While most of my morning walks are relatively uneventful, every now and then there is a happening! This morning was one of those days. We usually leave home around 6 because Dad likes to avoid some of the more unsavory characters in our neighborhood. But today, we left at around 6:30. With every minute past 6, we both know the possibilities for an “incident” go up significantly. The walk did not start off well as instead of my usual harness, Dad chose to make me wear what in effect is a horse bridle, but is euphemistically branded as the HALTI Optifit Headcollar- No Pull Optifit Head Collar Dogs. It might be gentle, but when I have to wear it, it means I have more trouble walking where I want to walk instead of where Mom or Dad WANT me to walk. It’s quite annoying actually.
Anyway, the walk started off as normal. Because it was a little later than our usual departure, instead of driving somewhere else local, Dad decided we would walk in our neighborhood. We stayed off of the main streets, walked by some very old Japanese houses. We marked trees and poles and plants along the way. Of course, by “we”, I mean that I did the marking while Dad stood guard.
Me and my horse bridle.
We have a lot of variations in our courses, but over the years, we see the same people around doing their morning walks and say hi. There was the old couple who always smile and bow at me. I smile at the woman and even though I can tell the man is smiling behind his mask, he is a little scared of me, so I always throw a few barks his way. Sometimes I even lunge a little. Dad thinks I am being mean, but really I am just trying to add some excitement to the old folks’ walk.
With today’s variation, we walked on a path that goes between a temple with a large natural area (where, of course, dogs are not allowed) and a youth detention center. That path is quite nice, but once it gets to be summer, the spiders take over and they try to trap dogs and humans by spinning massive webs that span the trails. And even after you break a web, if you go back the next day, it has been repaired and the spiders wait for another chance. But, today was nice, and we got through without any spider trouble.
Now, we are on the last leg of our walk. We have been out about 50 minutes and are still 15 minutes from home when all of a sudden, I get a sense that something is watching us. I turn around and see a little beagle about 30 meters away, just standing in the middle of this narrow back road, staring at us. Suddenly, it charges towards us, at full speed. It is “Gon-chan”, a neighborhood dog who really looks up to me. It’s true. He has to look up to me because he is so small! I tolerate him because we have some friends in common and because, like I said, he looks up to me. So as we start sniffing each other, I hear a woman yell “Gon chan!” in a slightly panicked voice and a few seconds later, she and another dog, a shiba, come running out of a different side street. She is yelling “Gon chan” and “Koro chan” and catches up to us. She reaches down, and I mean way down, because like I said, Gon-chan is small, and grabs him by the collar.
Me and shibas usually do not get a long so well, so Dad his trying to keep some distance, but it turns out that the shiba is Asuka, who lives just a few houses away from me. I met him when he was just a puppy, so he also looks up to me, and we get along OK. Though truth be told, Asuka can seem a little crazy sometimes as he barks and runs around in little circles. Well, because his Mom is so excited and has been yelling and is now off balance trying to keep a grip on Gon chan, Asuka also gets excited and starts running in circles around his Mom.
Can you see where this is going? His Mom is already off balance, gets tangled up in Asuka’s lead, and falls down in the street on her back. As she is laying there, I can smell Dad’s indecision coming off of him. He doesn’t want to get me and my 26 kilograms (57 pounds) of dog power mixed up in that mess. Tangled leads, excited dogs, more excited humans…usually, that is not a good mix. So Dad asks her if she is OK, and she says she is and she gets back on her feet. She took an injury in her fall and points to a tiny droplet of blood on her knuckle that probably would not have been able to make it through the break in her dermis and epidermis if her blood pressure had been just a little bit lower.
Now back on her feet, hand still holding Gon chan while trying to maintain control of a barking, spinning Asuka, she seems confused and says she doesn’t know what to do because she only has one lead. Dad starts thinking, “Why are you walking two dogs and only have one lead?” but he is too much of a gentleman to say that. However, I knew that was what he was thinking because that is exactly what I was thinking. Finally she says that Gon chan must have been walking with his “father” and gotten away from him.
We wait a few minutes and no panicked father appears. There are no cries of “Gon chan” coming from anywhere. Now, thinking about an appropriate plan of action to take, a dried husk of a man turns the corner carrying an empty lead. When Asuka’s mom said Gon chan was probably walking with his father, I imagined someone like my Dad: a picture of masculinity, full of life and vitality. But the man who suddenly appeared looked more like he had run out of vitality decades ago. It took him almost a minute to just cover the 30 meters from the corner to where we were standing. He got the lead connected to Gon chan. Because of the stoop in his back, it was less of a lean down for him. He said they had been walking on the nature path and then Gon chan had run away from him. I guess Gon chan had smelled me and some of my markings and knew we were near-bye.
I can understand that. What dog wouldn’t smell me and not want to see me? Though Asuka’s Mom was unasked, she did manage to say she was OK, but had taken an injury in capturing Gon chan from his attempted escape. She showed off the scratch on her hand, and while I looked, I could not spot that drop of blood anywhere. Gon chan’s Dad looked down at me as though I was the one who caused all of this ruckus. I proceeded to bark at him. And I won’t lie. I lunged at him once or twice too. Dad did his part and held me back and tried to cover my mouth with his hand.
We finally started walking again, but with Asuka trying to mount Gon chan and Gon chan trying to smell me, and Gon chan’s father just trying to walk, it was getting messy again. When we started to pull ahead, Asuka started barking and running in circles again, causing his Mom to get flustered, again. Dad said good byes for both of us and off we went.
When we got home, I thought Mom might be mad because we were late, but she wasn’t. She had my breakfast on my table within a minute of me getting back in the house, and treated me to my morning yogurt as well. Dad told her the story and concluded with, “and this is why I like to drive somewhere in the morning for our walks. Just to avoid incidents like this.”