The dogs down the road

I love walks, but I hate having to walk by all these houses where there are other dogs. Brianna only ever walks me down the one way, never the other. (I think it's because she knows where all the dogs live on that road and she likes yelling at me not to bark at them.) There's a golden retriever next door at the apartment complex, and then down the road a little ways on the other side there's a brown dog that always barks and that Brianna and Emerleh say is pathetic. Right up from that is another brown dog. Then on the other side across from there are two (I think) little fluffy things (Emerleh calls them "footballs".) There's a black and white fluffy dog on the other side down a little ways, and then right up after that is the big house where Eeeeelaina is a juveenile deelinkwent and they have a lab or a golden retriever, I'm not sure which, maybe both. Across from that is a lady with two corgi mixes. Then down further is a little house with an invisible fence. They have a husky. It never barks, it just sits there in the lawn and stares us down whenever we walk by. It doesn't so much as move or make any noise at all, it just stares. It always looks very angry and Brianna accuses me of flipping out. Then all the way down at the end of the road where it turns is a trailer with a barn and I can frequently hear big dogs barking but I've never seen them.

The whole thing wouldn't bother me so much if Brianna would only let me make friends and play with them! But she just pulls on my leash and tells me to stop barking and come on! How not fair is that?! She's trying to stop me on my life goal to become everyone in the world's best friend!!! And deterring someone on their life mission is not a nice thing to do.

Ahh, the things that happen during mid-afternoon Friday naps.

I'm running, running, running through the woods. The rabbit, it's right there, right in front of me. I'm almost on it, almost there, almost, almost, almost... It stops, I pounce, it's gone! It's gone! I let it get away! NOOOOO!!!!

But there's Captain, right beside me! He's here! He's going to help me chase the rabbit! Or... Something.

He leans over and licks my face. "I missed you," he murmurs in my ear.

"I missed you, too," I sigh.

"Let's go," he says. And we run off through the woods. Suddenly, a squirrel!

Captain lets out a war howl and we're off! Gaining, gaining, gaining on it. Over bushes, rocks, mud puddles. Almost on top of it. Captain leaps around and corners it.

"All yours," he says, smiling. Such a gentledog...

I grab the squirrel in my teeth and head back for home. I hear them calling for me. "Carly! Caarr-leeeee!!! Where are you? Come baaaaackk!!!"

Sudden laughter wakes me up. "You are such a silly dog! Your feet are moving!" Mom and Brianna are laughing hysterically. "Your feet are up in the air and you're trying to run!"

"Come on," Mom says, smiling, to Brianna. "You need to take El Doggo for a walk."

I sit upright, blinking at them. Once I'm out in the yard I stand still and sniffed the air. If only dreams came true.