Good dog

I try to go for a walk at night whenever the weather allows it. There’s a blacktop that runs out of town and is infrequently traveled, thus making for the best walking spot around. About 1/2 mile into my walking pattern, I pass a ranch house set back a ways from the road. Most nights there’s a dog lying down beside the house, and that’s where this love story begins.

I don’t know what kind of sense this dog has, but she’s eerily smart. She knows that when I’m walking one direction, my walk is just beginning, and she’ll just lie there and calmly watch me go by, but the minute she sees me coming the other way, she leaps up from her position and gives a little yelp as she lumbers up to the highway to see me.

She’s an old dog, and it’s hard for her to run, but I always patiently wait as she initiates our reunion.

Although she always starts out running, by the end it’s evident that her old legs are making the best effort ever to get to me, and she lapses into a slow walk.

At last she reaches me, and I take the time to pet the mangy mutt (I say that with the utmost love).  She’s a farm dog, so her hair is always caked with dirt and she usually appears as if she’s been swimming in the creek.  But she’s always loving, and always quiet, and she always stands there ever-so-still while I give her attention.

She’s been around us humans long enough to know some little tricks as well, for after I get done petting her and start to move away, she dashes ahead of me (as fast an an old dog can dash) and stands sideways in front of me like a doggie roadblock, forcing me to pet her a little more.  She knows when enough is enough, though, and after pulling this trick a few times, she lets me go on my merry way.

I always wonder how she knows to only run to me when I’m coming back from my walk.

I wonder how she learned the roadblock trick.

I wonder how old she really is.

And as I’m wondering all of this, I have a sneaking suspicion that all that’s on her mind is where the nearest dead animal is located so she can go roll around in it ASAP.  I mean, c’mon, she’s a dog.  That’s akin to eating better than sex cake for us humans.

Ain’t she cute?

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2 Replies to “Good dog”

    1. The thought of packing a treat never occurred to me, probably because I don’t own a dog. But hey, I might just invest in some next time I’m at the store. That old dog is worth it. Such a sweet animal!

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