Step Heavily Upon the Lawn

this is bencat..he has 4 teeth & a milky eye..he is fat & old..he illustrates the physique of most our animals  

this is my baby vegas.. she has a thyroid condition.. & can't help that she has extra loving.. she also illustrates the round shape that most of our animals have taken on..  i show these images as proof to how out of shape our DeCoria pets are, to better paint the picture for the story below.. 

For those of you who don't know me very well, I've got to inform you that walking is one of my favorite pasttimes. Especially at night. It sounds creepy but I really love just taking an i-pod and hitting pavement when the sun goes down. Mind you I said WALK not RUN. I'm not nearly motivated enough to just go jogging for the heck of it. This girl runs only when chased. So summer 2008 I took a loooooot of walks in the dark. My family has a knack for turning out over weight animals.. no actually morbidly obese is a more correct way to describe there physical condition. So I put two and two together and decided I'd kill two birds with one stone and take one of our dogs on my walks with me. In an attempt to expand her life and improve her quality of living (now i wonder why i ever wanted to prolong her existance considering she is like Kane in doggy form). So I hook Dutchess onto the leash one night in early August and we start out on our little adventure. I live in Wyoming. Everyone has dogs, more specifically cow dogs, and for some reason a lot of the time they have a hard time getting along with one an another.. so when planning out my route I decided to go left, because the only dog I knew of out that direction was a 3 legged dog named Katie that seriously has to be close to 100 now.. no more then 100 yrds into our trek Dutchess is panting hard.. I mean old girl has really worked up a sweat (if dogs could sweat which of course they can't) but I being ever the tyrant drag her along behind me. We start to close in on Katies house, I am still unconcerned.. Now we're about 20 ft. from Katies house, only about 3/4 of a mile form my front door, and Dutch is wheezing like she has asthma. No immediate danger in sight so I keep walking. 10 ft. Katie starts to bark, I respond with a "Oh shut up Katie" and continue to proceed without a care in the world and then we were dead even with her doorstep. She looked, growled, paused, and then she took off. Now don't let the fact that she was missing one leg and as old as father time fool you into thinking that she was a slow dog.. old girl could move!! so I take off in a semi=brisk jog, my obese canine american in tow, to avoid a dog fight. Now initially I figured she'd chase us for maybe 40 ft. 50 at most and then turn around to go back to the very important job of protecting her turf.. I was sorely mistaken, Tri-pod chased me and my dog for nearly a half mile. I'm not used to that kind or amount of physical exertation so my legs were sore and my lungs a burnin.. Poor Dutchess was trying to lie down mid-stride and just go towards the light.. if she could will her fat rearend to make it that far that is.. So finally we were able to outrun that decievingly determined dog, I was able to regain my breath, & sadly Dutchess didn't die.. moral of the story never underestimate the old and decrepid or crippled and disfigured.. but still looking back even now I'm not sure if what i feel is resentment towards gimp dog or admiration... perhaps a bit of both..