A Walk in the Dark

I've been trying to make time to exercise a little more regularly again now that the weather is a little more cooperative. Power walking.... Which brings to mind a certain little walk I took last week.

I came home from work last Thursday night and thought it would be fun to put Madison (2 year old my motherbabysits) into the stroller and "stroll" her through the neighborhood across the street. I stopped in at the house to get her, and Mom decided she wanted to go too. Fine....I’ll wait another fifteen minutes while she finishes up supper, etc. But then we have to dig the stroller out from under a pile of clothes in the garage.

"It's dirty!" I said to Mom, scowling. "Oh... it's alright!" she said, snapping clouds of dust into the air with her bare hand. “Can we just go now???” I asked impatiently. So finally...off we "stroll."

We came to the road, and made a big show of “making sure we look for cars before we cross the road".... for Madison's benefit. Well, this has now alerted Bobbi (only the most annoying dog in the world...) to the fact that we're going on a walk. And she wanted to go too. Now Bobbi has not been to obedience school, so any protests we made were blithely ignored. Bobbi was going, like it or not!

At least two of us enjoyed that walk... Bobbi and Madison. Bobbi had the best time smelling everything her nose took her to, whether it was a cat, a tire, or a tree...anything that wasn't available on the road. We spent half our time hollering at her to get back where she belonged! I was soon completely worn out!! One particular cat even decided to join our little parade for awhile!

We had made our rounds and were almost on the home stretch when we met two other pedestrians out with their dog "Pepper." The guy and the dog were both black, and the girl was white. By this time, Madison had decided >she<>

I finally extracted Madison from her trance and sent her over to Mom. Our two parties managed to bypass each other without anyone getting bitten or scratched, and the second I was at a safe distance away, I said... "THAT'S IT!" With no little effort, I got Bobbi to come to me, and I snatched her right up...only to find out she didn't have her collar on. ARGH! "Oh...Dad took it off," Mom said. Joy. I really had had it by this time. I yanked the dog up off the road and proceeded to carry her. No escaping me! Now Bobbi's a large dog...not as big as a lab, but large enough. "Youcan't carry her all the way home," Mom said. "Oh yes Ican," I said, teeth gritted.

Well, she was right, of course...I couldn't. I had to put her back down ten feet later. I tried walking with her instead....I held her front two paws while she "walked" on her two back legs. That lasted all of ten seconds. To make a long story short, Bobbi ended up in the stroller, Mom pushing her hind end while I carried her front end, both of us getting spina bifada in the process.

Mom and I were giggling hysterically, grateful for the cover of darkness while Madison trailed twenty feet behind us... sucking her thumb.

For the next three days, I was soooo sore! My right arm and right leg felt like they had been through the wringer! Who needs to pump iron when they've got a dog around?