Commitment

By Julie Hooker

19 April 2014

Recently, someone told me he’d never have a dog because the “commitment is too great.”  He continued, “There would be too many times I’d come home from work and want to sit on the sofa with scotch instead of walk the dog.”

The idea of dogs being a commitment is a whole separate blog.

I started thinking about the commitment we make when we walk our dogs.  It is not saying, “I’ve got ten minutes, let’s go.” Instead it is committing to our neighborhood and our community.

With three dogs, preparing for a walk is a bit of a production – leashes, collars, blinkers, and, in the winter, sweaters.

But, in the neighborhood, it’s a place to turn off your cell phone and commit to saying “hello” and asking, “How are you?”

In my neighborhood, we almost all became friends because of our dogs. Our dogs got to know each other and we started to learn about parents fighting Alzheimer’s, children going to college, and broken hearts.