Having a personal trainer in Los Angeles is about as commonplace as having a nanny in Manhattan. There are so many types to choose from: the boot camp types from Celebrity Fit Club, the Gilad types who use their previous Israeli military training experience to "motivate" you, the touchy-feely granola-y types, etc. Living in the suburbs, my trainer is my dog Guapo. Guapo stays indoors most of the day due to his separation anxiety (he was dumped at a park in East LA by his owners), so his only exposure to the outside world is his daily walk. Usually, my dad walks him and his anything-goes walking style has erased all those months of Dog Whisperer training I did on Guapo when we first got him. Once in a while, when my dad steps out to run errands, Guapo looks at me with those pleading eyes and begs me to take him out. Walking with Guapo usually involves cleaning up after his business, almost having your arm pulled out of its socket when he sees a squirrel running across the street, and prying that nasty neighbor Corgy off of Guapo's neck if the kids forget to close the door leading to their backyard.
Being dragged down the street by 50 pounds of pure muscle is not my idea of fun after a long day at the office, but Guapo just looks at me with those big sad brown eyes and I see the hope intensify in the flapping of his tail. If the people in my life all looked at me with such big sad brown eyes, forgiving people would be a piece of cake.
4 comments:
Shake 'n Bake,
I'd love to come walk Guapo with you sometime. Maybe we could walk him over to the Huntington Library.
-Deanna
That is the best exercise partner! I miss my Pepper. She used to be a great tug of war champ. Dee remembers her. She'd gotten very old...14 years old. My parents had been baby sitting her on and off the last year. She died just two weeks ago. Poor baby. She sure loved to take walks...even in her sleep. So funny. She would kick and howl lying on her doggy bed like she was chasing some fox or something (she was half pit bull and half fox hound). I will have to post her picture later with another Pepper story but it is still too sad right now.
Rosanna,
I'm so sorry to hear that Pepper has passed away. She was such a cutie.
Deanna
I'm sorry to hear about Pepper. Before Guapo there was Skippy, the half German shepherd half Australian shepherd I picked out of a litter of pups on Valentine's day in the fourth grade. He lived to be almost 15 years old and died during my 2nd year in law school. Until Guapo came along, I never thought we'd have another dog.
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