Since my first walk I’ve decided to dedicate 40 minutes, two
evenings a week, to a nice brisk walk. And, I can’t believe I’m actually saying
this, I really do enjoy it. You will however
not believe the unexpected things that happen which cause me to miss out on
many of my bi-weekly walks! Rain, working late, unexpected visitors, etc,
etc. And most recently my knee! A joint which has never been injured, never
given me any trouble at all, suddenly
rolled over and played dead. I attempted to bring it back to life with a course
of Cataflam, but it took a whole week for me to resuscitate said knee. That
brought me to almost three weeks of no walking! Finally – good conditions
prevailed and I was able to walk once this week. But…………….
Last week there were three incidents reported in our
neighbourhood of school children being mugged while walking home from
school. An 11 year old boy who was hit
with a stick on the back of the head and searched for valuables, and two high
school girls who had their cell phones stolen. Now, if that happens in broad
daylight, what could happen at dusk when I take my walks? My personal safety and the safety of my cell
phone need to be taken into account. So for the sake of safety I toyed with the
idea of aborting my walks and getting straight back on the couch.
My husband generously offered to walk with me but I’ve come
to enjoy my 40 minutes of solitude twice a week, which does some restoration on
my very exhausted soul. As much as I appreciated his offer I truthfully told
him that I really wanted to be with my own thoughts. The very rational man responded that that was
no problem at all – he would not say a word while we walked, he’d let me listen
to my music and enjoy my own thoughts. He would be there as muscle, and not as
company. I’d be a bit like a celebrity
with a body guard lurking in the background. We struck our deal and made a date
for a silent walk. But then, as Murphy (that son of sod) would have it, the
unexpected popped up AGAIN and my husband ended up in a late meeting, having to
cancel our walk. I was left with the
decision of risking walking alone or safely retreating to the couch!
And then I saw Shadow - our beautiful timber wolf who
accompanies my marathon loving husband on many of his short distance runs. Shadow
is fit, she loves to run and I instantly realised that she would be the perfect
walking companion and attacker deterrent. Firstly because she doesn’t talk, but
more importantly, because most people are wary of her! Problem solved! I can’t believe how clever I
am sometimes!
So Shadow and I began our walk. Or should I say my drag?
Shadow took off on a trot which had me dragging behind her holding onto her
lead for dear life. I tried to use my
voice of reason to slow her down and when that didn’t work I used my voice of
persuasion. She slowed down a little but was still much faster than me. It
didn’t seem to bother her that her collar was just about chocking her, but I
could only go as fast as I was going so I figured that eventually she’d get
tired of the collar straining at her throat and she’d adjust her pace to match
mine. Not too clever this dog – it took
a whole 15 minutes before she slacked off. By then I was pretty tired of all
the unplanned resistance training I was getting so I’d slacked off too which
still had Shadow ahead of me rather than next to me.
I suspect she started to get bored because 25 minutes in she
decided that she would stop and pee, and then stop to stiff and nudge a very
dead bird, and then stop to sniff every single pole and every other dogs poop.
(There are seemingly thousands of dog walkers in our neighbourhood.) Shadow
even spotted a pothole filled with water that she tried to take a swim in. I
had to keep begging her to stay focused and walk with me. She criss-crossed in front
of me which caused me to stumble a few times.
I was just reaching the point of ‘fed up’ when I spotted two
chaps who appeared to be going nowhere in particular and not doing anything in
particular. Just mooching around in the street. Suspicious much? Good old South African caution
kicked in and I softly hissed Shadows name to get her off the poop sniffing and
to look alert. She spotted the blokes
and watched on them as they took a slow, wide berth around us. She even glanced back at them for good measure.
She looked intimidating but truth be told I don’t at all believe she was
looking at them to eat them. She’d probably lick them to death given the
opportunity. She isn’t vicious – she
just looks it, especially when she pricks her ears. But she is curious and that’s probably why she
stared them down. I suspect that if one of them had called her she would
happily have run over for a pat. As I mentioned, she beautiful, not bright!
After a mostly frustrating walk with Shadow I remembered why
I’d taken her along in the first place. I need protection! It’s going to take a
couple more walks with her to straighten out the criss-crossing business, to
walk next to me and not in front of me, to stop the pole and poop sniffing, and
to respect dead birds! But all in all I believe our walking relationship is
going to work out. Her intimidating appearance will possibly protect me, and in return I
will allow her one good poop sniff per walk.
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