My body is sore all over. Yesterday was the first time in two years that I have gone to the health club, and today I am paying the price. As bad as I feel, I still went to the shelter and walked ten dogs this morning, which has only made things worse.
Some of the dogs are sweet, and love to go walkies without trying to tear my arm off. Others are so crazed at the prospect of getting the hell out of their pens, that they go bonkers, jumping six feet up in the air while I try to put the leash on them. I don't know what it is, but you can take a dog that sleeps twenty three hours a day, put it on a leash, and suddenly it becomes super-dog, capable of ripping your arm out of the socket in a single bound.
It was while I was with one disturbingly strong dog who was dragging me across the dog walking area, that I suddenly had a flashback to my grandfather. For some reason when my grandfather and grandmother were around eighty years old, they decided to get a dog. Not a cute little toy something or other, but a puppy that would grow up into one of the dumbest, largest, Irish Setters you have ever seen. Even at eighty years old, my grandfather was a strong man, yet he was over matched by this dog. Every day for years you would see him being dragged through the vacant lot next to the school, by the huge, goofy, red dog. Her name was Kelly, and I swear she had a brain no bigger than a gerbils.
I hope, over time, my workouts at the health club make me more of a match for the more rambunctious dogs, because if I lose control of a dog, and it pulls me to the ground, I am in trouble. That's because the place we walk the dogs is covered with large rocks and even larger piles of dog poop.
My aunt had a large red Irish Setter named Kelly. She too was as dumb as a rock. They would keep her barricaded in the laundry room to keep her from destroying the house. My aunt lover her, but then again she loved her kids too, and they were no prizes.
ReplyDeleteMake that "my aunt loved her".
ReplyDeleteHave you visited the kitty rooms at that shelter. Ask to see "Tinker-bell" She is a tiny grey cat that my friend Bill once took care of. He had to return her when he got cancer. I think she is still there.
ReplyDeletelittle side story about gramps and the dog walk. Micky Finn and Steve Piazza my friends little brothers went to St George. Their big event every day was watching a tiny little old man getting dragged across a field by a crazed irish setter. They would try to guess at which spot the dog would finally stop.They would then applaud the giant crap mountain she would deposit.
ReplyDeleteThey would never cut through that field.
They didn't find out until years later while sitting around with their big brothers and me , smoking pot and telling what we thought at the time were funny stories (they talked about the old man behind the school)that that was my grandfather.What a legacy.
Everyone in Tinley Park knew of the little old man who walked the big, dumb dog but didn't know who he was. When they did find out that he was the Putz childrens grandfather, they would have all kinds of stories about watching him walk her. Thank you for the great memory!!
ReplyDeleteThe story continues: I was a first year teacher at St. George.I taught the 5th grade(as a matter of fact Piazza and Finn). A teacher(small tiny blond lady)came to me and asked if I could get my 90 year old grandfather to change his ways. It seems that every day near lunchtime, Grandpa Bill would walk his dog to the windows of the subterranean second grade room and the dog would take a giant B.M.. This would disrupt the class for at least 15 minutes.I assured her I would take care of it, but I knew Grandpa had no control of where the dog would take him.
ReplyDeleteAh, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!! I never realized there was that much more to this story. Gee I loved grandpa.
ReplyDeletei know how you feel about the next day after work out al, this happens to me a lot! i find it helps to do even just a few stretches before hand though ...
ReplyDeleteDid you know that Mom and Dad actually bought her for them?? I didn't remember that but Mom told me when we were reminiscing and I said Why would they have bought such a large dog that really needed a lot of exercise? I remember the calluses on Kelly's "elbows" from laying around as much as she did.
ReplyDelete