We went for a walk this morning. Walkng Maverick has become training time, I’m tired of hurting everywhere and being dragged around, so we do a lot of stop and turn and go in the other direction because he loves to pull and he dearly loves to pull across me. I can deal with the pulling but when he’s going across me, it throws everything out of whack, and I’m already wacky enough! We’ve also had issues with other dogs -or so I thought, until Mr. Social Butterfly shocked the bejinkies out of me during training class by wanting nothing more than to observe the other dogs with friendly interest. Since then, we’ve been ditching the “head for the field” routine we’ve practiced and passing on the sidewalk with a good deal of space and a whole lot of “ignore, good boy!” going on.

Today’s walk included an idiot with some sort of poo-whore (if it’s a “doodle,” it’s got a poo-whore in its background) (I like poodles, but they’ve come the whores of the dog world. “Want a mutt? Hey, I got a poodle you can breed with whatever you’ve got and we’ll give it a fancy name and make a lot of money off people who don’t know they’re getting a mutt!) (Yes, I’m a breed snob) I saw him coming, and stopped to assess the situation. If there’s a flexi lead involved, we head for the field. The man saw us, and instead of continuing to move, he stopped, and started feeding the dog treats. Okay, I get that he was training his dog, but if you’re going to do that, get off the path so we can pass. Nah, he wasn’t moving, so we took to the field.

The next bit of dumbfuckery was the idiots with the GSD off leash. We were close enough to my car that we just got in, while I muttered things like “I hope your dog doesn’t come over here because mine will probably teach him a lesson.” and “don’t tell me your dog is bomb proof” and “there’s a dog park on the other side of town, assholes.” Normally I would have approached the person after I got Maverick in the car and offered a friendly bit of advice. (I tell people, “while your dog may be friendly to other dogs, mine isn’t always and if your dog runs up to him, it will most likely be a fight, so you’d probably be wise to keep yours on leash.” Should they get snotty, I tell them there’s a rule at the park about dogs being on leash at all times, and walk away.) I don’t do confrontations, I try to be nice about it but don’t fuck around with my dog’s safety.

There were several little yappy dogs on flexi leads. We ignored them. I told Maverick he could get lunch when we got home. (I once told someone, who picked up her child in a total state of terror when I approached with Max, who adored every child he every met, that she needn’t worry, he’d already had lunch. She didn’t find it amusing. Some people have no sense of humor)

We also passed through several groups of people who were staring at their phones while standing firmly in the middle of the sidewalk. I have no problem with using the elbows God gave me on those idiots. I can almost see their brains being sucked out of their heads and into those little screens.

Happy Easter, everyone. It’s a lovely day to forgive the dumbnuts in this world and focus on the fact that Maverick didn’t bark at anyone or bite anyone today. 🙂