September 24, 2010

It’s All Fun and Games Until…

Often we’re asked, “How many dogs can you walk at one time?” Unlike New York City dog walkers (or Argentinian one’s at that!), Gretchen’s but off point is four. Yes, she’s done five, but she regrets it and she’ll only do four if everyone is pretty well-behaved on the leash. Her preferred number is two, but often finds herself walking three at a time and sometimes it can be a challenge.

As we walk along, I’ll hear her mumble under her breath the expression — “It’s all fun and games until…” and she has lots of endings for that sentence. When she taught middle school, the ending was — It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt…and then it’s a sport.

But now that she works with dogs, here are some of the endings for a familiar phrase:

It’s all fun and games until…

…someone has to poop!

No picture provided here for reasons of taste, but I’m sure you can picture what it must be like when you’re walking four dogs and one or two decide to relieve themselves. Yep, four leashes, four dogs all stopping so Gretchen can reach into her pocket and pull out one or two dog bags so she can be a responsible dog walker.

…someone sees a squirrel!

If said squirrel races in front of three dogs, instinct wins out over obedience almost every time. And yes, Gretchen is happy to have a massage therapist help realign her every once in awhile!

…someone sees a cat!

Squirrels are exciting, but cats are the most exciting event of my day…Rosie and Tyson’s too! While Oshi and Perrito would love to roll around with a cat, Rosie and Tyson (like me) would rather chase them. It’s very hard to fight that urge. Trust me…very, very hard!

…someone finds some grass to nibble on!

We all like to eat grass, it’s true, but no one is the King of Eating Grass more than Saber. He’s kind of an oral fellow and if he can’t find a stick to put in his mouth, he settles for grass. It’s really hard to get his attention after that. Of course, I don’t mind a bit of grass myself..until it gets stuck in my throat.

There are probably more endings to this phrase, but today, those were the ones that really came to mind (and unfortunately for Gretchen, came to us today!).

Have a great weekend,

Rubin

Leave a Reply