Be aware of your surroundings.

We are told to be aware of our surroundings. Especially for a woman who walks alone in the wee hours of the morning with a dog that was a kitten in another life. He’s a sweetheart. Not a mean bone in his body.

During our nocturnal wanderings we’ve had our share of close calls. The car with the stupid boys that tried to run us over, odd men standing (hiding?) in the bog for no apparent reason that I could ascertain. Angry voices and gun shots.  I suppose the typical things one might expect on the west side of the valley? ;)

The most frightening was the morning that the two dogs attacked Chester. We were at an intersection in our neighborhood, we waited as a car drove past and next thing I knew two dogs were on Chester. A week before I’d told my daughter that should this scenario ever occur, drop the leash and get the hell out of the area. I love Chester, but my daughter takes precedence. I did the exact opposite. I was kicking the dogs, wailing on them with the heavy end of our retractable leash. Long story short, with the intervention of a neighbor I was finally able to get Chester home and we survived. I do carry pepper spray now, and have had occasion to use it once.

This brings me to ‘being aware of your surroundings’. We were walking at the park and Chester was doing the thing he does when an animal has recently been in the area. Chester is intent on his frantic sniffing search thing. I was intent on the dog, my mind wondering what animal it might be. I couldn’t smell skunk, we weren’t in the bunny area, hadn’t seen a cat….

I looked up and “WHAO!!” There was a baby German Shepherd sniffing Chester’s butt and neither one of us were cognizant. Ahahaha Needless to say I scared the poor little thing. His People were apparently sleeping in a van. The side door was open and the pup ran in sat down and woofed at us.

It was awesome.