Boo!

I once owned a small dog named Boo. Boo was a quite small long haired dachshund with blue eyes and I, being not large myself, decided we were a good fit. During the early days of becoming acquainted, I discovered that Boo had a playful side. Among the games he enjoyed was grabbing any of my clothes to which he had access and running through the rooms, presumably so that I would give chase. Boo enjoyed this game more than I.

On this particular morning, I was expecting a UPS delivery of medicine that was desperately needed. Worried that I might miss a knock at the door I had the brilliant idea to leave a note. The note read” Dear delivery person-Please knock loudly and if no answer open the door and yell”. Satisfied that my bases were covered I went to the bathroom to shower. Boo, of course, playfully ran off with my pants leaving me with a T-shirt. And a towel. I pulled on the shirt and wrapped the towel around my bottom half and went in search of my underwear and shorts. I had just located my undies on the floor by the couch and was bending over to retrieve them (my back to the door) when I heard a very loud knock. Panicked I raced for the bedroom, accidentally dropping my towel in the process, when I heard the door open and the UPS man followed the instructions on the note. Right down to the yell.

As soon as Boo was large enough, I found him a collar and leash and began taking him for walks. We would walk in the early mornings when there were not many other people out. Boo started enjoying these walks and began waking me before the sun came up to take him on his walk.

On one such morning long before dawn even considered cracking, I pushed away Boo’s wet nose and stumbled out of bed. Looking down at my rumpled baggy orange pajama bottoms and the pink shirt declaring something that I’m quite sure was feminine and proud, I made the very grownup decision that it was way too early to get actually dressed. Besides, my hair was put up haphazardly last night because I couldn’t find the right hair tie so I was fairly certain that I closely resembled the Bride of Frankenstein on a bad hair day. Following all of these early morning precaffeinated rationalizations was the most obvious reason why I shouldn’t worry about my appearance which was; I didn’t know these people! I’d only moved in a few months ago.

So, studiously avoiding all reflective surfaces I slipped on some beat up tennies. When I fastened Boo into his harness I noticed that his tiny little legs practically came out when we walked but I had decided that this would be a short walk and then back to bed, with any luck it would still be dark.

It was quite a nice October morning and, even though it was still not light enough to see well, the sun was threatening to rise from behind the hills any second and drench the sky with orange brilliance.

I paused to admire the view and then we turned towards home. Normally we didn’t run into other people on our walks and Boo had never seen another dog so when we turned and saw an elderly woman walking what appeared to be a cockadoodle I’m not sure who, of the 4 of us, was the most surprised. The woman had short gray hair, was dressed in neat slacks and pressed shirt and walked slowly but stately and erect. Her dog, was obviously a mix of 2 elegant breeds, had short whitish gray hair and looked as if he had been chosen from a magazine to match her perfection. In short, the two of them were the direct opposite of the two of us. Concealing her distaste and yet letting you know it was there as only a well bred woman can, the lady simply turned and began briskly walking in the other direction.

Boo was not having it! He wanted to know what this fuzzy creature was which meant lots of sniffing so he simply slipped out of his harness and began running after them. I’m not certain if the old woman ever even saw Boo running madly in their direction. She did turn in my direction and sheer terror had replaced the veneer of sophistication because what she did see was a crazy lady in wrinkled pajamas and wild hair who looked as if she’d escaped a low budget circus running towards her full bore waving her arms frantically and shouting “Boo! Boo!”

I am currently rethinking my dog’s name.

I may need to move. Again.