Atlas Returns

June 18, 2010.  Friday.

Situation:  I have to work both today and tonight.  Moi has come back with Atlas; while she had a comfortable time sitting with the dog down at Jazz’s, now that she’s back she’s beginning to get stressed out handling the two dogs.   She has just announced that she’ll take Atlas for a walk, and after that she wants me to take Mwayla out.  Mway is now lying on the floor next to me in the office; Squeak is on the window sill; we can hear Atlas barking and Moi screaming outside.  It’s now 9:18.  After a while, I go to put on my walking clothes; but when Moi comes back inside with Atlas, she tells me she has to go into town to do some errands and that I can’t take Mway out until she comes back or Atlas will break down all the doors while we’re on our walk.  So right now I’m sitting here, waiting for Moi to return; it’s approaching 10:00.

State of the Path:  By the time Moi gets back and Mway and I set out on the path it’s after 10:30.  I’m too stressed out myself to pay much attention to what’s going on today.  As we approach the juncture to the side path, I tell myself if Mway turns left on the side path we’ll go down that way, otherwise we’ll go straight.  Mway goes straight, and I see after a while that she’s trying to get ahead enough of me so she can squat down and poop.  Along the creek, I see a new wildflower; it has tiny yellows flowers and little green burs.  It looks like something I’ve seen in Audubon, but I have no time today to check it out.

State of the Creek:  As I’m taking a whiz myself down by the creek, I hear Mway splashing around in one of the pools.  Then I see Mway coming up from an area of rocks, through a little pathway in the weeds that she must have made by herself doing this everyday.

The Fetch:  Mway and I continue trampling down the goldenrod.  She fetches the “pro-quality” stick more times than I care to count; I suspect that she’s trying to prove to me and to herself that she is better than Atlas at fetching, which indeed she is.