The Evolution of W

It really didn't take long for Oz to get back in training, and to move from panting a bit after 20+ minutes to wanting to Energizer bunny through the world: let's keep going, and going and going…

It took me a bit longer to become adventurous. Part of this was the location. Kathy had chosen the house out in Sudden Valley before we were together. I moved in not having really explored or investigated the community. As a result, I didn't have a good sense of how amazingly large it was, or that there were so many trails leading off the roads.

I also had only had dogs in my life when I was ten or younger, and when we were living in the country. That meant I didn't realize people expected you to clean up after your dog. In fact, I'd always thought people were a bit silly and overly fastidious, carrying poop bags around everywhere. Are you serious?

Apparently, they were. One time we went down a side street and Oz pooped on the gravel near the side of the road. The next day when we walked past, there was a cardboard sign asking people to pick up their dogs' poop. That was us. We did that.

In any case, there were these trails. I didn't know about them, so we were comically hesitant at first. We'd go a little ways down a trail, then I'd get concerned we were on private property and turn around. A day or two later I'd look at the trail again, and realize it really looks like it sees a lot of traffic, and we'd go a bit farther, and so on. Eventually, we got to the next stage: we go so far on the trail that we're hopelessly lost, and have to backtrack.

The roads in Sudden Valley bend, split, and change names so often that this happened on roads too. I'd end up reasoning through which yard gnome we'd seen before, which swing set we'd passed, etc.

What I didn't realize, though, was how as we were exploring the world, we were also marking it—becoming local minor celebrities, in our way. Well, at least Oz was.

Greg