At My Desk: The Neighborhood Dog Walk 9/23/11

My dog is the biggest of all of them on the morning fairgrounds dog walk, which happens down the street from me at 9:00 a.m. every day. Cobie is a full-size black lab, but gentle as they come. He loves meeting the other dogs, and bounds forward to say hello. Today a tiny little Boston terrier approaches him and barks mightily, but all Cobie does is pull his ears in tight and make himself as small and meek as possible. The terrier accepts him.

This dog walk has been going on for a long time. Some come on foot from my neighborhood, some drive from further-away locations. It's a "drop-in when you can" kind of thing. Cobie and I can usually make it two mornings a week. We walk around the outside of the grandstand area, and the dogs get total freedom to move around us and interact with each other. We carry plastic bags to collect poop to keep the walk clean. I am still meeting people and learning about them and their dogs, after three weeks. Today was our first time meeting the terrier and his owner. A lot of the dog walkers are retired, and some are nurses, whether retired or not. I listen to the conversations, and occasionally contribute something, but generally I am still listening.

Cobie is ecstatic to have a social time with other dogs...he is usually alone with us a lot. We inherited him from our middle son, who moved to Juneau, Alaska. A dog was not on our list of needs or wants, but sometimes things happen that are not in the plans. Looking back, both my husband and I imposed dogs on our parents during our teenage years, so it must be a karma return for us... :-) I’ve since talked to a number of people who’ve had the same experience. Still, we have made Cobie a part of our lives, and he is still a part of our son’s life, when he visits. Cobie is big-hearted, big-voiced, wants to be right with us all the time, and is a fine watchdog; and as I said before, gentle as anything...a fine companion. He’s stolen our hearts. My husband once said to me, “if we get divorced, I get the dog.” In return I said, “no way! I get the dog!” So apparently, we will be sticking together for a little while longer... ;-)