A very exciting walk

Almost every night for months my husband walked my giant dog Rommel. I had just begun walking the three miles with them. What great exercise, my Rommel really enjoyed the outing and seemed to know the way to go. I was convincing myself that it didn’t matter that my husband was attending a seminar; Rommel and I could walk without him. It was a beautiful day. It was daylight and who would bother me while walking a 125 1b. dog. My young Rommel was behaving nicely, even as we passed a little yappy dog. The owner was sitting on his porch reading; I smiled and kept on walking. Just then a car screeched to a halt beside us: “Get out of here there is a large black bear at the corner!” What our Good Samaritan didn’t know was the bear had circled around and was standing on the other side of the car. I began to turn as the car quickly pulled away. There it was, only three feet away, a very large black bear. At this distance two things could happen if I allowed Rommel to react to the bear. The bear could run away or he could feel threatened and attack. Not willing to gamble, I held Rommel’s attention as we quickly retreated, not too calmly I might add. But the bear began to follow us and I couldn’t walk any faster without running. We got back to the man reading on the porch but now he was standing. Obviously alarmed, he grabbed his little dog. With only a quick apology my very large dog and I got on his porch, then his living room — along with the entire family and the yappy dog. I had to wonder if prior to this moment this family had any idea how small their living room really was. It certainly appeared small to me as I stood there with my giant Rommel. Still apologizing, I elicited the help of the oldest child to dial my husband on my cell phone. I was shaking and too nervous to do it myself. Explaining my dilemma, my husband responded by yelling “get in a house.” I answer that I was indeed in a house. The full realization reached me. My very large dog and I were standing in the living room of total strangers. My husband was still at the seminar and could not come for us. This very tolerant family, perhaps my new friends, concurred that it was not safe to walk home and offered to drive me to my house. Well, Rommel and I were home safe at last. Needless to say, I have never walked Rommel on my own again. One time was certainly enough of an adventure. Arlene Myers Sparta, N.J.