A Day With Roger

People call me Roger, I suppose. My day yesterday wasn’t all that eventful. My days hardly ever are which makes me a horrible person to want to hear a story from. But if you insist then I guess I can talk about my dog, Cash. He’s a good strong dog, a real puppy at heart though you probably couldn’t tell if you were around him as much as I am. You see, he spends most of his day sleeping around the house. He’ll lie down on the back porch in the sun and if it gets too hot he’ll hop on the sofa beside me and he’ll go back and forth until it’s time for his walk. The one exception is when I find the time to actually exercise. His tail will wag uncontrollably; he’ll hop around and want to play. It’s actually kind of cute.

Cash knows when it’s time to walk when I reach for his leash. If he’s nowhere in sight, usually under my bed (which is unusual but I’ll get back to that in a bit) you can hear his paws scurry across the hardwood floor straight to me. Sometimes he gets so excited that I he’ll head for the front door before I’ve even gotten his leash on. When we’re finally out the front door he’ll zig-zag his way around the sidewalk sniffing here and there, eating grass every so often, and doing what dogs do when they need to relieve themselves.

Sometimes I’ll see other people walking their dogs, a lot of the dogs about Cash’s size run around with no leash. I don’t think I could ever do that. I’d be too scared that Cash would take off and leave me. Stuff like that’s happened to me before and it’s the worst feeling in the world. But it works for those people and I just wish I could do it with Cash is all.

Every so often there will be dogs that are leashed but their owners will go out of their way to avoid Cash (and other dogs too). It’s kind of sad really because Cash is a very friendly dog and wants to get to know everyone: other dogs, people (he loves kids and old folk), and sometimes cats. My dog’s weird that way with cats sometimes but I suppose other people know their pets better than I do and they might not be as friendly as Cash, they might be even scared of him. I understand, but that’s sad is all I’m saying- that you would have to limit who your dog can socialize with because he or she might hurt them. My dog wants to get to know everyone but not everyone wants to get to know him.

Cash couldn’t hurt anyone if he tried. His teeth aren’t nearly as sharp as some other dogs’ and I feel bad that if a bigger dog with a horrible temperament came around, Cash wouldn’t be able to defend himself. Other than the leash thing, that could be why I’m so protective of him. I just don’t think he’d make a good alpha dog is all. For all his posturing, he wouldn’t be able to hurt a kitten even if it were by accident. I used to take him to the dog park and he didn’t play rough enough. He was heartbroken every time so now I walk him every day. That’s more of his speed.

When we get home, he’s tired and happy and while he won’t show it he’s awfully hungry so I pour some of his food into his favorite bowl. You can tell he wants to run to it but he spent most of his energy on the walk so he just wags his tail so hard his hind legs can’t walk too straight. It makes me laugh every time. As he’s eating his food I change the water in his bowl, as I do throughout the day, and sometimes he’ll lap up about half of it when he’s through eating. It kills me each time he does that because the sound it makes as his tongue hits the water sounds so perfect. I’ll make dinner for myself and he’ll always lean his head on my leg whenever I do because I used to give him my scraps but the vet said that was bad for him for some reason. I haven’t given him any table scraps in a while but you’ve got to love Cash for trying.

Afterwards, I usually watch some television and Cash curls up next to me on the couch again and he falls asleep until I head into my bedroom. It gets pretty cold where I sleep, much colder than the rest of the place, so I usually let him sleep on my bed. I really don’t mind. Cash calls it a night much earlier than I do. But sometimes while I’m writing away at my desk working on some story or poem or jotting away at my journal I’ll see him at the corner of my eye, shivering away. Even if I don’t feel like sleeping yet, I’ll put everything away and get in bed. He’ll wake up and usually shake off some of the sleep before yawning and cuddling up close to me, usually under my arm. Then it’s back to sleep.

The best way to stave off cold at night is to press up against a warm body so we press up against each other every night, especially during the winter when it gets really cold. Cash will usually stay in bed until I get up after which he’ll ask to be let out so he can take a nap in the sun and we repeat the whole thing again. That’s what so unusual about Cash being under the bed sometimes. He would only be under there when he’s left home all alone. But it’s nothing to worry about because he’s only under the bed every once in a while.