Morning strangeness.....

I have been doing overnights for 10 days thus far, and each day I am up between 6-7 am.  We go out for a walk, eat breakfast, and then I head home to shower and get my schedule together.  Yesterday my mornings took an odd turn.  I was walking home from my overnight around 7:30am and passed by an older man on one of the side streets.  He stopped and said, "Hey pussycat".  I stopped and smirked for a minute because my dad called me that when I was little.  He was amused that I stopped and reiterated, "You are.."  It went from amusing to creepy real fast. Maybe it was because the night before I watched a lifetime movie about online predators of young girls and it portrayed all older men to be scumbag pedofiles. I had flashbacks to the movie where they would bait these men with cops pretending to be 14 years old.  They would give them a hat, braid their hair and give them a backpack.  I happen to have been wearing a backpack...

Anyway, I went home, got myself together, then took the bus to Old City.  I was going to walk back and feed cats along the way.  I get from 3rd and Market to 2nd and Chestnut where an Indian mother stops me and asks me if I have a phone.  Her long winded story was that her son was across the street at the passport place and had a 9am appointment.  It was then 9:30 and the car was parked slightly far from the curb, but she didn't have the keys.  He had the keys.  And she thought the police were going to come and take the car.  She dictated (more or less) while I texted this guy in the passport office.  She went on and on about irresponsible kids, the car, etc.  I sent about 4 texts because she was frantic.  About an hour later he sent me one back to thank me for everything.

I kept heading south to cats, the bank, and then the next cat.  This is a house that is the last one down an alley.  I get to the door and there is a huge spider on the knob!  He won't move.  I was there for 15 minutes trying to get closer and he just kept going from the knob to the deadbolt and back.

I finally gave up and decided to go back later and as I walked out of the gate, I see a UPS truck turn down the next street.  The driver is a good friend of mine and I know that he deals with spiders at his house all the time!  I run over and ask him if he can move the spider so I could get into the house.  After laughing and mocking, he agrees.  We walk over, he pokes him, the thing jumps in his hand and he walks down the alley with it.  My hero!  And yes, I was mocked by a spider AND a human within an hour.

Oh, she bites :(

I had to do something this afternoon that I never had to do before.  I had to turn down a dog due to aggression.  The owner adopted this beautiful (60+ lb) Shepherd mix a month ago from the SPCA.  Since then, her new fur kid has been extremely protective of her and the apartment.  She did warn me about this ahead of time, so we decided to start the meet and greet outside and go for a walk.  She took treats, let me walk her, let me pet her, did her business, and seemed pretty relaxed.  We then went up to her apartment where she snapped at me once, and then again when I tried to touch her toy.  The second time was a bit worse.  I had to be honest and tell her that I was extremely apprehensive about walking the dog on my own, and of course she understood.  We discussed training, behavior issues, options, etc.  It's tough because I really like them, but can't put my limbs at risk.  The owner understands of course, but it is just a crappy situation for all parties to be in.  The dog has aggression issues, the owner can't have people in her apartment, and the potential walker is scared of the dog. I don't claim to be a behaviorist by any means, although I have learned some things along the way.  I hope that everything works out for the best....