Thanks to Tony and Dante

It's almost never that I cannot think of a title for my blog.  Often it starts with a title and builds from there.  Tonight, I am having troubles.

It started innocently enough with an evening walk with Geppetto.  A beautiful evening, nice and cool, a quiet city, peaceful.  Just me and my dog....until we rounded a corner and then, there he was.  A Cholo looking hispanic guy with the telltale tan kahki's, white t-shirt and which socks way up the calves.  Hey, we live in a good neighborhood so I wasn't nervous.  Lately, Geppetto has become a little leash aggressive.  Most dogs he'll give a little nip too.  Needless to say, this pisses off the neighbors although they would never say anything.  I don't want our dog to be ostracized. 

It's quite dark on this part of the street, Geppetto and I pull over and the guy says, "is your dog friendly?"  "No", I say, "he seems to be a little aggressive with black dogs."  "My dog is very friendly, do you think they can try it?"  "Sure, why not."  They sniff around each other and then Geppetto does his typical ignore the other dog stance, turning his back and pretending to be interested in something across the street.  The guys dog, Dante (black 17 lb cocker spaniel) , comes up to me and gives me a lick.  I pet him and Geppetto give a little whine.  The guy says, "the pound told me not to take this dog because he was so aggressive and by the time I picked him up I was terrified of being bitten.  I cradled him in my hands and could feel his ribs, I cried.  He had so much hair you couldn't tell how skinny he was.  I nursed him back to health.  He saved my life."   I looked up and studied my new friend Tony.  He lives a couple streets over and I've not seen him before.  He looks like a guy that needed saving but was on his way back.  He talked a little about his ex-girlfriend and I wondered if that was his downfall or if it was something else.  Dante knows, that's for sure.

Amazing how many people say that.  "My dog saved my life."  I have a bumper sticker on my truck that says "who rescued who?"  It's very true but lately I've been guilty of forgetting that.  We got Geppetto in August of 2011 - just a few weeks before my cancer diagnosis.  After my surgery I walked that dog every day, sometimes twice no matter what.  It started with half a block.  I barely made it home.  I broke out in a cold sweat but vowed to try again.  I guess I lied, one day I just couldn't do it and called Eco Wash and Karen sent someone over to walk Geppetto.  That was the only day though.  I built up that half a block to 2 miles before I went back to work.  It's important to keep perspective during our busy lives.  I forget that quite often.   Thanks Tony for reminding me.