Dog Days of July

Just for my kids, who had to put up with me as they were growing up, I have to tell you that I hauled a couple neighbor kids on a long walk yesterday. There are two girls, Becca and Lauren, who live across the street. They are a year apart, both in elementary school. Becca (the oldest) has a real thing for dogs. She knows every dog around, and has made a point of doing as much as possible with them. (Their family finally got one of their own last year--Cosby, a huge white Labradoodle. Naturally our dogs, being anti-social canine delinquents, think Cosby is the Great White Evil. Sort of like Ms. Pafco down the street, the Great Red Menace who walks every day in winter in a large red hooded parka. Somewhere on our morning walk we are bound to encounter her formidable presence, so that my dogs can wake all the neighbors by barking like maniacs.)

The last couple days they've been coming around wanting to walk Scarlett, our poodle. (Scarlett is Becca's favorite of our two dogs, which is not surprising as Scarlett is people-friendly and Tucker prefers to bark and nip at people. Not that this deters Becca, she is a very confident and persistent girl. She has made friends with Tucker, and gamely tried to teach him tricks. But she's really fond of Scarlett, which may also be because Scarlett is more portable and likes to be picked up and held.)

So yesterday they rang the bell just as I happened to be leashing the dogs up for a walk. Becca has gone on walks with us before, but in the past, she was only allowed to walk around our block. One day, when I said the dogs and I were going to go on a longer walk than that, she talked me into going around the block twice. She is a very persuasive girl, and I'm confident that she will be running for office one day. Well yesterday I said we were going for a pretty long walk, but they asked their dad and he said they could come along.

Around the block is an under 15-minute walk. The walk we did is probably about a half hour. We went up to 118th and over to Davenport, and up to 119th and headed east. Eventually Lauren asked me just how far we were going to walk, and I said, "Well, we could take this next turn here and head back toward our houses, or we could keep going to London Dr. and around past your bus stop." Becca immediately said we should go on to London, but Lauren didn't say anything. I have a feeling she was ready to head back, but didn't want to say so. A little later she asked me how we could walk so far, and I told her we had worked up to it.

When we got back to the house I told their dad that I had worn at least one of them out. Lauren headed inside claiming that her feet hurt and she needed a big glass of ice water (I had suggested that as we came down the final stretch). Becca had insisted on carrying Scarlett the last part of the way, so Scarlett got off pretty easy all in all.

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On an unrelated note, but pertinent to the 4th of July holiday, today in church we sang America the Beautiful, and I was struck by portions of a couple verses that are not exactly the sort of thing you hear nowadays when it comes to patriotic sentiments:

America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

(America have flaws? Heaven forfend--only the blame-America-first crowd says that! Self-control? Restrict our liberty with law?)

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!

The real heroes love mercy more than life, but you don't hear of too many folks stepping up to that bar these days. Be that as it may, it is still an occasion to remember those out there putting themselves in harm's way by serving in the military, and to be thankful for that service.