Today we went for our usual walk. We hadn’t gone very far when AJ stopped to take care of business. I dutifully took a Mutt Mitt out of my pocket and started to clean up. (Have I raved yet about Mutt Mitts? I order them by the hundreds, I won’t use any other kind of bag for this job if I can help it. Seriously, so worth buying them, even if local dog waste stations give out other kinds for free.) I was cleaning up but AJ had pulled himself to the end of the leash and I was having trouble reaching everything I needed to pick up. So, as I’ve done countless times before, I let go of the leash.

Normally when I let go of AJ’s leash, he’ll do one of two things. One, he’ll just stop and wait for me. Two, he’ll slowly start wandering around until I tell him to stop. Today he did neither of those.

As I was stooped down, plastic bag on hand, AJ decided it was time to go and continued joyfully on his walk. I looked up to see him happily trotting down the street. Again, in the past, I’d just tell him to stop and he would. Now that he’s older, he doesn’t always hear me when I call to him. I yelled his name. I yelled “NO!” “STOP!” He just trotted along, down the sidewalk, not even breaking stride when he reached the street, crossed the street, started up the sidewalk on the other side. Totally oblivious.

In the meantime I quickly finished picking up and started running after him. I finally reached him and stepped on the leash to stop him. He looked up at me, tail wagging, happy as can be. “Why’d we stop?”