A "Dog" Day

Today was Jasper's (my five-year old son) second week of kindergarten. Our school starts its kindergartners with half-days until the end of October, which actually means moms only have a couple of hours during which all errands and laundry need to be done at record speed. During this short time, I realize I have to choose between being healthy and exercise, or catch up on my writing or do laundry.

As I walk out the front door in a hurry and walk the few houses down the block to pick up Jasper at his bus stop, I see one of the neighborhood dogs that lives next door, Katie. I call out to her to say hi. To my surprise she jumped up and ran over to me. Katie then jumped up and stood up on her back paws and placed her two rather large paws on my chest. As she stood tall, I realized she almost reached my height as I am only five feet one inch tall! This dog ritual of saying hello was repeated about two more times, once almost sending me down on my back. As we were both standing in the middle of the street, a few cars drove by. We live in a private development so the drivers usually know not to speed because of the children playing outside. I was afraid Katie was going to get run over as she kept jumping up and down on top of me with her leash hanging down from her neck.

I honestly did not know what to do. I started to speak to Katie quietly but firmly and looked into her eyes. This is also how I speak with Jasper when he misbehaves. Surprisingly, this is also how the Super Nanny, Jo, instructs parents to act with children that do not behave. So I looked into Katie's big brown eyes and said, "OK, now, Katie, please sit nicely and stop jumping!" Katie kept wagging her tail and jumped up once more for good measure. Maybe it didn't work because I didn't have my "naughty bench".

I decided to hold on to Katie's leash and walked to the bus stop together. One of the children's father was waiting. He lowered his face to Katie's, grabbed her cheeks or rather the many folds around her nose and said "You are cute, is there a face underneath all of this?" Katie then shook her whole head in front of him, at which point a good amount of short golden dog hair and (for good measure) dog snot came flying out on my friendly neighbor. He actually took it quite well and just smiled. I said to him, "This is why we don't have dogs." We are also not fond of cleaning animal poop, baby poop was bad enough.

The school bus finally arrived. The doors opened. Jasper stood right in front on the top step with his bright orange book bag. I looked at his face. He looked at me and then Katie. He then looked at Katie and then me. A look of both shock and fear registered on his little face! I realized he probably thought I had just bought Katie since I had her on the leash. Her rather large size intimidated him.

Jasper finally came down the steps and out of the bus. Katie jumped up and down all around him wagging her tail but thought better to jump on top of him. Jasper kept a few feet away from her as we walked to our neighbor's house. There were no cars in my neighbor's driveway nor any signs of their second dog and five small children. We rang the doorbell. Their second dog came to the door. He was not friendly. This was why he was locked inside. He jumped up to the door and barked loudly. Great watchdog! I saw the knob giggled. I could swear he was trying to turn the knob and open the door so he could go for my throat. I remembered a scene from Cujo. However, I bravely waited with Jasper safely behind me just in case. Yes, I would sacrifice myself to being attacked by this dog than having my toddler hurt . This is what mommies do. My neighbor finally came to the door. She looked at me, and Katie and then exclaimed, "What happened?" I explained to her what happened. She thanked me and I went back home.

I felt both happy and sad! I actually had a great time taking Katie for a walk. She was such a sweet dog and seemed happy and appreciative to walk with us.