Today’s poopy walk (yeah that’s what I call it, I’m not going to front, and there’s a song that goes with it, to the tune of The Hukilau Song) was drizzly, but profitable in terms of petting. It is Par’s dearest  wish to be petted by as many people as possible every day, and he has a special hovering/stalking technique for when he sees a potential petter approaching during a walk. Today he didn’t even have to work at it; a big tall guy petted him almost as soon as we’d left the driveway, and since Par especially loves big tall guys, I figured the afternoon was now complete. But no, we had to stalk the tall guy in case he felt like turning around and petting anyone some more, only we had to go slooowly because it was raining and when it is raining, sometimes you might be able to stop the rain if you stand really still. Choose a spot with good stuff to sniff, so you won’t get bored while standing there. Lucy just goes along with whatever Par wants to do. She doesn’t usually get petted, because it’s hard to predict when she’ll enjoy it and when she’ll get suspicious and start barking like a maniac. I just tell people she’s "shy." It makes me look crazy when the "shy" dog creeps up as Par is getting petted, looking all friendly and meek and left out, but I’ll take that over the looks of startled betrayal people give me when she suddenly decides that they deserve the Cujo treatment.

On the second leg of the walk, we spotted a large sunflower head moving quickly out of someone’s front yard toward the street. The squirrel who had somehow landed this prize had made it as far as the grassy median when he stopped for a break and saw the two big dogs headed his way. You could see him weighing his options and deciding, in the end, that he would just eat as much of the thing as he could before he had to make a break for it. I had Par and Lucy cross the street so he could eat in peace; they were pretty cooperative, although they kept their heads swiveled squirrelward for as long as possible. That’s how we scored our second petting of the walk: there were some construction guys across the street who were about to get into their van, and they were Akita fans. "He wants that squirrel," said one of them sagely, "Akitas like squirrels." "Yeah," I replied, "he’s never caught one…" "Akitas LIKE squirrels," the guy continued, clearly having more to share on the subject. I gave him the floor and he related, with great relish, a story about a former acquaintance and Akita owner who used to shoot squirrels out of the trees "for chattering and driving him crazy," whereupon the gun-toter’s two Akitas would grab the squirrel as he hit the ground and "TEAR him UP!" "That’s a nice story," said one of the other guys reproachfully. "I..wouldn’t want to upset that guy," I offered as we got moving again. "Oh, no," agreed the storyteller reminiscently, "he was a trapper."