Walking the dog

Some days, when Ali’s away from home, or gets home late, I get to take Bibo out for a walk in the evening.

Typically, he gets a little antsy around 4-5pm, and he’ll come over to me and my desk where I’ll usually be clickitty-clacking away at my keyboard trying to debug some code. He’s quite relentless, however, and is incredibly cute, so when I look over at him wagging his tail and begging to go outside, I eventually oblige.

I pick him up, I feel his fur and his softness, and I smell his smell and feel his breathing and his heart beating. He sometimes snortles a bit.

When we get outside, I let him down softly to the sidewalk, and he’ll be excited to be under the sky and sniffing the world. I can sense his excitement in the way he frolics about and the way he hurriedly paces from one scent to the next. It’s such an amazing joy to see him finding so much wonder and excitement from these moments.

We get to the end of the block, and I have him wait so we can safely cross the street. A passerby may see him and smile. If they acknowledge him, he runs up to them, and I let them know he’d love to be petted. It’s true: he loves meeting new people, and he loves receiving their friendly pets. He savors every touch.

After safely getting to the other side of the street, he’ll try to pull me to the pet store. Ah, how I love to bring him there! But, alas, I spoil him a bit much, and I tug him toward me to head the opposite way. Sorry, buddy, I know you’d like to–let’s go this way a few more times, and we’ll make it a treat to go to the shop. I promise we’ll go.

Once he realizes we’re not going to the store, he takes a few reluctant steps, but he eventually comes my way, and he’s back to his sprightly self, knowing we’ll still have some smells to enjoy this way.

We walk down to a certain lamp post that I’ve marked for us in my mind. He’s not a very good walker, but I know he can make it as far as this lamp post. Each time I walk him, I stretch him just a few feet further, so he learns to take just a few more steps on our walks. I think he knows what I’m up to, but he’s kind enough to let me help him and let us spend more time together.

I treasure these moments with Sir Bibo. This is my time to bond with him and for us to share quality time together where I get to learn from him and where he can learn from me. With every one of these strolls, our bond becomes stronger, and our lives together becomes enriched with these memories of us spending this time doing something we both enjoy doing.

I love you, Mr. Sir. You inspire me, and I hope you always know that my tail’s wagging for you.