Slice of Life - Walking the Dogs

Walking the dogs inevitably begins with two tangled leashes and me crouching on the floor trying to reroute the tangled mess through 8 furry, excited legs. After a lot of jumping around from the dogs and a lot of exasperated commands from me, we make it out the door. First we circle the block. The little boy on the tricycle always follows us, never talking except to ask questions about the dogs. I think he just likes to watch them wiggle their tails and explore the neighborhood. We pass by perfectly manicured lawns and some haphazard ones as well. The sounds of kids playing and squealing echo from house to house. Most of the families are young because we live in a starter community. It’s not shabby, but it’s also not fancy. It’s mostly safe, except for that one time in the sixth grade when my neighborhood friend had 14 police cars outside of her house because they had a meth lab. Like I said, it’s not fancy. Things have calmed down now and most of the neighbors look at the meth house as an isolated situation. Now, the community is mostly populated with young LDS families and a few people who have lived there forever (the ones who started the neighborhood). My mom and I aren’t either of those. We’re the anomaly you might say. We’ve lived here for over a decade, but it doesn’t seem like that long. Initially, we moved here so that we could live in a house with a yard. We never moved into a nicer community because my Mom’s a public school teacher and most of the money she makes that doesn’t go to bills, goes to the hundreds of books we own and our adorable dogs, who by this time in the walk, are wrapped around my ankles.
When we finally make it back around the block, the dogs have calmed down a little and have stopped running in circles excitedly. Instead, their noses are pressed to the ground. Teddy snaps a fallen leaf into his mouth and crunches it a bit and then spits it back out on the next neighbor’s lawn. Max strains at the leash because has seen the white cat that lies in the gutter waiting to nearly be attacked by the dogs before it runs away. Every day the dogs and the white cat almost have an altercation, but at the last moment I manage to restrain their excited, inquisitive bodies while the cat darts to the middle of the street and lies down. I have no idea how that cat is still alive.
After the second time around the block we head down the street. We pass by the house of my favorite Sunday school teacher and the house that always has seasonal decorations galore. I feel grateful to live in a safe neighborhood with lots of open space and clean streets. The dogs keep their noses close to the ground and sniff audibly. Dogs that are penned in backyards down the street start to bark and whine as we pass. Teddy and Max just wag their tails and walk/run down the street. Teddy has grown so much since we got him 3 months ago that he’s now bigger than Max and together they weigh over half of my body weight. This means that as we’re walking I have to lean back a little bit and use my entire body weight to keep them from pulling me over. Shaun and I tried to train them to walk like the well behaved dogs on the televised dog shows, but that lasted for about two walks.
As we head home, Teddy and Max bite at a few more leaves and sniff various discarded toys on people’s lawns. They lap up some gutter water (gross!), and they consistently weave back and forth, switching sides. Finally we make it home and go in through the side gate. Immediately they return to a state of hyperactivity because they’re back home with their toys and things they think are toys, but are not. I pick up the pieces of firewood they have pulled across the lawn during the day. The wood has all the bark chewed off and the remnants are strewn across the lawn. Why they like the taste of wood I will never know, but every time we start a fire in the pit, one of them sneaks up behind us and grabs a log to drag away. Now they seem to have claimed the whole pile of wood. I leap up the steps and they quickly pad behind me and wait at the door while I grab their bowls. We finish off the walk with dinner for them and several giant laps of water. Teddy dribbles across the floor and paws at my foot, but I ignore it and sit down to do homework. Play time is over.

Picture: Teddy (left), Max (right).