Decent people still exist.

This morning I thought it would be a good idea (for both my lazy ass and my incredible bored dog) to go for a hike instead of our normal morning walk around Huffaker park. Since this was kind of a spur of the moment idea, I just went up to Galena Park. I actually love going here because it is (a) always cooler than anywhere around Reno (b) there is a pretty clean stream for my dog to swim in and (c) people generally don't care if your dog is off the lease.

So my dog and I are happily running around the forest (ok, the dog is running, I am huffing and puffing my way up the very small hill...somehow I always feel more out of shape in the morning than I do any other time of the day). A little over half way through the hike, my dog, who up until that moment was chasing a mouse or something my human eyes could not detect, stops and sits down it the middle of a batch of bitterbrush bushes. Odd, no yelp, no cry, she just sits down....then all the sudden she tries to stand up and then the yelp comes. I have no idea what I am going to do when I have kids. Generally I handle situations like this very well but I tend to over-react a bit when my dog gets hurt! I run over to my dog, who still won't stand up. Now my dog is the type of dog who is more concerned with playing than with the fact that she hurt herself...I have seen her running around fetching sticks with blood gushing out of her foot while I try to stop her from making it worse so so it concerns me quite a bit that she is just sitting there. My first thought is maybe she got bit by a snake but then I realize that I am pretty sure I am not in rattlesnake territory so then I worry that she broke her foot. I finally succeed in getting her back over to the trail and she immediately sits back down. I look all over for blood or bit marks or broken toe nails or bones sticking out the side of her foot and nothing. Nothing at all.

Then all of the sudden in the distance I hear a little girl say "Mommy, there's a puppy, I want to pet the puppy." Around the corner comes this woman and her little daughter. The second she saw me there with my dog, holding up her hurt paw and me sitting on the ground trying to inspect it, she stopped and asked me if I needed any help. All the little girl wanted to do was pet my dog until the mom said that it was hurt. Then both the mom and daughter (she was probably like 5 years old) asked me if I needed help carrying my dog down to the parking lot. I was so concerned with trying to figure out what was wrong that I just said i think it was a sprain and that we could walk down the hill but the woman just kept asking me. Finally I thanked her and told her I thought my dog would be fine (I had no idea) and her and her daughter left. Sometimes I forget how many decent, caring people there still are in the world; the type of people who will help you change a flat tire, or carry your hurt dog 1/4 mile down a trail. It's nice to know that decent people still exist and that they are teaching their children the same values they exhibit.

I am home now and my dog is happily chewing on a bone I gave her. She is still a little limpy but I think her paw is ok.