Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

Una and Emma
with the Gryphon
at Fort Washington State Park

While my sister and her husband were on their honeymoon in the Dominican Republic, I watched their dog, Emma. She's from the same litter as my dog, Una, and they get along really well. The consensus of the neighbors is that she's cute, as I heard this from many people.

I was able to walk both dogs at the same time, which was good because that way I could still do my regular daily dog walks. I held both leashes in the same hand, which basically meant that Emma, who's a very determined power walker, would sort of drag Una along with her. I think Una got a little tired of this over the week, but she seemed good-natured about it.

Emma adjusted to our routine easily. After The Gryphon leaves for work in the morning, it was just me and the dogs. First our morning walk and then I worked on things around the apartment, as I worked to get the place ready for my sister and her husband to see. The dogs could relax wherever they wanted to, provided they were out of the way.

I let them out before my afternoon assignments and then usually managed to give them an afternoon walk. They got let out one more time before I started my evening assignments, at which point The Gryphon came home and took over the dog tending responsibilities.

Emma was very good, following me from room to room. She seemed to need a lot of petting, but not much more than Una. The two of them were very quiet. They didn't do too much barking, which was something I'd feared they'd get into when they were together, barking at every little noise.

While Saturday was spent at The Gryphon's old apartment, clearing out the rest of the stuff he had left behind and doing some cleaning, on Sunday we celebrated by taking the dogs to Fort Washington State Park, where they had a nice little walk. They both enjoyed it in their own ways; Emma tried to chase groundhogs and Una ate a lot of grass. For my part, I took a lot of pictures of flowers.

So on late Monday night, when my sister and her husband showed up, back from their trip, I gave them hugs and saw them to their room. The next morning, I was a little sad to see Emma go. After watching two dogs for a week, with one dog it seemed a little empty.

I'm happy to report my sister and her husband had a great time on their honeymoon. They told us a little bit about it. The resort was all-inclusive, so they had fun trying out the different restaurants and such. But they seemed to have even more fun observing the local wildlife. They came up with a game called "Lizarder," where whenever they were walking somewhere they competed to see who could spot the most lizards.

Now I've gotten used to having just one dog again, and it's nice to walk at our own leisurely pace. But for awhile, it was nice to have an extra canine guest.

Copyright 2005 by Alyce Wilson

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