What Do You Suppose Is His Name - O

It has been over six months since my last post on this blog. Walking Grace is pretty routine these days, and pretty much everything that happens has happened before, numerous times. Recently, however, we have a acquired new best friend. In a large subdivision off of Old Harding Pike west of our condo, many dogs are out walking when we walk through.  One afternoon a month or so ago, we came across two dogs running around inside the fenced-in tennis court. Grace, of course, got all excited. I asked the two humans if Grace could play too, and of course they said yes. She entered gleefully and joined the fray, chasing and being chased all around the enclosure. One of the dogs, whose name I don't know, had to leave after a few minutes, but Bingo stayed for another ten or so. They had a grand time chasing and wrestling until it was time to go, as indicated by Grace going to the gate and looking at me. Bingo's mom, whose name I don't know, said she hoped Grace would come play again, because Bingo would be sleeping through the day now. Little did she know our dear bassador.

It wasn't more than a week later that Grace led me into Belle Pointe, not unusual, and by the most direct route to the tennis court. We went inside, and she sat down, looking expectantly in the direction Bingo had gone after their prior encounter. We were there, her sitting and I standing, for a good ten minutes, also not unusual, when suddenly she stood up, tail wagging madly. Bingo's mom had come out for a smoke. I waved, Grace wagged, and she went back inside for Bingo. They romped.

Since then, we have bypassed the tennis courts and gone straight to Bingo's door at least once a week, accelerating to three and four times a week of late. One morning she lay on Bingo's front porch for twenty minutes before I convinced her to give it up. Since then, at Carmen's urging, we no longer camp out on the porch, but we have had pretty good luck finding Mom out smoking. This morning her son came out to go to work just as we  arrived.

It has been two and a quarter years since Grace last had a best friend. It's nice to see her so happy.

Ah, There's Good News Tonight

Those of y'all who know me, either in person or from reading my stuff - or both - know that one of the things that drive me batshit crazy about humans is that they fling trash everywhere. Not all of them (us), to be sure, but enough for there to be visible trash almost anywhere you look. Hell, I did a brilliant slide show on the subject in Communications class in 1970. It's the biggest one of my numerous pet peeves. Yes, even bigger than the bastardization of the apostrophe!

So this afternoon I was walking my girl home from Red Caboose Park when I saw at a great distance a battery powered kiddie car coming along the sidewalk, with a little kiddo driving and an adult human walking behind. Then I saw the little one climb out of the car, run a little ways across the field, then run back to the car and drive a short distance. This process was repeated several times, and as we got closer, I could see that the little girl was running to pick up pieces of trash, and depositing them in the garbage bag carried by her dad! When we got close enough, I said "Wow, that's really nice!" He said "She has to earn her trip to the park." I'm guessing she will grow up to be one of us humans who do not fling trash everywhere.

I just love a juicy bit of good news, don't you?