Happy New Year?

The conversation at the breakfast table this morning was all about September being the official start of a New Year versus the traditional January. I was uncertain as to why September was substituted for January, when I got what can only be described as an educator’s optical reprimand. You see, before Gretchen was a dog walker, she was a teacher and after 24 years of teaching, the beginning of the school year has always marked a beginning of a new year and much like the January New Year’s, many of the same events occur — resolutions, taking stock of the previous year, and hoping that the upcoming year will be a bit better than the last.

Of course, only Ann (my other mother) is a teacher now, but Gretchen says she still feels the September-New-Year pull and has this incredible urge to go shopping for pencils and pens, lined paper and glue sticks. I did my best to walk those urges out of her today!

First up were Oshi and Perrito. While Oshi had some inkling of the school year just beginning, Perrito was oblivious until we stopped by the school and he saw all the people (teachers) milling about. “I wanna go to school!” he squealed.

Oshi just rolled his eyes and said, “I just wanna go home.”

Next up were Rosie and Tyson who earlier in the morning (on a walk with their Mom) spotted a cat across the street. When Gretchen took them out they were both eager to find the cat again, but she did what she could to discourage them. “So, what do you think about the new school year starting up?”

They both just looked at her stymied and then Tyson practiced some yoga.

Gemma, Saber, and I got to walk together and they both had lots to say about the school year. “I wanna go, I wanna go!” wiggled Saber.

“You’re too young,” chided Gemma.

“You’re both too young,” I mumbled so only Gretchen could hear me. Gemma was constantly bumping into Saber, trying to bite his jowls while we walked and Saber, who was trying to be a good boy, kept trying to get out of Gemma’s way. When we stopped for our photo shoot, I riled them both up by rolling around and while these photos look like we’re calm and under control, it was mayhem for the first five minutes (of which Gretchen only captured a millisecond of the chaos!).

After everyone went home, I got to play some fetch, but only for a short bit because Gretchen was off to work at the pool. Funny — school (with two o’s) and pool (with two o’s). Cool!

Oh, before I forget, I met a new dog this weekend. Her name is Eloise and she’s 16 years old! I guess that’s why she curled up on the chair and fell asleep!

Happy New Year Everyone!

Rubin