Authorial Magazine - BookExpo + BookCon 2019 Edition

Contributor - Kaye Beechum
The Long
Walk Home
I lived in a lovely four bedroom house
at the end of a cul-de-sac and every
afternoon, I took my dog for a walk.
There was a house two doors from the
end of the block where four large dogs
resided. During the day, they were kept
in the garage with the door open and
a gate in front of it to keep the dogs
inside. I believe they also had the run of
their back yard through another door,
but almost every time we walked past
the house, they were in the garage. They
were very territorial and let everyone
know this was their property, so walking
past was not permitted. It was also
a little nerve wracking as they tried
their best to get over, under, or around
the gate in order to get up close and
personal with anyone passing by.
Here is where I mention my dog Hero’s
tendency to bark and growl at any and
all large dogs as long as they were on
a leash or behind a fence where they
couldn’t get at him. It was an entirely
different story if he encountered a
medium to large dog running loose. I
tried to break him off the habit but to no
avail. One day, we had quite a harrowing
experience while walking by the house
with the four dogs.
My daughter had left her little
Chihuahua, Max, with me for a couple
of days, and so I bravely set out walking
both Hero and Max on this particular
afternoon. All went well when we
started out. We walked past the house
and the dogs were either out back or
otherwise occupied, and paid us no
mind. But our return trip was a different
matter entirely. We were passing their
house and they were making the usual
fuss when suddenly one dog was able
to break free. I am not certain if he was
able to get over or under the gate but
suddenly he was chasing us. Actually,
he wasn’t running after us just walking
very fast, and letting us know we should
not be there. Everything happened very
fast after that. If my two charges had
behaved, all would have been well, but
Hero began screaming (his high pitched
cry he did when scared), and jumping,
and twirling around when I suddenly
realized that there was no dog at the
end of the other leash as I pulled on it,
and just saw Max’s collar hanging free.
I turned around to see the macho little
Chihuahua marching straight towards
the big dog with an attitude of “You
want a piece of me?” So now I had
to reach down, scoop up my twirling
dervish, and then go back and scoop
up the wanna be fighter and try to get
them home safely. The funniest part of
it all was when the owner of the big dog
came out of his house. He just yelled
one word. It could have been a name or
a command and his dog stopped in his
tracks and looked up as if to say, “What?
I am just minding my own business
and smelling the grass.” I would have
laughed but I was too busy lugging
my two charges, one who wanted to
jump down and go back for a fight,
and the other who was still scared out
of his mind.
AUTHORS PRESS
Strange how my house which had been
only three houses down the street had
suddenly moved about a hundred miles
away, and it took forever to reach it, go
inside, and collapse on the couch. I never
wanted to walk any dogs ever again.
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