Dog Days

I woke to the sound of thunder rumbling across the sky in the early morning hours. I love storms, especially when I am snuggled safely in my own bed. The occasional flash of lightning greeted my sleepy eyes when I finally looked to see what time it was: 4:45. The coffee maker was set for 5A.M. and would finish brewing my single cup of coffee at 5:08. I decided not to wait and got up and turned it on so it would be ready when I finished my morning routine. I didn’t hear any rain and wanted to take advantage of, what I hoped would be, cooler temperatures to walk the dog. It is monsoon season in the desert and we have had some actual storms this year. Not a ton of rain but anything is better than a dust storm.

The effort was worth it as it was only 84 degrees with a breeze when I left the house. I haven’t been able to take my pug on the full walk, which is about a mile long, because the humidity has been oppressive. We make it about ¾ of a mile and his little curly tail unfolds, his tongue hangs out as he pants, his pace slows and his milk dud eyes implore me to pick him up. Once in a while I actually do, but neither of us really enjoys it.

On this particular morning, it was blissfully quiet and I didn’t see another soul. Even the constant hum from the main street was subdued, the odd car engine breaking the silence. We followed our usual route along a path through a community green area where the automatic sprinklers were running. Despite copious watering, the lawn is burnt and brown in places, the white trees, tan and peeling. I’m always a little surprised at how many birds there are. They drink and bathe in the runoff from the sprinklers and enjoy a bird buffet as bugs and worms come to the surface.

We stopped and I left a small handful of kitty treats at the base of a tree for our cat friend that I call Friendly Kitty. I leave the treats even when I don’t see her, as was the case this morning. Usually, before I get to that tree, I would have encountered a lady with her three white, fluffy dogs. She used to have two but explained that the other belonged to her daughter that had moved back home. The new one is very yappy and she always apologizes, but they don’t bother us.

Then there’s Mike with his two rescue dogs that I call the odd couple. Named for places traveled, Nassau looks to have some Dalmatian in him, mostly white with a few spots and a fairly large boy. Kona is a small sassy girl that seems to be mostly rat terrier and does a fine job keeping up. Mike seems impressed that she no longer barks at me but I have stopped and made friends with them while out on my own walk after dropping Brody at home. Once Mike saw me petting Friendly Kitty and commented that all the animals seemed to like me, and the observation made me happy.  

I joked with my class recently that of the Disney princesses, I would like to be Sleeping Beauty because living in the forest, communing with nature and singing to animals sounds great to me. Fairy Godmother’s and a long nap don’t seem so bad either! Speaking of Disney, there is a man that walks two black labs and they are so in sync, they remind me of the Siamese cats in Lady & the Tramp. Though one dog is slightly shorter, their long black tails wave side to side like a metronome keeping time and I love to watch them stroll. 

The other dog we see regularly is the Grande Dame. A lovely yellow lab mix named Samantha. She has a wizened white face but her alert demeanor belies her 14 years. Brody is intimidated by bigger dogs and barks like an idiot when she passes. Sometimes she gets riled and barks back but mostly she ignores him. Her person is a friendly mailman and we laugh about it, calling them frenemies.

Much as I love seeing all my dog friends (there are many more) and their people, I also enjoy walking in peace and today was a nice reprieve. It’s funny when you enjoy something as much as I enjoy walking and you wonder why more people don’t do it? Obviously, in the summer the answer is easy, especially when you immediately feel the dew of your own sweat blooming on the surface of your skin as soon as you leave the house. But in the cooler months, when the sun is shining and the trees and lawn are green, I am surprised that more people aren’t out enjoying it. I don’t mind though, because if they were, I wouldn’t get to appreciate the glorious feeling of quiet observation I was treated to today.