Happy Friday

It is Friday once again and here in sunny California it is raining. I'm pretty happy about that except that I have to take Jessie; my almost 13 year old jack russell to the vet. My vet is a good 30-40 min. away; more if the traffic is bad and rain means slick road conditions here. Because it doesn't rain often, when it does it's bad.

Yesterday,I was walking my poodles at a park that I frequent alot; the view is amazing. The path that runs around the park is 1/2 of a mile so it is a nice long walk. Every so often I let the dogs off for a rip and then back on. As I was unloading the dogs yesterday there was a woman behind my car with a litle toy poodle; she looked really old and out of shape.


Before I lifted the hatch to my xterra I asked her how old? 13 years old and she looked it. The first thing I noticed was that she was overweight; sad for an old girl to be old and overweight I thought to myself. Thinking of how Jessie looks at 13; you would never guess her age. But it takes alot of work to keep her that way. With her appetite she could easily be dragging that stomach of hers around on the ground with her.

So I opened up the hatch and Luke started his whining. He is such a baby; when he get's excited he whines and the sight of these dogs standing right behind his car was exciting him. I let Tilley out first, wait for Luke to be quiet for a split second and then let him out. The whining continues until we get going on our walk.

I like this walk, there are only a handful of people and dogs and the park is big enough to have lots of space inbetween. My mind starts going right away; as I look out over the city and onto the mountains in the distance I think about everything. My mind wanders and every once in a while I'm brought back to the moment as Luke yanks my arm off when he attempts to chase a rabbit.

A simple exchange can get me thinking about dogs and their people. I love talking to canine guardians about their dogs; hearing about how much their dog means to them. Most people love to talk about their dogs and I love to listen. Each story I hear is stored away in the dog story section of my brain for later use. Not all stories are monumentous but they are all worthy of listening to. Even the most simple of stories about dogs are heartfelt and uplifting.

This connection we humans have with our dogs is a special one. Every so often I think to myself "these are animals" closely related to wolves living in our homes sharing our lives. When Luke yawns only a fraction of an inch from my face giving me a great display of his teeth; it makes me think how lucky we are to have this domesticated animal consider us to be family.

And as I work at my computer I realize that my pack has fallen into place; they are all asleep surrounding me. That makes me smile.