What do I do first thing every morning? Well, if you've known me for more than 30 seconds, you know I walk the dog(s) first thing every day. This happens before anything else each and every morning of my life. Unless of course, on that rare occasion when my roommate is awake before me and has walked them, or is in the process of walking them.
This morning was no different. Wake up. Hydro-evacuation. Grab the leashes and out the door.
For those of you who don't know, I live in a condo in the Denver area. The community is 25 buildings divided between two distinct styles. One style, the kind I live in, is eight condos per building in a square shape. The other half of the community, the buildings are in rows with 5 to 9 condos per building.
Since this morning's walk was just a short pee-walk to allow the dogs a chance for their morning hydro-evacuation we weren't walking very far. In fact, we walked two buildings over around one and back. The whole walk should have taken 10 minutes and given both of them a chance to claim a number of bushes and light posts.
However, a simple morning walk around the buildings in ten minutes or less wasn't to be had this morning.
Last weekend a rental unit in the building we walked around received some new tenants. I didn't officially meet any of them, but rather saw them moving in as I returned from the gym one morning. A few days ago I noticed a little girl on their deck (as this is an upstairs unit), maybe 9ish years old) looking as though she were trying to figure out how she was supposed to get her bike down the stairs without some sort of crash or bodily harm. Since I'd never seen her before I said "Hi," without braking my stride. And then I said, "I don't know how old you are, but right over there," and I pointed at the grassy area behind her building, "there are some kids playing that look about your age." She looked at me like she couldn't believe I just spoke to her, or I was some sort of creep and since I hadn't altered my stride, I kept moving on towards my home.
Fast forward to today and as I come around the corner of their building I hear a little girl saying, "Oh look, there's a dog! Oh, there's two!"
I rounded the corner to see the little girl coming down the stairs with an older woman holding her hand. I have no idea who the older woman was since she didn't bother saying hello, but the little girl, recognizing me, did say "Hi." I said 'Hi' back.
The mother (grandmother, aunt, friend-of-the-family, I don't know) stopped and let us pass. The dogs stopped to sniff something on a bush. I waited. We moved on a few more feet and the dogs stopped again. So did I. This is how dog walks go, especially in the morning when all the other neighborhood dogs have already been walked.
We walk a little further and I notice the lady, with the little girl still hand-in-hand, are now behind us, going in the opposite direction of the parking lot. In fact, aside from other condos and another further parking lot, there was nothing in the direction I was going and no conceivable reason for the two of them to be following us on our walk.
The dogs and I walk along the side walk, going relatively slow since the dogs are stopping to smell every single blade of grass, it seemed. The woman finally speaks up, "Can you move faster? I don't like dogs."
"Congratulations," I reply. "But we're on a walk."
Then she changes tactics, "I'm scared of dogs."
I look at her, "You've been following us down this sidewalk. If you don't like dogs, go a different direction."
"But I'm scared of dogs, you move."
"Um, no. You're following us. You can't be that scared of dogs if you're following right behind us."
She finally quieted and I walk a little further along than I originally planned to, just to annoy her. At the next sidewalk junction I turned left and they turned right.
I started thinking about a scenario a couple of weeks ago when an older lady was out walking her Scottish Terriers (maybe Westies) in a nearby park going in the opposite direction we were heading. She stepped to the side and said she didn't like her dogs socializing with other dogs. I stopped, letting Rufus and Charlie get closer to her dogs and told her I like my dogs socializing with other dogs.
She yelled at me as she pulled her dogs, her non-aggressive dogs, further away and reiterated how she doesn't like her dogs to socialize.
Why is it that everyone in this country thinks we all have to cater to their whims? You don't like dogs? It's obviously my concern to make you feel better. You don't like socializing, I have to cater to your whims. You don't like your picture taken in public? I have to acquiesce to your wishes.
When are people going to understand that the rest of us want to do our thing too? I want my dog to socialize, why does your concern outweigh mine? I want to walk my dogs in peace, why is your fear of dogs my problem? I want to live my life without having to always make sure everyone else around me's need are met and I have to live on the proverbial egg shells.
Men live with this a lot every day. Somehow it became our responsibility to make the the toilet seat is down, but no one ever makes sure it's up for our next use. We're the ones who have to live with the A/C turned down to luke-warm because the women in the office are always cold and it's our bother to have the heat turned up to sweltering for the same reasons. We're the ones who have to go out into the rain to get the car and it seems like we're always walking the dogs when the weather's inclement.
When do the people who always want their considerations and vices respected want to respect other people's ways of life? Sure, those people are out there and I meet them every day -- heck, I'd like to think I am one, but why do some people think their selfish-interests outweigh everyone else's personal interests?
There's more I want to say long these lines, but I can't think of how I want to say it, right now.
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