
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.