Melon's Animal Adventures: an eventful walk

So I hadn't walked Katie the Lab for over a week and I've missed it - I'm finding walking her quite therapeutic, which is great since I struggle with anxiety.

The walk was very eventful, making me realise I really had missed a lot.

First, there was this:

Do you see the hazard in that photo? Yup, the black cat sitting calmly on the stairs. (Hi Xeti, is that you?) Luckily, Katie, who is reactive to dogs and cats, passed calmly and without incident. So I guess it's not all dogs and cats she is aggressive to, just some.

The next thing was that I managed to get Katie to Leave it and Come away from two potential foodables she'd picked up in her mouth. I was feeling really good about that! And there's more...

As I entered a park we normally walk through, a little dog suddenly appeared, running straight for us. Uh-oh! I thought. Katie does not like small dogs. It was a pug x French bulldog and it ran at us, daring us to pass, and continued circling and following us when we tried to leave. It stuck its nose into Katie's behind as we tried to leave the park, and as we left I realised it was still with us and had no apparent intention of leaving. I walked Katie, small dog in tow, back to the playground slide where two people were dozing with sunnies over their eyes. Who in the world dozes while their dog is harassing other people? Excuse me, excuse me! Is this your dog? Heads were shaken. Oh. Then where in the world had this doggy come from? Katie was so good, she did a Sit for me while the dog was still harassing her. I rewarded Katie and sat down to try to check the tag on the pug's pink collar. It jumped right into my lap, clearly being used to attention. As I reached for the tag a blond guy in shorts appeared to collect the dog. Apparently the pug'd escaped from his garage. So that's a non-reactive Katie and a loose dog back home, so this story has a happy ending. (I wish I had a photo from the incident, but as you can imagine, I didn't get a chance to snap any!)

And THEN Katie decided that she doesn't want anyone to think she's a well-behaved dog, so she found two bones/skulls on the walk and with the second one, completely abandoned the walk to lie down under a tree and enjoy it!

She's really getting into it

But look how happy she looks afterward, so what can I say?

Melon