Cleo

Cleo

I walked over to the cabinet and grabbed Cleo’s leash and clipped it onto her collar. “Time to go for a long walk to the dog park.” I said to Cleo, as if she could understand me. I opened the red door at the front of my house and walked down my long steep driveway holding onto Cleo’s periwinkle leash. I looked around at the beautiful scenery and saw the trees blowing in the cool wind. It was around 4pm on a Saturday afternoon and it was still sweaty hot outside, a raging 98 degrees. It was sunny and the sky was bright blue, making the outdoors bright and lively. I walked down the hot black paved road towards the sidewalk up the road. Cleo was panting hard and her pink little tongue was hanging down low to the ground. I stepped onto the side walk and a furry squirrel jumped out in front of me, it startled me but I continued walking down the sidewalk in the woods.

Cleo’s pink little nose started sniffing away as if she was about to mark her territory. She waddled up to a tan bone that started to chew on it. I grabbed it out of her mouth and threw it out of her reach. “Cleo you don’t where that bone had been, that’s disgusting!” Cleo looked up at me with confusion and started to bark. I debated in my head if I should let her chew on it for a while but I didn’t know whose bone it was or if it was even for dogs! I tugged on Cleo’s leash and pulled her away from the bone towards our continuous walk in the heat. I knew not letting her nibble on the bone was the best decision because I didn’t want to risk getting Cleo sick. We walked in the direction towards the dog park and Cleo started to get excited.

I opened the metal gate that led into the enormous dog park. I unclipped Cleo’s dog leash and let her run free. The big dogs barked and tackled her fluffy white self into the wet sloppy mud. “Great, now I have to give you a bath, Cleo. I have a better idea to clean you off and cool you down at the same time.” I picked her up and held her away from my body and walked down towards the dog pond. I set her down and took a toy from the toy bin that sat by the edge of the lake. I tossed a water toy into the pond and Cleo jumped into the lake and doggie paddled towards the toy. She paddled back towards me and climbed out of the water. I kicked my flip flops off and threw my feet into the cool water which satisfied me in every way possible. Today was a good, hot day.