As promised, this time I remembered to stop this senior citizen’s stroller for some pics.
He’s 16 years old (looks so nice and clean though, doesn’t he?), and I felt bad asking for confirmation whether he’s the same Samoyed I used to see tottering about wearing a human adult incontinence diaper. His owners ordered this sporty-looking ride from Taiwan, even taking the trouble to explain to me that apparently there are two companies with very similar spellings online (go figure).
And yes I forgot to ask his name – because while we are discussing the inevitable rapid aging of our canine family members, someone recognizes JD:
“She gets walked each morning and night with a slightly chubby, long-haired helper, right?”
“Erm, I guess, but there are at least 3 border collies in this development.”
<takes closer look> “I’m pretty sure this is the one. You may want to come down at night and check on your helper – she’s not walking your dog. She’s sitting on a bench texting away. I’ve been trying to look out for this dog’s owner for ages so I can tell them. Don’t you ever walk your dog yourself?”
Sigh. Way to go guilt trip. When I explain JD’s and my alone time is on the 2.8km Peak trail and occasional errands around the development, the other dog owner immediately relaxes. This person’s concern is genuine. As opposed to the time years ago pre-Little Miss, when Rockstar, Kings and I were walking JD and she got into a natural waterfall (now there is a sign there saying you are “not allowed” to “enter such bodies of water” or something – it’s a literal Chinese translation, like so many notices are here) and this local couple were exclaiming loudly and very concernedly, “Oh dear! Is that dog going to fall??? Whose is it?” amidst a bunch of people enjoying the sight of JD cooling off on a very hot day, whereupon I arrived on the scene and called her out, replying “She’s mine, she’ll be alright” – this couple’s tone totally changed ok, they started going “She is NOT SUPPOSED TO GO IN THERE!!! You have done something wrong!!” (whatever that is in Cantonese – I actually didn’t understand much of it til Kings, livid, explained later that they went on to add “There is a child with you. YOU ARE A PARENT!! YOU ARE TEACHING THE CHILD THE WRONG THINGGGG!!!”)
Kings has a temper, and a much shorter fuse than mine – but he almost never, ever raises his voice. Those guys should get some kind of prize.
I did get the last bit of the Cantonese shouting match, when the couple said “We are going to keep coming back to make sure you don’t do that anymore.”
And so we learned there are dog lovers, and then there are nosey people.
ps: Gave my helper some tennis balls and asked her to play fetch with JD in between her texting.
16 years old!! That’s very senior since the info given is that Samoyed lifespan is 12-14 years old.
Wah, you are such a good boss, did not scold your helper but allow her to text as long as she plays fetch with JD.
Erm, don’t know whether anyone can qualify as “good boss” to a helper (in HK) very hard, u r often either too soft and end up taken advantage of, or else you are “abusive” (note inverted commas)… In this case she was likely catching up on her texting because she doesn’t really text or talk on phone at home. It wasn’t realistic to expect her not to at all (she would probably just lie about it instead) and I prefer she text during JD’s walk cos v easy with tennis ball, rather than she text late in the night and cannot wake up next morning – that happened before couple times, I wake for night feed n next morning have to wake my oversleeping helper (yes I blew) – honestly at some point when pissed I won’t blow, just find another and fire
Oh just remembered something else – I met an English dog owner on the trail sometime back who told me she felt a little bad, but that she put a pedometer on her helper (she wasn’t as fortunate as us, in that her rescue mutt does not fetch :P)
With a pedometer, I think perhaps the helper will text while walking. I have seen people texting on their mobiles while walking and fortunately did not fall into a hole nor run into a pole, hehehe.