Dog Walking 遛狗, 犬の散歩, 개를 산책시키

 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: by Mark Haddon. Great book; haven't read it. Just gotta bear down, open the book, and force my eyes to consume the pages one day and tear them away from non-fiction stuff. That along with dozens of other fiction works like The Handmaid's Tail, Little Fires Elsewhere, the Sympathizer, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, The Hate You Give, and The Three-Body Problem (originally a Chinese book, 三体, by Cixin Liu but translated to English, that would be bad-ass to master those science terms in Chinese.....but alas). 

No what I'm talking about is The Curious Incident of All the Dogs Outside During Poop-Time, the story of my life every time I walk outside (except when it's raining, when I see no people, no pets, just me braving a storm to get my daily run in). I've never had a dog or walked a dog, one of those things I'm kind of curious about but not that curious like riding roller coasters or getting a broken bone to try just to try it. I DO often see poop on the streets, though, another impediment I have to dodge along with uneven pavements, puddles on rainy days, gross garbage (or vomit, one of the two) and (unfortunately, yes) human poop. There's a romantic side of me that dramatizes walking the dog, as an excursion outside with man's best friend and bonding time between you and another creature without the need to communicate verbally, just enjoying the sights and sounds of the great outdoors... until I realize it's something you have to do EVERY DAY, dogs get jumpy running after squirrels or barking after other dogs, and how in the world do you walk the dog on rainy days? And then of course there's ALWAYS the problem of using up the whole sidewalk when walking a dog: the dog pulls on the leash and wants to go everywhere: a common dilemma on my run is locking eyes with a dog owner from far away as we approach each other and realizing one of us is going to have to move, and it's not going to be the dog as he/she is oblivious to the social necessity of letting a runner pass by, so I have to dodge and skirt my way past daintily, careful also not to offend the sensibilities of the dog in any way or God forbid, step on it. If MJ and I ever have a child and are asked for a dog, I have plenty of stories to share why NOT to get a dog.