A Winter Walk at Fresh Pond, Cambridge

One of my favorite places in Cambridge is Fresh Pond. It’s a nice retreat from the students and angry, impatient traffic of Cambridge. Because I’m so out of my element in the big city, I feel so fortunate to live so close to Fresh Pond, where I can step outside and see birds and bugs in a place where nature is so few and far between.

Elizabeth Warren has also been known to frequent the pond with her golden retriever Bailey. I haven’t seen her, but our neighbors said that she found their fur baby who was romping around in a mud bath to be quite funny! Living a mile from Harvard can be surreal sometimes.

Historically Cormac hasn’t been the best on the leash, but when we’re feeling up to arm wrestling a 70-something pound labrador for an hour, we take Cormac on walks around the pond. He’s a social butterfly, so he seems to thoroughly enjoy meeting all the humans and dogs who pass by (some nice, some not, some critical, some indifferent). We’re still working on “leave it,” but he just doesn’t seem to understand that he can’t possibly say hi to EVERYONE. Oh wait, maybe he can?

Besides greeting everyone, one of his favorite things to do is swim in the “dog pond,” a separate smaller pond just for the furry kids. This past weekend it was unseasonably warm, so I walked him to the dog pond, thinking that he was just going to wade in. Cormac being the stubborn dog that he is basically did a canon ball in the pond before I had even taken his harness off! To make it short — he refused to come out, I got soaked, and lots of people sitting courtside got to witness it all. We’re still working on our manners, but I love that fluff ball anyway.

During this particular day at the pond, it was just him and I, with very few passersby. It was quiet, and cold, and we were both at peace (but he still tried to jump in that damn pond).