I'm not a dog owner, but I walked a neighbour's dog every other day for three months during lockdown as her dog walker wasn't able to do it. My official volunteer stint in this capacity ended on the 31st of July and since then I have skipped quite a few walks and the ones I take are not quite as enjoyable without my furry friend Tilly with me.
Tilly's owner just asked me if I would be willing to walk her on Monday's and I jumped at the chance as I really enjoy walking with a dog, but am not quite ready to own one for myself. She's even going to pay me a little bit which was an unexpected bonus. Not exactly a job that's going to pay any bills, but an enjoyable way to exercise, spend time in nature, help a neighbour, love a dog and listen to audio books or podcasts. When I put it like that, it's probably going to be my most productive hour each week.
I think I like animals so much because they are so joyful. We have four cats in our house and each one of them has a different personality and quirky little traits. They purr contentedly and are soft and beautiful. There's not really a purpose to cats, except to bring joy to their owners like pieces of living art. Walking Tilly is the same. She has her own little quirks, her funny personality and her excited roll overs for belly rubs. She doesn't talk to me but she speaks to my heart and brings me joy just with her overweight panting as she walks beside me.
I never thought I'd make money walking a dog and it's given me a weird spark of hope that I can make money doing things I enjoy. The rest of this week I'm focussing on being around for the girls as they go back to school at the end of this week. Then it's going to be diving into business research.
My quote for today is by Groucho Marx, "Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read." For some reason this quote reminds me of high school as I think I wrote it on one of my notebooks because it amused me then as it amuses me now.
My photo of the day is a selfie of me and my dog buddy Tilly and a surprisingly blue British sky.
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