Addie in the City

Addie and I met Mike in NYC on Friday afternoon and boy has it been an adventure...

For starters, Addie is incredibly confused about where she should pee. There is literally NO grass here - just sidewalk - so she has taken to walking in the middle of the road to do her business. I know this is incredibly unsafe, but it's the only way I can get her to potty. We go at early and late hours, and shoot for streets where there aren't a lot of cars. Then it's dash into the middle of the road, shout out some words of encouragement, and then scoop and run.

We went to a little park on Saturday. (Park in the sense that there are benches and lots of people, but again, no grass.) Since there are subsequently a lot of dogs around I thought she might find some bathroom inspiration... No; all she found was an eyeball! I am not kidding, it didn't look like a human eyeball, but it was an eyeball nonetheless.

Pier 83 is at the end of our road - like four blocks down - so we frequent it daily. There is a little strip of grass there but it's covered with signs that say "No Dogs on the Lawn." I try to go at off hours and sneak Addie on for just a couple critical minutes. It's worked once, but yesterday all we got was a slap on the wrist from park enforcement and a new "friend." Her name was Geannie and she said she was an actor. I asked her what kind of acting she did and she said that she pretends like she's sick and medical students diagnose her fake ailments... Interesting. Actor?

There is a "dog run" at the end of our street as well. I found this out by asking a woman I saw with a dog one morning. She ranted and raved over this dog run, so Addie and I headed West in search of the run. To be honest, I had no idea what to expect, but what we found was totally different than what I had imagined. Again, no grass. It's a 30 foot by 15 foot fenced-in strip of asphalt. You are supposed to let you dog in, and off the leash to run around. I decided to try it out... Addie and I got in the first gate, and half way in the second gate when this giant dog catapulted over and jumped on top of Addie. She was yelping. I was tangled up in between the gate and the leash. All these other dogs were running out the first gate. And NO ONE would come over to help. I finally scooped Addie and got the gate closed. Her poor ear was soaking wet from the giant dog’s slobbery mouth. I felt awful and told her that was a very bad idea; we left as quickly as possible.

On our walk this morning we saw a horse and buggy trotting down our street. We were in non-pee position, so it's not like we were in the middle of the road, but Addie was scared to death. She started running in circles and then leaped into my arms. She was shaking and would not let me put her down for a block and a half.

I think Mike and the boys (Cory and Ross are visiting) think I am crazy because every time Addie and I come in I have some kind of story to tell. So just a warning; I am sure there are many more episodes of Addie in the City to come...