge. Migration is the story of humanity. Still, I understand whitetail deer won't eat stiltgrass, so it is taking over and displacing other "native" grasses. Hummm ... and then how long have some of the other grasses and such been here?

Worst yet, I recognized it immediately as the same thing cropping up in my front yard. The good thing is it rips up easily.

Stiltgrass or no, it's great to be getting Maya out on the trail again.