Slice of Life Day 6: Most Adventurous Dog Walk

I had a great day yesterday, a couple of crazy things happened at work and I stayed calm and rational. I’m trying hard not to overreact about something if it’s not necessary. I mean, overreaction is never necessary, but sometimes it just happens. Then I got home with a plan to walk the dog, get dinner started, and then clean a little bit of the house. Easier said than done!

I called my mom as I was getting home, which is our typical time to chat. Usually, as I’m walking the dog and getting dinner started, we’ll spend some time catching up. Today, I got Aria (my pup) ready for her walk, stepped out the front door and she was immediately distracted by the neighbor walking up the sidewalk with her two little dogs. If you’re not familiar with Aria, she is a lovebug in the house, but a crazy dog to walk outside. She gets super distracted and can get leash aggressive when she sees other dogs and feels threatened. My partner and I know how to walk her and her signs so we do a pretty decent job, but I wasn’t expecting the neighbor.

So, Aria is distracted, looking behind while pulling me on her leash. And then we reach the corner where I had planned to cross the street to continue up the block. At that point, I’m trying to keep Aria close so that she doesn’t jump into the street as cars are turning and she pulls me ahead (while still being distracted by the neighbor’s dogs) and I trip and fall to my knees right on the street. Thankfully, it’s a side street and not too busy. I scraped up my hand and my opposite knee, all while talking to my mom. And then, the neighbor comes running toward me to check on me with her two dogs, which isn’t a good thing for Aria, so I just give her a wave and carry on.

Thinking that it can only get better moving forward, we continue on down the block. We get down the next two straightaways just fine and reach the corner. I see another neighbor’s dogs in their fenced in the yard across the street and get a good hold on the leash so Aria can’t overreact. I turn the corner and before I know it, one of the dogs has escaped and comes running right toward us! Now, Aria does not do well with dogs, she gets aggressive and I didn’t want to be in the middle. So, I pull her back and yell really loudly at the dog. The dog isn’t growling and Aria is completely shocked and not sure what to do. Thankfully, my yelling scares it off, back across the street, just as the neighbor opens her front door! She starts to apologize, I’m apologizing, it’s a mess.

At this point, my knee and hand are still stinging from my earlier fall, my legs feel like noodles from being scared by this dog running at us and I’m as far away from my house around the block as I can be. And my mom is still on the phone. Normally, I’ll take Aria for a long walk in the evening, but last night I decided one block was plenty and headed straight home. It was definitely an adventure and one my mom shared with me every step of the way!

This is my second year participating in the Slice of Life Challenge. I’ll be posting brief posts that show a glimpse of my life in story-format. A slice of my life as a librarian and blogger that I hope you enjoy!