W-w-w-woof!

It's been a hard week to be a little dog.

After the near-snatching of the other night we were looking for a pretty plain Jane kind of a day. No park this morning, quick walk in the afternoon, long training walk through the park in the evening. We came home and I started to feed the beasts and plan for a quiet night, maybe some more indoor training. We got a call, though, a friend was headed to the park and it seemed like a good idea. (It was a good idea.) There was a chance for illegal off leash time, who passes that up?

We did get that and Eddie was having a super fun time with our friend the big, tall, ball-obsessed German Shepherd, Tim. Well, eventually the fun had to come to an end, right? Eddie got too close to the ball while Tim was worried that no one would ever throw the ball for him again and brouhaha ensued.

There was crying. Screaming, even. By Eddie, not by me or NDP. And certainly not by Tim. As soon as I got Eddie out of the way Tim couldn't have cared less about any of it. It wasn't his fault, he just wanted someone to throw the ball and not to be endlessly barked at and harassed by a young whippersnapper the length of his tail. We tried to have Eddie walk it off, we tried soothing and petting but the crying was sustained. He had some tenderness and maybe some blood on one haunch. Under a streetlamp, even one of those crappy yellow sodium vapor ones, we determined it was spit and dirt, not blood. The crying tapered and eventually ceased.

He's OK. As a matter of fact right now he's draped over one of my thighs with one of his squeaky squirrels clasped between his front paws and he's nearly asleep. Since the incident he has walked, run, jumped, turned, wheeled, walked on his hind legs, leapt onto the couch, chased a couple of cats, climbed stairs and skidded into a door. There is no permanent damage. He may have a bruise or some continued tenderness for a couple of days. I've given him some puppy massage and some love and way too many treats. By the time we parted company Ed had deigned to stand one human's breadth from Tim while both of them were given treats. He'd taken treats from NDP. He had entirely quit being nudgy to Tim which was, I have to be honest, pretty nice. He's probably not over it quite yet but he's not permanently damaged.

It's been kind of a hard week to be a small dog's person, too. I'm tired y'all. Every day brings something new. There's a lot of good and a lot of bad and way too much mediocre. I keep thinking of this story I heard recently about Dolly Parton. She was on a plane that was stuck on the tarmac. After a couple of hours the natives were restless (Have I told you this story already? I feel like I have.) so she stood up and started entertaining them. Later someone asked her if she ever got annoyed by the need to be "on" all the time. She replied that she'd wished all her life to be a star and she'd be a fool to complain about it when it happened.

I know I wished for this but, let's face it, I'm no Dolly Parton.