This is Eve; another sweetheart at the stray rescue kennel.  Eve is a 9-yr old, 46-pound, female Terrier, American Staffordshire mix who has mellowed a lot over the years but is still described as “high energy”.  Compared to the other dogs I normally walk, Eve is much easier to hold on to and she evens lollygags at times because she’s not in that much of hurry to return to her apartment once she’s outside.

Take yesterday, for example, we were walking toward a major street, and it was apparent that we would not make the green crosswalk light in time.  I nodded to Eve and acknowledged, “we’re not going to make it in time, so we’ll just take our time getting there.”  Suddenly, I had a flash of insight.  Once again, a dog was teaching me the dharma.  “No need to hurry, let’s just enjoy the present moment together.”

I smiled and Eve broke eye contact to sniff the base of another tree on our route.  Must be some pee-mail to “read” from a previous dog who passed by this way before us.  Yes, even urine has its messages to offer but I will leave the decoding to Eve and keep my eye on traffic.

Thank you, Eve for a very pleasant walk.

Today’s haiku: Learning from Eve

Time slows down with Eve

while she reads daily pee-mail;

mindful dog walking