Running Club

Last week on my Tuesday afternoon run home from work I picked up three buddies halfway home.  They were four-legged buddies who appeared thrilled to have someone talking to them and stopping to pet them.  As a result I had a three-dog escort almost all the way home.  They were scared off by the fiercely territorial dogs at a particular house at the Mission (neighbourhood).

Thursday I ran home again (trying to stay fit over the winter this year).  Again my same buddies picked me up for an escort home.  This time the local nurse drove by.  Thinking I was being mobbed, she wanted to help.  She dumped a Ziploc bag filled with dog food out the car window as she shouted, |Here, let me help!|  She stopped and chatted for a few minutes while the dogs ate.  This time they stuck with me through the fierce dogs and came all the way home.  We could hear them running around late into the night.  I lay there feeling bad that they were outside in the cold instead of home in their own households (although most dogs around here are outside dogs, and they probably didn#t have a warm bed waiting).  I still felt bad.

Then, when LK ran home on Friday he was the honoured recipient of the four-legged escort (although I am not sure he quite felt honoured).

This week Tuesday they were waiting.  And this time they were determined to stick to me like glue - one literally running at my heels 90% of the way.  The escort is starting to feel a bit claustrophobic, with dogs crowding my heels.  And I feel bad about bringing them far from home so often.  Plus, I am starting to think that either I have a latent dog-piper gene, or that that lovely, kind intention of the nurse to rescue me actually made the dogs think that I was going to be a food source.

But the biggest up-side is that instead of talking to myself all the way home, and looking a wee bit crazy.  Now I have someone to talk to, which makes me look a bit more sane (I hope).