At first, I was all excited.

It looked like the tracks of a red fox hunting just before we hit the bridge over the neckdown between the two ponds.

The tracks seemed haphazard. They didn't go in the kind of line an architect would draw with a straight edge. But there was a logic to the tracks. Obviously, something was hunting, brush to brush.

At first, probably wishful thinking on my part, I thought it was the red fox we had seen a couple weeks ago.

Then I looked closer and guessed it was the curse of feral cat or free-ranging housecat, those most vicious of killing machines.

Never saw anything to make sure either way.

And I don't have an animal track app on my phone, such as MyNature Animal Tracks. Normally, I don't go for that kind of stuff. Might have to rethink that.

But back home I looked up the tracks on bear-tracker.com. Then went through the section on making the distinction between canine and feline tracks.

I wanted it to be a special morning because of red fox tracks.

Instead I settled for what was. A morning with indications that winter will actually end. It was completely light at 7. It was winter cold, low 20s, but not brutal.

And the fresh shot of an inch-plus of snow last night touched up the beauty of the landscape.

I did see several mouse tracks, one set of rabbit tracks and a mess of squirrel tracks.

A lone dove flew out of the trees by old rail trail.

I want to put meaning on everything. Sometimes I just have to accept it for what it is, and enjoy the morning.