June 18, 2003
Hanging out on the subway.
10:00 p.m.
Dusty and I had a very eventful trip to High Park and it had nothing to do with anything we did in the park.
As we started our walk, we crossed paths with a nice older gentleman who was walking his poodle up Spring Road. Dusty approached the road and sat, as I always ask her to do. As the man passed, he politely turned to us and quacked. Twice. Then he cheerfully continued on his way.
And we continued up the path. Soon, we started to hear a peculiar noise. It sounded like women grunting. In fact, it *was* women grunting. 20 women, to be exact (no, this has nothing at all to do with the condom wrappers we're constantly coming across in the park).
20 new mommies, with babes-in-stroller, were grunting as they did jumping jacks in the middle of the path (the moms were grunting, the babes were just crying, or sleeping). After they finished their jumping jacks, they continued in an orderly stream down the path, panting along as they pushed the strollers. (and just in case you don't believe me, I took a photo - see below!).
After that, I was ready for just about anything, but we only saw dogs, dogs and more dogs. We *did* see a familiar face, though - our friend from Annex Pets stopped by as we were working on some agility training. And at Dog Hill, we met a dog who is trying to break into show business (don't bother taking your dog to an agent at 7 months, they'll just ask you to come back when your dog is much older - good to know, in case Dusty wants to try her luck in Hollywood).
Training we did today: more work on walking the plank, touching the contact and 'table.' And Dusty managed to get on the escalator and get off the escalator at the subway station - this is a first. Of course, once we had accomplished this feat, she gave the second escalator a wide berth, so obviously we have some more work to do.
One more piece of weirdness to report. On the ride home, about 20 pre-teens boarded our subway (yeah, it was just great fun, really). They were load and obnoxious and the first chance I got, I scooped a very gratefully Dusty off the floor and plopped her into the seat beside me. The kids mainly left us alone, but one kid said loudly, above the din, "Nice dog."
I think I managed to say thanks, but then I saw his arm reaching over me toward my sleeping dog. You know what they say about 'letting sleeping dogs lie'? Well, I wasn't going to take a chance. What amazes me about this is the sheer speed of my reflexes - I grabbed the kid's wrist and snapped "What are you doing?" I gave him a little lecture about petting strange dogs without the owner's permission. He apologised a few times, but I was pretty ticked off. Boy, I was so glad to get off that train!!
The Stroller Herd: "Get along, little mommies"