The next morning we were ready to walk a bunch of dogs, and we signed up for Deja lodges when we arrived at Dogtown HQ. After collecting our whistles, we made our way up to New Friends where Terri and Andy were waiting for us. There aren't a lot of dogs that can be walked together on Deja side, so we were going to do a lot of walking separately. Also, there were a number of dogs that, for various reasons, couldn't go out on a walk so they asked us to just socialize with them, which we thought would be nice.

Andy gave us a list of dogs so we could just get out there and start walkin' and socializin'. It was a pretty good-sized list, and we were happy to be getting out and walking the trails again. I think this is the part that we look forward to the most every time we volunteer at Best Friends. Grab a dog,

hit the trail, and just enjoy the amazing scenery, the fresh air and the company. Sometimes the simplest pleasures are the best, and what's simpler than taking a dog for a walk?

Well, unless I have to put on a harness. Then it's like asking me to read Sanskrit. But once we're out on the trail, it's easy to let the rest of my life fade away as I live in the moment. The dog is happy to get out for a bit, I'm happy to be with the dog, and that's all that matters.

The first dogs were Tiki, a Staffordshire Terrier rescued from the floods caused by Hurricane Katrina, and Pinky Bear, another Staffordshire Terrier. We couldn't walk them together, so I took Tiki out first, and An followed a few minutes later with Ms. Bear. We took the trail that went off to the left and circled around behind lodge #13 and New Friends, which is convenient when trying to walk dogs that aren't allowed to get close to each other because the trail ends with a loop that goes around and meets back up with the trail, so we could keep some distance when we went back.

Pinky Bear looooooves being out

Both Tiki and PInky Bear were great. Tiki was full of happy energy, and Pinky Bear rolled over for belly rubs when we stopped for a few minutes. As we got closer to getting them back to their runs, I decided to pick up the pace a little bit for Tiki. He wasn't anywhere close to being out of energy, so I hoped a faster pace would help him expend a bit more. As we exited the trail onto the main road back down to the lodges, I started jogging. Tiki picked up on it right away and kept pace. The best part was that it took his mind off all the other dogs we were passing on the way back to his run.

In hindsight though, it may not have been a good idea for me to do that, because I think I got a lot of the dogs a wee bit riled up as we ran past them. It occurred to me as we arrived at Tiki's run that there seemed to be an inordinate amount of barking as we ran past the rest of the dogs, probably just because we were running. I realized at that point that it was probably a bad idea, not to mention that the caregivers in Dogtown are ever vigilant and if they were to look over, hear all the barking and see a volunteer running through the lodges, that could cause some unnecessary consternation.

The caregivers are very good about making sure the volunteers stay safe, and I imagine that they would take action if they thought there was a problem. From a distance there's no way to know what's going on when all you can really see is somebody running and you hear a lot of barking. So if I caused anybody to panic, I'm sorry about that. I didn't think that through very well. But there was no harm done, and I put Tiki back in his run. A few minutes later, An brought Pinky Bear back to her run and we went over our checklist.

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“But once we’re out on the trail, it’s easy to let the rest of my life fade away as I live in the moment. The dog is happy to get out for a bit [...] and that’s all that matters.”