Going Walkabout

I know, I know… I’m not Australian by nationality or birth or lineage or anything else, but it’s in my breed name so that counts for something, right? I think can still use some of their lingo when it almost fits. Right? Just go with me on this, mate. 🙂

We take lots of walks. Most of the time, that means walking around our neighborhood, up and down various streets, stopping occasionally to sniff-check pmail on various posts and bushes.

I have a few friends I like to check in with in person dog too, if our timing is right. There’s Skye, who lives way over that way, around the corner past the broken tree. You know the place. Skye is usually hanging out in the driveway waiting for an Uber or something when we get there. She sees us coming from a block away and starts gently wagging her tail, though she doesn’t bother getting up until we’re a lot closer.

There’s Gracie, who lives around the corner kind of on top of that hill past the house with all the dog poop (it’s quite a display). She’ll also just lay in the yard if her dad is outside, or she’ll bark at the door if she sees me coming and she’ll come out with her mom to say hi.

Blue is the dog next door. I think we’re friends. Blue used to stomp all over me when we first met, but Blue keeps getting shorter while I’m getting bigger (and faster, heh). Not that I would ever use that to my advantage or anything. It’s not his fault he’s shrinking.

Lastly, there’s Molly, a big golden who’s also sort of next door but doesn’t really live there (that’s confusing). Her yard has a weird fence only she can see, so dad lets me chase her around off-leash because since she can’t cross the fence that isn’t there, I won’t either because then I would be lonely.

There are several other dogs I don’t know, but I hear them. They’re inside their houses doing some sort of remodeling everytime we walk by. They bark and jump and slam into windows and scratch like crazy. We don’t think those houses have much paint on the walls, much less window sills.

So like I said, there are a lot of friends on our walks. I like to see them, and they lend a lot of extra excitement. You see, while they generally wait semi-patiently for me, I’m a little less refined. I can’t really help it. We round the corner and an alarm goes off in my brain as it notices one of my friends.

Warning! Warning! … Playmate detected! This is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill…

Then before I know it, other systems kick in and…

Target aquired…

Distance calculations complete…

READY FOR LAUNCH…

GO GO GO!!!

All my muscles twitch, my ears lay back, my feet start to spin just like a cartoon and… WHOOOOOOSH!

I run as fast as I can for about five feet and URK! I slam into the end of my leash.

I assume that was a mistake and try again, and again, and then dad says something encouraging like, “Wait!” Which is really annoying because that ship has sailed.

Impulse control is something I don’t quite have a handle on yet. He says if I don’t try to pull his arm out of its socket whenever I want to go play, it will be better for both of us. I’m not so sure. I think if he would just let go of the leash sooner it would solve both our problems. Or maybe get a 40 foot leash? We’re still discussing it.

Sometimes our walks don’t include our neighborhood. The other day, dad and I drove (well, I didn’t drive that much) into Kansas City someplace and met a bunch of other dogs with the Kansas City Dog Club. We all went on a walk together and I must say I was very well behaved. Actually, everyone was. Even the humans!

I think there were 9 dogs of various sizes from “pointless” to “horse” and we all just walked along an old trolley trail while joggers came and went from both directions. There were a LOT of things to sniff on that trail.

There is also a really big park near us that has a bunch of walking trails, mountain bike trails (don’t ask — I didn’t even know mountains rode bikes), playgrounds where they teach chaos to little humans, baseball diamonds, and other things.

We all went there as a family the other night and we walked for several miles. Raven and I were tuckered out! We found a golf course, and an old historical town kind of thing, a creek, and an awesome stinky muddy sock that I wasn’t allowed to keep. That was a bummer. I even knew the perfect spot for it.

There were also a lot of big rocks that Raven and I could climb on. Well, I jumped and climbed. Raven mostly sniffed the ground and looked for spare change.

So walks are great. We get exercise, we meet people and other dogs, and best of all I burn off lots of energy, which is really important because otherwise the spinning feet thing I mentioned will get me into trouble.