Dogs Get Lonely Too

Molly, who's a dog, and I have had some nice walks already. Rachel and family are away for a long weekend and I'm "dog sitting", in a sense since I'm home, only two blocks away, and drop in twice a day to take Molly out -- twice now to the beach and twice, no, three times, for walks in the neighborhood. She loves to walk, she loves to be off leash and run -- although she's getting old and stamina fades quicker than it used to. In dog years she's older than I am; I don't mind walking at her pace when she's enjoying the scents under bushes and on mailbox posts. She has a world in some ways richer than mine, at least olifactorily [did I just make up that word?]. Our walks are fairly long, it's beautiful weather and I enjoy them too.

I feel sad when I take her back to the house and say good-bye. "See you bright and early in the morning." I'm happy the cat chooses to stay in with Molly. The cat's getting older too but does spend the day outdoors usually. I'm sure Molly is lonely in that empty house. Once I would have shrugged and said, "but she's a dog." Can't argue there, but one can argue with the premise that loneliness is okay to impose on an animal that probably 80% of the time has a human on the premises. Well, but ... I have much to do at my home and animals are forbidden. If they weren't I'd bring her here. I may be getting softer hearted these days. Not a bad thing really.

Photo above taken following days when Molly and I walked in the woods, early in the morning when the shadows were too dark for a good portrait of Molly. Being a shepherd mix, during this walk where I was often behind her on the trail and out of sight, she regularly stopped to check that I was coming along as I should be before trotting on ahead to reconnoiter the path. Who's taking care of who?