walking the dog

Before arriving to a new place, we wonder what it will be like to walk Scarlett. In Uzbekistan, we tended to stick to the complex in which our house was located, venturing beyond the gates to meet Grant on his way home from work. We knew a lot of places to walk in and around Oakwood Falls Church; when we moved to Oakwood Rosslyn, we weren’t sure if it would suit Scarlett. We had no reason to worry, as she saw tons of dogs on each of her walks, and there was even a park behind our building. She also became Pet of the Month and got a lot of attention, so of course she liked that.

While some of the main parks here supposedly only allow dogs during certain hours (it appears that this is loosely enforced, if at all), we have found no shortage of places to walk Scarlett. Oh, and she loves having a yard… even if said yard is two-thirds stone blocks and wood, and only one-third grass.

Here, the sidewalks on the main roads are wide (and often used as parking spaces), and cars actually stop for pedestrians crossing in crosswalks. We enjoy going on walks in the evenings, when some of the day’s heat has faded, leaving it just hot enough that we feel we have an excuse to pick up an ice cream bar to eat on the way.

We often meet dogs on our walks, as well as many dog lovers. The other day, our walk took us by an embassy, where we had to walk in between the guard booth and the guard who was patrolling outside it. He was standing on the sidewalk, watching us walk up to him. Before I could get a “dobro jutro” out of my mouth, he was squatting down, petting Scarlett. With his giant gun slung over his shoulder. It was a pretty funny sight.