Our neighborhood is a street is a circle with houses on both sides. The street is about ⅓ mile. When Buffy was younger, she happily made it around the circle, sometimes twice. Nowadays, she wants to go outside but will go three or four houses down. That’s fine. She’s older an sometimes just wants to sniff about. Now that it’s warmer, Buffy will sometimes just stand in the sunshine for a couple of minutes, content to feel the warmth.
At some point, I was annoyed, but I’ve fully accepted that these walks are for Buffy, and if she wants them to be shorter or simply wants to go at a slower pace, then it’s all good. These walks are for her, and I’m glad to do them the way she wants them.
Lucas is always eager to get out of the house. When he realizes that we are getting ready to go somewhere, he is often the first of my three sons to have his shoes on. Even though he is least coordinated as a 2-year-old and sometimes still needs help to get his shoes on, he almost always leads the pack ahead of my 4-year-old and 9-year-old in getting ready to leave the house.
Once the front door is open, Lucas will push through the screen door and out into our neighborhood. We need to be careful with this because he will sometimes get out of the house before we are ready, and we’ve had to chase him down our driveway or across our lawn when he has snuck out of our house.
A couple of days ago, Diana was taking Ollie and Ethan out. Lucas saw this as a cue to get ready to go, and he got his shoes on. The only issue was that Lucas was staying home with me. As I held him back, he started to cry, seeing his brothers getting ready to go. Finally, I assured him we were going too, and I got Buffy’s lead on so I could take Buffy along with Lucas.
As soon as I opened the door, Lucas happily ran out to the sidewalk. He stopped and looked back at me, Buffy. “Which way do you want to go?” I asked him, and he pointed to the right. “Sure, buddy, let’s go.”
Lucas doesn’t run yet. It’s more like a jog/trot. His arms are half-engaged, and his forearms are loose, so they swing at his sides. It's really cute
As I tried to keep up with Lucas walking quickly, I noticed that my leash was loose at my side. I looked over at Buffy. Her eyes were fixed on Lucas in front of us, and she was trotting along next to me, determined to keep up with Lucas.
That’s how it went. Lucas giggled in front of us, with Buffy and me chasing behind. He would stop every so often, distracted by a leaf, tree, or blade of grass, and he would sit and example what he found. Buffy and I would stop and wait for him. Once done, he'd push himself up and start down the street again, with his arms hanging at his sides.
Lucas recognized our house; he went up to our driveway right into the front door. Buffy went ahead of me into the house right behind Lucas. As soon as I took off her leash, she walked over to one of the corners of the room and settled down, watching Lucas as he started to look through a book.
Buffy sensed this walk was Lucas, the same way I know walks are for Buffy. She did what she could to take care of Lucas on that walk and saw her purpose. She’s a great dog, and it felt wonderful to have her beside me taking care of Lucas.
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