Rolling along

Condo living may be designed to simplify life, but it still requires some adaptation – even in the dog world.

          One blessing is that walking Mamie is a breeze now that I live in a land of sidewalks and flat terrain. For some reason, she only seems to respond to nature’s call when she’s on a leash, so back at the house letting her loose in the backyard was a futile gesture. 

          Instead, I began saddling her up, driving to the center of town and walking her around there, where she left many messages on the pee-mail.  Or, I would take her on her leash up our street of three houses and down the adjoining street of four houses. Boring to say the least, except when Oliver, the lab next door inevitably threw himself against their door in a frenzy of barking or when Benny, the nutty golden retriever would come lunging out. Not enjoyable with a tiny skittish dog.

          Nowadays, we walk by immaculately groomed lawns down the curved sidewalks that loop from one street in the complex to the next. The one drawback to all this perfection is that Mamie is a weed-eater and there are none, but she’s found a solution. 

          She’s discovered the decorative grasses - which are disappearing by the day - in my artfully arranged pot on the front steps.

          Our dog happens to be a Coton de Tulear – bred to be a “people” dog, not a “dog” dog. A perfect illustration of this occurred the other day when I was chatting in the street with two other dog owners. Their pets knew each other, and sniffed around sociably while Mamie watched from a safe distance. 

         A third came along and the other two strained to greet the new arrival. Instantly, we had a pinwheel of taut leashes and owners being yanked to the center. My dog lay in the grass, not even bothering to shift position. 

          This probably explains Mamie’s willingness to tolerate our latest crazy idea. (In our defense, we’d just unearthed this bike trailer, which we used for chairs and coolers when we peddled to the beach.) 

She can now ride like Cleopatra on her barge without any of that sordid interaction with the locals.