Taking Gypsy for a Walk

I’m sure most of you are aware that Gypsy is my “little” dog.  She is of mixed ancestry, her father being a chihuahua, and her mother being a terrier of some description, supposedly an Australian Silky, but possibly some miniature foxy as well.  Anyway, Gypsy turned out like a toilet brush on legs; bigger than a chihuahua, with long wire hair, big eyes, and terrier eye brows and whiskers.  Anyway, she loves walks.  And she reads my mind…..

Typically, I don’t say I’m taking you for a walk Gypsy, I just get into the shower, and come out dressed, and she is there waiting for me…….but only when I am taking her for a walk.  She follows me round till I find my sneakers and socks, and sits beside me till I put them on, looking expectantly at me.  Then I get up and get the lead and then she starts to dance, leaping around my feet.  Then I say the magic words, Come on Gypsy and she is beside herself!  Dancing and whimpering and turning herself inside out, which makes it almost impossible for me to put the lead on her.  Eventually I succeed, and the lead is on, and she then starts biting the lead, and winding herself up in it, and winding me up in it too.  Then after I have managed to get myself and her unentangled, we proceed to the front door, and she shoots through the cat door, and wonders why she is suddenly stopped short.  There is no way I’m going to even attempt to climb through the cat door….. So back she comes for a more sedate exit through the normal door.  And then off we go, I amble along at my normal pace, and she trots with head and tail held high down the road.  We normally go to the golf course, it’s closest, and depending on how energetic I am, the length of the walk can be varied immensely.  Once we reach the golf course, I let her off the lead, again a bit of an effort, because she’s still got plenty of energy, and once free, she’s off exploring.  I reckon she runs about six times as far as I walk.  While I take my walk around the trees, and over the little creeks, she’s off exploring, chasing rabbits and ducks and discovering things.  I’m not sure she’d know what to do with a rabbit if she by some miracle caught it, it would be as big as her.   Being so short, if she gets herself into some long grass she can’t see over the top, so as she runs through it, every few feet she leaps skyward and you see this little head pop up through the grass, trying to see where she is.  Every so often she stops suddenly, because there is something interesting to smell, and she doesn’t want to keep going till she’s investigated it thoroughly, and then it’s a mad panic to catch up with me.

Then all too soon, in Gypsy’s eyes anyway, the walk is almost over, and she has to have the lead back on.  This means back on the road, and home.  After expending all that energy, it’s much easier to get her lead on, but she still manages a trot for the last leg.  Then we get inside the gate, and the lead comes off for the last time.  Again she is co-operative, and secretly pleased to be home, so she can check the cat’s dish in case any food is left, and then to curl up and recover, ready for the next walk……