Walking Dogs

Lovey is lying on the desk, talking to me as I type.  Mocha is on the love seat, watching the Weather Channel with great intensity.  Nedi is outside chasing bugs.  I just finished a mango-pineapple smoothie, and I'm feeling somewhat refreshed. Whew.  Irene is a monster. While a part of me still yearns to be on Chincoteague, another part of me is happy to be here in the heat wave in the Rockies.  Shady and Cloudy were super last night - we had some thunder rumbles and a little bit of rain, but they were great companions, and didn't even flinch while I was yelling at the Redskins and Ravens last night.  Aiko and Yoshi are as sweet as ever, and Rosie and Remy behaved quite well today.  I chatted with Warren, a dog owner and walker, and we discussed the female pit bull mix that's running loose around Norwood and 15th - and how she has such a deep and frightening growl.  I also met a young man who was walking his Malamute-wolf hybrid - that was one beautiful, but huge, canine.

I have to admit I was rude the other day while walking the Rs.  We were near Centennial Middle School, and it's the first week of classes.  The sidewalk there is red concrete and is 8 feet wide; since we were meeting a number of kids on foot and on bikes, I had both of the Rs on a two-foot length of their leashes.  A group of girls approached; there were about ten altogether, and one of them was walking and texting.  As we got nearer to each other, the other girls started calling out warnings to the texter, who completely ignored them.  She was walking on the left side of the sidewalk, directly approaching the dogs and me.  When I realized that she might  not stop, or even glance up, I had Rosie and Remy stop and sit, on either side of me. The girl was less than 18 inches away from my nose when she looked up, stopped, and then screamed shrilly. (I really wanted to scream right back at her!) Instead, I just stood and stared, while the dogs also sat and stared.  Then the girl started laughing like a loon.  Once her friends had grabbed her and moved her to the other side of the sidewalk, I shook my head, and said out loud, "What an idiot."  That got the girls upset...  and I received quite a few nasty descriptives as I walked on with the dogs.   Oh, well.  If it happens again, whether or not it's the same girl, I now plan on shrieking back, and seeing how they like it.