Long Walk

Today, I was bored...and since I can't ride my bike, and I wanted to go to the library and to the hardware store, I decided to go on a very long walk with the dog. It looked to be about 4 miles, but that's ok...the doggy and I like our walks! We meandered up over the hill and down the other side. We wandered up Solano Ave, and people watched along the way. We skipped over to the library together, and I ran inside to pick up a few books that I had on hold. At this point, I was worried about how absolutely hot it was. I was worried that Navi was going to be really thirsty and not have a fun time. When I was checking out my books, I asked the librarian if she had any plastic cups or something I could have to fill with water for the dog. She took one last long gulp from her soda can, and handed me the coke bottle. I was a little thrown off at first, but why not! I took it to the bathroom to wash out and fill with water, walked outside and Navi was really excited that I had water. I poured it out and let her drink from it, and I noticed that several people were staring at me with horrified faces. "You're giving your dog coke? That stuff dehydrates you!" I explained that it was water, but they weren't so reassured. Navi was happy though, so I went back inside to fill the soda can up again, and then Navi and I meandered our way down the greenway. Along the way, she would poke the soda can with her nose and demand water! It was kind of embarrassing because of all the horrified faces I got when I poured water out of the soda can for her. To make things worse, sometimes when she drinks from pouring water, she gets a lot of air, or water goes down the wrong way, and she starts gagging. I'm pretty used to it, but it normally doesn't happen unless we're backpacking in the middle of nowhere. There were a LOT of people walking their children home from school, and they thought that my dog was gagging because I was giving her coke. I tried to explain that it was water, but in the end I gave up and yes, yes, my dog is gagging because I'm giving her a drink from a coca-cola bottle. Along the way, there was a water fountain, so I filled the coke bottle up again. Navi jumped up, and drank her fill from the water fountain. Then she gagged on the water fountain, and then wanted more water from it. She drank some more and then we wandered the rest of the way to the hardware store. At the hardware store, I tied her up outside, went in to grab what I needed, and also picked up a bag of old fashioned watermelon hard candies that I am currently incapable of not eating. I will have to go back and try all the other flavors, because they are incredible. Then Navi and I continued on our way home, and she continued to poke at the coke can for more water. It was a really hot day, so it was pretty understandable, but I am really surprised that I forgot to bring Navi's nalgene along. At least I found something for her, but it would have been nice not to get all the astounded, disgusted faces at the whole ordeal. I love the dog to smithereens. :)