A better place

The other day, Mom and Dad and me went on a long walk. I love (LOVE!!!) walking with Mom and Dad because mixes up exciting and scary. I never know where we're going when we go out and neither do they. Most days are good days. I'm able to keep them on the right path so don't get lost. In the morning when they still have their their sleepy steps and don't want to go to far anyway, it's not a problem. Other times, though... You know how you're supposed to sniff everything as you go, so you can find your way back the easiest? They never do that. That must be why they can get lost for so long when I'm not with them.

So the other day, we went down to the beach and I sniffed the whole way down. I try to show them that sniffing is the best way, because any street can look like another street, but different doggies live on each street, so the streets always have the different pee-smells. The beach is a little tricky because it can be different doggies on different days, so the smells change a lot more. But it can still be easy too, because you always have the ocean water on one side and that smells like stinky food (one of my favorites!!!).

But then we left the beach and onto the log-floor place... It's called a what, Dad? A pee-er?! Do people... No? Okay... ...we left the beach and onto the pier place. And it was full of people I never smelled before, and there were a lot of them! I don't know the last time you were short like me, but when you get into a big people crowd, all you can see are knees that are all short walking... Oh? Okay... shuffling the same. Knees don't all look the same. They can come in different colors and can have different shapes. Some look like faces, and others like butts, but none of them are very friendly, so we shuffled right past them. We left the pier place and shuffled up a long hill of slow knees until we got back to a totally different street. See! This is exactly how Mom and Dad get lost!! We walked on more crowded streets with dog-pee smells that said that they did not live there either...

One thing you might not know about dog-pee-smells is that you use a different smell when you want to say something different. If you live on your street you pee, "This is my street!" If you are visiting, you pee, "Nima was here," ...but you should use your own name, not mine, unless you are me. If you ate something that gave you powers, you could also pee about that. Everyone wants to know about that!!

So we walked a long-time on this crowded people street with lots of knee-faces and knee-butts and only visitor dog smells. When I saw another doggie, I could tell he or she was worried about his people too. This was a street full of lost people! Some people tried to make the best of it. They found food and were eating it (always very smart!). Some people just stood there and sang people songs, because they didn't know it wouldn't help them. And I saw a big group of other people screaming when they saw someone in the middle jumping around a lot. At first I thought that guy must have been lost on the inside too, but then he would stop and make everyone laugh, then scream, then laugh. And I think he was just hoping they would give him some food, because that is what I do when I go to a party.

Finally, Mom and Dad must have realized that this was a lost place and decided it would be better to leave and hope to find a better place than to stay where they knew they were lost. We left down a totally different street that was not the one we came in on (that is a bad idea when you are lost!), but at least there were fewer knee-faces and knee-butts so I could finally see trees and other street parts. After walking more, we got REALLY lucky, because I recognized the pee-smell of a near home street!! We weren't lost anymore!!! And later when we found home, and I was so happy (SO HAPPY!!!) that I got everyone back safe. And after all of that Mom and Dad didn't even pet me a thank you. But I didn't care. I was just so happy to be home and I knew that home -- even if it is not as perfect as Flagstaff, AZ -- was the most better place I could be.