Directions

I live in the town of Ithaca, rather than the city of Ithaca, so we don't have sidewalks or traffic lights (except sometimes in busier areas where the town/county road intersects a state road). Because of our substantial annual snowfall, however, we do have fairly wide roadside shoulders, which make dog walking a little bit easier. So tonight, for no other reason than it wasn't too hot, I decided to take the dogs out at peak rush hour. OK, OK, that's not peak by urban standards, but my road and the next perpendicular intersection are both exit routes out of Cornell, and when you combine that with a four-way stop sign, it gets peakier.

Anyway, walking dogs around here makes you a de facto road map, so when a car with Ontario plates slowed with the passenger window rolled down, I was expecting to give directions. Nope - it was a very sweet young guy saying excitedly "Hey, aren't those Keeshonds?" And he pronounced it correctly (kaze-hawnd). I was tickled pink.

(Apparently, this scenario isn't always the case. A friend of mine has encountered flashers in cars several times while walking home. Somehow, that doesn't seem to be a problem for an alpha bitch walking two wolf-like dogs :)

And don't the old-fart dogs look awful perky? Bear (background) is 13 1/2, while the smaller Cookie is 10 1/2.

Comments

[Paula, Barkis & Pandora]

Barkis (12 yr old) still gets excited about the concept of a walk however we never go too far, I'm always afraid he will not make it back. We walk off the main road and on a trail behind my property. There generally is not very much foot traffic and very rarely a bike, so I’d be stuck if he could not walk back on his own.

[Nanette]

Bear & Cookie do look great - like they just got brushed!

[Eve]

Isn't it nice when someone actually pronounces your breed correctly? I get wapso lopso a lot. What is so hard about Lhasa Apso. Like you, I don't live in the city. I actually live in the town of Southport and no sidewalks in many areas. Taking a full coated Lhasa for a walk on a town road makes for a pretty dirty dog. The two that have short coats, don't care for walks.

I missed you at the guild meeting. I haven't been to one in months and quite a few members showed up. They demostrated a few plying techniques that I already knew and one I didn't know and obviously need to work on. I'll try and take a photo of it today and put it on my blog so you can see how awful it is. *G*

btw.. your dogs look great!

Eve