Walking In The Dark

The girls and I just got back from our evening walk. Sounds crazy since it’s a little after 10:00 PM but this is the time of year you kind of have to plan things around the time of day & temperature. Today’s high was only 94 degrees, but the next two days will top out around 97. Not as horrendous as it could be, although it still feels mad hot. When we set off it had cooled down to an anhydrous 80. It was a little breezy, but not cool. I thought it would be cool and quiet, and no people would be around so the girls would not bark…. WRONG. It was still hot. It was kind of like walking around a slightly windy oven in the dark. But we experienced a lot of excitement!

A lady around the corner was taking out her trash in her driveway – the girls barked and scared the crap out of her. She made a comment to the effect that the barking scared her (so I apologized), and then she said something about a dog walking this time of night setting off all the other neighborhood dogs. So I’m not sure if she was mad about other dogs barking back to Kona, or if she was just pissed because we scared her taking out the trash. Oh well, we may never know. I tried to usher the two mutts down around the block as Moki had a coughing fit in the middle of the road. I think she inhaled some dirt or sand and got it up her nose. Then a man was walking toward us on the side of the road. Any other city? That might be scary. In Kanab? Not scary to me, but clearly scary to the dogs because they had to bark and yap and carry on until the man went into his house and was therefore no longer a threat.

We rounded the other corner of the block, and a man was pulling a truck into his driveway, and apparently his dog decided he was going to run over to greet us. I promptly turned the other direction and started moving us briskly down the side of the street. Don’t get me wrong, we’re not rude or antisocial, but Kona sometimes gets overly excited when meeting new dogs, which can lead to a an occasional little dust up once in a while. The man finally called his dog back to his own yard, so we avoided any sketchy encounters. We had just approached the end of our own driveway—home stretch! When all three of us simultaneously eyed an off leash yellow lab down the corner on the opposite side of the street. Kona gave out a few final battle cries (whiny barks), then the yellow dog ran off down the road as I steered my girls inside.

Some relaxing evening walk!