Small Dog in a Big City

The afternoon was beautiful, 60 degrees and sunny, but still with a bit of November in it, and so we decided to take Lucy and Beckett, the little dog we were sitting, down to the Tidal Basin for a nice walk. There were lots of folks with the same idea as ours, but we found parking without any trouble and started our stroll. Well, Lucy, Heidi, and I walked, but Beckett is a mini Australian Shepherd with limited leash experience, and he kind of danced along on the end of his tether.

A little while later, though, he was trembling as he pattered nervously along, clearly terrified of something. We paused at the Jefferson Memorial, and as my eyes swept over the scene, I tried to see it from Beckett's point of view. In addition to the traffic roaring over the bridge behind us, there were bikes and scooters and strollers coming at us, and lots of legs and feet in his face, not to mention at least 50 Canada geese larger than he was and honking proprietarily right along the water.

It seemed like it might be too much for a puppy from the suburbs, but he took advantage of the break to check in with Lucy, who was genuinely enjoying the outing. Some message must have passed between their noses, because he visibly relaxed and we continued on our way.