Living on the Hudson River waterfront makes for exciting walks for a canine.It also affords one the opportunity to be exposed to a wide variety of mentally and visually stimulating things.We encounter everything from Canadian Geese to attacking Mocking birds.Yes, mocking birds not only mock you, but they assault you, as well.Mom’s the one that gets attacked the most.The last time it happened, Rodney bravely risked his life protecting her.He fended off the would be killer and everyone walked away unscathed.I supervised from a safe distance and would’ve called 911 for help, had the need arisen.On our evening walks, we’ve encountered bicycles, tricycles, strollers, hover boards, roller skates, skateboards, rollerblades, scooters, and the occasional golf cart – basically, all things that roll.Sometimes there are even police motorcycles and cars rolling along by us.

We meet lots of dogs; well behaved ones, badly behaved ones, big ones, little ones, loud ones, quiet ones, leashed ones, loose ones…you name it.We’ve learned that it makes no difference how they behave, we are still expected to mind our manners.Our mission, should we choose to accept it, is to remain calm, cool and collected.I get the calm and cool, but I don’t get the collected part.What exactly are we collecting?Tolls?Stamps?Barbie Dolls?

Now that it’s hot, we take our strolls in the evening hours, so as not to melt.We walk the waterfront while enjoying the beautiful view of the Manhattan skyline.We travel through such sprawling metropolises as that of North Bergen (population 58,000) and Guttenberg (pop.11,000), all the while wagging our tails at our stimulating surroundings.Mom enjoys it a bit too much.What makes me think that?Well, the fact that she is constantly taking pictures is a clue.Constantly.It’s exasperating.We’ll be walking along, sniffing here, whiffing there, when suddenly, out comes the camera.Dad and I exchange a cursory eye roll and Rodney politely pretends not to notice.Now comes the exciting part; “sit and stay”, she says.I stay because I know that resistance is futile.Meanwhile, Rodney gets amnesia and forgets what “stay” means.After an exasperating ten minutes just to take one photo, off we go…for all of a hundred feet…and out comes the freakin’ camera…again!

 Photo Courtesy Of The Author