Meet Sally,  Sally has been my companion since I came here and each month she and I have become closer.  The only one that takes her out for a walk is Joe and when he is not here I have gotten so I take her out when I go to pick up the mail.  I go out about the same time each day about 3pm except for Sundays when there is no mail so about 2:30 Sally makes sure she is in my room ready for me to put my shoes on and go out.  Now she has gotten so she doesn’t want to wait until I think I am ready to go.  She starts nibbling at my slipper socks and if I am standing or working around my room she jumps up on the bed and starts begging like this.  She stands on her hind paws and waves her front paws together up and down so fast you see in the picture her front paws are just a blur.  She sure gets my attention then, telling me it must be time to go out for our walk.  I of course listen and sit down to get my shoes on and Sally helps by pulling off my slipper socks and nibbling on my feet until I get my shoes on,  Then I get my coat and head for the stairs.  

There is a short set of stairs, a platform to turn around in and another short set to get down to the second floor where the living room and kitchen are.  Sally runs down the first set and waits for me to come.  I pause at the top and she runs down the next flight and waits at the bottom.  This is her waiting for me at the landing,  When I get beside her she runs on ahead.  She never gets under foot when I am on the stair.  When she goes up with Holly or Luke she is always nipping at their feet and staying right with them on the stairs.  I think she knows I am old and unsure of my footing on the stairs as she never does that with me.  

This is how she waits for me at the bottom of the stairs.   When I get there she runs down the next flight and sits at the front door and waits for me to put on her leash and off we go.  Landen was afraid at first to let me take her because she can pull so hard on the leash but for me she has never insisted on going any place other than I say we are going or never teases to stay out longer.  I do let her stopped to smell along the way as she does have her regular stops she has to inspect to see if any new dogs have been around.  

This is one of her regular stops on our circle around Historic Lane.  Some days we go left and around some days we go right and around.  I let her decide which way to  go that day but it is always just around the private drive, a pretty good little walk for me. 

On one side of the circle or rectangle we are on the public sidewalk next to the road.  I keep Sally on a shorter lease here for fear she might see something and run out into the road, there are lots of cars that go through this and she is very good about staying close to me and not pulling to go across the street to the park.  Here is a picture of the lower end of the park and you can see the base ball diamond if you look hard.  One day when it is warm I’ll take a walk in the park but I don’t want to go that far every day so I haven’t started it yet.

This is where we always reenter Hisortic Lane when we start out to the left or where we get onto the side walk if we started right.  This day we started left and we would turn onto Historic Lane here but today Sally saw something further down the walk and —

she was convinced she needed to keep walking down the side walk.  She didn’t pull hard at me but she defiantly wanted to go on because of something she saw or smelled.  So being a good walking partner I went with her a little ways and there on the right was what she wanted to see.

There on the right hand banking were two nice big sage bushes that she just had to check out.  She did first one then the other and back to the first before she was ready to go on and turned around and went back to Historic Lane and to the mail box.   I will be interested in seeing if she now thinks that is going to be the normal route to take for our walk and have to check out those two sage bushes each day.

Today Joe is home so she may want him to take her and not me.  I am a great sub but first choice is still Joe and then Holly, which is as it should be.  I would hate to think she depended on me and then I go and leave her.   Have yourself a great day, I know I will.