SLICE #20- Dogwalking

I read somewhere recently
that the best way to lose weight is to own a dog.
Because they make you walk.
And walking burns calories.
I own a dog.
Star.
We walk pretty much every night.
The losing weight part.
Ummm. Well. That hasn't happened yet.
But we still walk.
Pretty much every night.

We have a couple of favorite routes.
Sometimes we go down our street to 23rd and turn west.
We go a couple of blocks
and there is a ballet school
I love to watch the teenage girls
twirl and dip and spin
There is an Italian restaurant
that smells garlicky and yummy
and then a flower shop
with a window full of beautiful knick knacks.

Sometimes we go a block
farther south to 22nd
and turn east.
That way goes through a neighborhood
some of the houses
have been there forever
some are brand new
ginormous
ridiculous
there is an old yellow lab
that lays on his porch basking in the sun
We always stop and say hello to him.

If it's cold
or if I have a lot of school work
we do the school route.
It is only about half as long
down 25th three blocks
around the big middle school
and back again

Star doesn't care which route we take
just so long as we go every night.

Tonight we went a completely different route.
I had to take car in for brake work.
The garage is a little more than a mile away
and I decided it would be a good idea
to take Star with me,
drop off the car,
then walk her on the way home.

Star is the only dog I have ever had
that does not like the car.
She gets car sick
even on short trips.
The vet said she would grow out of of it
but she really hasn't
I had to drag her into the back seat.

When I stopped to throw some recycling
in the bin at the middle school
she lunged across me and tried to get out
and I had to drag her back in.

Star did love the garage though.
It's about a block away from a 7-11.
Star loves 7-11's.
All those yummy smells
and hot dog wrappers
and pizza crusts.
She almost got stuck under a fence
trying to reach a half-empty
bag of potato chips.

And she loved meeting
the great dane puppy
that had gotten loose from his back yard
we carried him up the sidewalk
and knocked on the owner's door.

She loved walking down
the grassy median
on 17th Avenue.
More good smells-
dogs and squirrels and trees.

And then we got into familiar territory.
Glencoe.
She knows our street.
Star loves her walks.
But she loves coming back home too.