Day #14: Learn from the Dogs

Tonight, I saw an older man walking an adorable daschund.

Now, as a rule, daschunds are not as cute as fat pugs. That being said, my dog Peaches is a daschund. So I do have a special place in my heart for them.

This little daschund was wearing a pink coat-ish sort of thing, and unlike most dressed up dogs, she was actually pulling it off.

I had stopped at CVS at around 2am on the way back from a night out to stock up on soda (another vice I should give up) and I saw the dog and her owner as I was pulling in.

Should I say hi, I thought.

In my head, I thought, well he'll think I'm weird. Or he's weird. He's walking a dog in the CVS parking lot at 2am. Or he's crazy. Or mean. He'll yell at me. I shouldn't say anything.

But then I thought--take a lesson from the dogs.

Dogs don't think about being nice or trusting or how you look or if you're crazy or addicted to caffeinated soda (well, maybe the last one). They just want you to be nice to them, and they'll be nice to you back.

That's what I'm trying to do, right?

So I said hello, told the man I had a daschund, and introduced myself to his--her name was Dixie.

Dixie--amazing, right?

The man told me he's baby-sitting her, and so he's been taking her out every few hours, because he's never had a dog and didn't know how often you need to walk them.

I told him he could probably get away with three times a day, provided he times it right.

He looked really relieved, and also surprised that a guy in his twenties at CVS wasn't drunk and belligerent.

I said it was nice to meet him, and he said the same.

Dixie gave me the longing daschund look as I walked away.

(For those of you who don't have daschund, they've perfected the yearning look--they're all perpetually women on a dock watching their husbands sail away to the North Pole.)

It was a great way to end the night.

ME: Did you ever have a pet?
FRIEND: I've been a pet a few times.
ME: Maybe I do better with animals than people because I know there's no potential animosity there.
FRIEND: Clearly you've never hung out with a goat.
ME: And you have?
FRIEND: I propped a production of "Oklahoma" once. It got crazy.
ME: How--
FRIEND: Reeeeal crazy.

I'll stick to Dixie.