Rain Walker

From: Mia Cope

We have a bit of a morning routine around here.

Daddy usually gets up before Momma’s alarm clock goes off. The legend is that, for many years, he woke up and sprang into action between 4:00 and 4:30 a.m. every morning. I’ve only been here for a few months, but I’m thinking that must have been on Mountain Standard Time. ‘Cause he sure doesn’t get up that early now.

After Daddy gets up and puts on his early morning clothes, he invites me to go with him while he gets fresh water in my outside bowls and fills up my food dish. I use my time wisely by taking care of business and then coming close to the porch and wiggling and waggling in the grass.

I follow Daddy back inside and immediately take my post in the kitchen to wait for Momma to arrive. Daddy makes coffee, snags a protein bar from the pantry, and then heads to his study to tell people Happy Birthday on Facebook. He also writes in a secret computer journal.¹

After Momma comes in to make her breakfast, the two of us rush into Daddy’s study to remind him he can’t spend the whole day in there.² I generally act very lovable and will even feign my affection by putting my chin on his arm.

Daddy may be mundane, but he isn’t clueless. He knows that everyone in the entire house (except maybe for him) thinks that this is the perfect time for our morning walk. Daddy is almost always agreeable for reasons Momma and I have not been able to identify.

This morning was different.

“Bad news, Mia,” Daddy said. “I just received notice on my phone that it will be raining for the next few hours. It looks like our walk won’t happen today.”

“Is this from that weather app you are always complaining about?” Momma asked knowingly. “The one you claim is never accurate?”

“Well, yes,” Daddy answered. “But look at the neighbors’ driveway, it’s wet.”

Momma peered out through the blinds. “I think that’s from their sprinkler system,” she said.

I wagged my tail just slightly. It seemed the tide was turning in my favor.

Daddy sighed and turned off the lamp on his desk while he closed his laptop. Without a word, he headed for his closet to get his baseball cap, an important indicator that we are going on a walk. Momma and I took another look out the window by the garage and oops! Sure enough, it was raining. But not much. So we didn’t say anything to Daddy. He went out into the garage to put on his walking shoes and to get my harness and leash.

“Hey,” he said as he came back inside. “It really is raining. Not hard, but lots of little drops.”

And with that announcement, he began listing all the good reasons not to walk in the rain.³ My responses follow immediately after each reason:

• My glasses will get wet and I’ll get rain in my eyes.

  • That’s why you wear a baseball cap.

• I will have to sit around in wet clothes all day.

  • You have a closet full of dry clothes.

• My feet will get wet.

  • That’s the reason Momma let you buy those waterproof walking shoes.

• I don’t have a warm-weather rain jacket.

  • That’s true. But I don’t either.

• Togo didn’t like to walk in the rain.

  • I have it on good authority that Togo just didn’t want to listen to you whine. And, I’m not Togo.

Momma patted Daddy on the head and helped me push him out the door.

And we walked in the rain. And I loved it!⁴

1. It’s only a secret in Daddy’s mind. We all know about it. I even have the password memorized. I can’t recommend that you read it. Daddy is a pretty mundane individual and his journal reflects that. On the bright side, being boring keeps him home a lot and makes him readily available to me. And Momma, of course.

2. See Footnote 1 above about Daddy’s mundaneness.

3. Apparently, some of his computer time this morning was on The Urban Wanderer website (theurbanwanderer.co.uk) where he found an article about walking in the rain.

4. And Momma sent Daddy to the store to get a rain jacket — right after he got out of those wet clothes!