So Excited

 

“She just gets so excited!” The pretty young dark-haired woman pulls the black dog closer to her, allowing me to pass. I had seen them up ahead for the last few blocks of 32^nd Street, thinking that I wouldn’t catch up to them. They were just specks head, a woman in a sleeveless brown pantsuit with the dark mid-sized dog tugging at its leash.

            But this tugging had slowed them down, so when I did catch up to them, I could see that the dog had one of those scary back nettings on its head. Foxtail-up-the-nose prevention. I’d learned this the other day with the two corgis. Yes, I can understand the practicality of this accoutrement, but still, it looked diabolical.

            Now as I neared the woman and her dog, the dog tried to approach me. I could tell despite the diabolical mask that she wanted me to pet her. Her head jutted out toward me and her slim little body wiggled in delightful anticipation. But the woman held her back, explaining the excitement.

            “I get it,” I said, marching past them, but then thinking, Actually, I don’t get it. At least from my perspective. I can’t remember the last time I was so excited that I strained at my leash. It’s been years.

            Why is this? Is it old age? The tiredness and routine of it all doesn’t create many opportunities for excitement? And when I try to think back to an instance of excitement, I can’t think of anything.

            Maybe from a dog’s perspective, everything is exciting! I hear the woman murmur to the hound, “I know…. I know…. you just want to make friends.”

            This is exciting! A dog is all about making friends. And the excitement of new people pushes most dogs into an ecstatic frenzy. I think about my mom’s little dog, S, with her barking, jumping, and zooming. Whenever Ian and I go to visit, S is so excited. She barks as we enter the house, standing her ground and going to town. Then when we settle down into the big black leather chairs, she makes the rounds, jumping from lap to lap. First me, then Ian, then my sister, then back to Ian.

            She likes men.

            And who could blame her? He is pretty exciting.

            I remember when I was excited to meet him. So long ago. An ad on Craigslist. An agreement to rendezvous at Green Apple Books in the City. That first meeting across the stacks of books. His blue eyes twinkling across the new releases with his glasses perched on his nose.

            I was so excited!

            So, today, when I say “I get it” about the dog, simply meaning that I knew she’d jump all over me, another part of me did get it. Though I had to think about it awhile.

            Dogs react with energy and excitement at anybody new. Even if they can’t make friends, they want to. As I turn the corner onto MacBryde, my morning walk halfway through, I hear the two of them behind me. She’s saying something to the dog. I can’t make out what.

            But I know the dog is excited. Cause she knows that  new friends await her just around the next corner.