things are going quite well with sam, so there isn't as much interesting stuff that i must write about. he'll trot fairly nicely along on our walks, only occasionally snapping up some forbidden goodie from the pavement. he'll leave most of our stuff alone, only now and then chewing up our mail. fortunately, he does remind us that he's a naughty dog sometimes by suddenly taking off, running in circles like a lunatic, and making me drop everything, such as a gingerly carried poo bag.
today, however, sam was not the naughty one. my daughter was. we were camped next to a back street when a nice and timid little dog came up. sam started wagging to it, wanting to make friends. and my daughter ran straight at it, arms out, probably looking like a viking berserker. that dog got away, but its older, slower companion was treated to daughter's enthusiastic greeting, which seemed to consist mostly of pummels. i apologized to the owners and explained sternly to my daughter that, you know, you can't just hit dogs like that.
the next dog we met, a little terrier, was only treated to a bear hug. we were treated to a little dance as sam and the terrier both tried to snif each other's bums without letting the other one do so, and when that didn't work, started to jump. when the terrier started to sing in addition to all that, it was decided to cut the meeting short.
then we saw a cute white puppy. sam was still in jumping mode, so i held him back. but my daughter was too fast for me, running over to it and assaulting the poor thing. this time it was her walk that was cut short... and i remembered why i i'd stopped taking both dog and daughter on long walks together. one of them i can handle, two i can't.
