A walk in town

Saturday: a foggy day at the Reservoir

This morning I went down town with Hapi. First we went for a long walk on the dyke which in retrospect was a bit too much, I didn't bring water for Hapi and it was warmer than I expected. The only water out there is muddy ditches and ponds which I didn't really think she should be drinking from. I finally relented about one pond because I felt I was putting her life at risk in the heat, and then later took her to "the duck pond" (no ducks) to wash off the stinky dyke mud. Next time, bring water and bowl!

Duck asleep in the fog

All the shops are open now and some of the bars and restaurants for dining in. I think as a result of things opening up over the weekend a lot more people are wearing face masks. For the first time I went into the natural food store but I have to say I didn't really feel safe there. I liked it better when you just placed an order through a window. Then I went to a convenience store that Hapi wanted to visit because they give treats to dogs. The owner made a big fuss over Hapi because he hadn't seen her in a while, gave her two treats and hugged and cuddled her. I was a tiny bit appalled. He said he thought people were making too much fuss over the virus, that his kids were on him all the time about it. Then he told me about another dog that had just had a stroke and died the day before.

There are certain dogs in town that everybody knows, and Hapi is one of them. A whole lot of people know her and greet her when they see us, a lot of them are strangers to me. She's just famous. The dog that died yesterday was also famous, his name was Willy. I had just seen Willy at the Reservoir a couple of days ago so I was quite shocked to hear that he was gone. I told the shopkeeper that he had just ruined my day and he apologized, but I assured him I was joking, I was just shocked was all.

Willy was rarely on leash, he stayed close to his owner all the time. Willy and Hapi were friends in the end, but Hapi did try to provoke Willy into fighting with her (she'd steal his bones) when she was younger. Willy just wasn't that kind of dog, he ignored her provocations so Hapi gave it up and they became friends. His owner is a young man who was kind of at loose ends when he first came to this town, but one of the Main Street shopkeepers took him under his wing, was kind of a surrogate father to him. Often the young man left Willy with the shopkeeper when he went to work. Willy sat or slept on the sidewalk outside the shop waiting for his owner to return, so everybody knew Willy. Later the young man got a job where he could take Willy to work with him. Willy was well behaved in public, but apparently he had a bad habit of chewing things up when left alone at home.

Good bye Willy, sorry to see you go.