Day 59

Today, I would like to talk about something that is seemingly mundane. And yet, because it's me, it's far more complicated than it needs to be.

I'm talking about dog walking.

It starts simply enough. Toby and Sophie have now learned, Pavlov-style, that seeing me walking toward the counter where the leashes sit and hearing me pull a baggie from the dispenser = walkies. So I leash up the baby and the handsome boy (this is what I call them when I leash them up), keep the leashes in my left hand and the empty baggie in my right, and off we go.

Have you ever walked multiple dogs? Multiple dogs = multiple leashes = possibility of tripping. Astonishingly, I've only tripped once. Which is good. Usually, the dogs pull at the leashes and threaten to yank my hand off.

On these walks, there are a number of distractions that cause the dogs to veer off course.

1. People. If it's a girl walking, or even another dog, T and S are more than happy to come and say hello. I've met a good few canines this way. Let's see... There's Casey upstairs, a scottie and another kind of terrier across the way, a boxer named Rocky, and a sweetheart of a great dane somewhere around here... Anyway, I digress. If it's a girl or a dog, they're fine. If it's a man, however, they go nuts. I told my dad this, and all he said was 'good dogs'.

2. Pete. The guineafowl who roams the parking lots in the afternoons loves to taunt dogs. He'll stand on the sidewalk, and just putter on his merry way, slow as christmas, while T and S cut off circulation to my fingers.

3. This is the strangest one. Because it's been raining off and on lately, there have been a number of mushrooms springing up all over the place. And Sophie wants to eat them. Strange, I know, but it's true. She makes a bee-line for them every time she sees one.

Meh. Home for my break, need to go back around 2:30. Bai.