Take Thumper's advice, people

·         When people see me walking Lil in her stroller, their reactions range from “awwww, how cute” to snickering and making comments about how spoiled my dog is. Some people think that I won’t understand them if they insult and ridicule me in a foreign language. Unfortunately, I understood every word of the man on a bike that passed up on the seawall yesterday and told his girlfriend that I should put my dog out of its misery. He received the “teacher look”, let me tell you. The audacity! He doesn’t even know us or understand the situation! And to top it off, Lil was prancing along quite happily alongside the stroller when he rode by us. Inhale, exhale, repeat… I understood every word of the girl who told her friend in French that even Paris Hilton wouldn’t be that attention seeking. Um, yeah, like I have Munchausen’s disease by proxy or something simply because I’m taking care of my dog. Water off a duck’s back, water off a duck’s back… I also understood what the Mandarin speaking people in the park meant. After all, pointing is a universal gesture. It is sooooo hard to ignore such reactions all the time. I actually try to avoid walking Lil on weekends in the afternoon because it gets pretty congested in our neighbourhood. I usually get up early and take her before most people are out of bed because it spares me the uninformed judgment and corresponding rise in blood pressure. Summer is tough for me because there will be people everywhere, and I’ll have to keep my chin up and put one foot in front of the other, no matter what they say.

These people are the reason I started this blog. I wanted to have a forum to explain to people that it’s ok to preserve their dog’s quality of life as they age. Why should I keep Lilith indoors all the time when she can walk for 45 minutes? She needs a few periods of rest in the stroller in order to walk that much, but she can still do it. Why shouldn’t she be given the chance? She loves to smell the sea air and bunny hop on the grass. Walking keeps her fit and happy, and contrary to what some people think, she’s not in misery, but she sure would be if I stopped walking her. 

The tragedy of life is not death, but what we let die inside of us while we live – Norman Cousins

I just want to say that quite a few people applaud mine and Lil's combined efforts, and I greatly appreciate them.