Dog gone

 Well, I’m dogless again, and it’s going to stay that way. Shelby isn’t in America yet, but she’s going to catch a ride with a colleague on October 1. The colleague covers Belarus but lives in Vilnius and last week he made his last trip here and took Shelby back. It was pretty hectic down the line to get her ready but we did and she’s gone. At the minute, she has a temporary stepbrother and they’re having a ball.

I miss her but there’s just no way I can get a dog in this lifestyle. Shelby’s mom is paying close to $1k to get her back to America and let’s face it, I’m too cheap for that.

She left me on a Thursday and that night I washed the blanket I kept in the window for her and then Friday I spent several hours cleaning the rug she’d been sick on the previous week. It looks perfectly fine now, but I’m not going to eat off of it, that’s for sure.

And I miss her. For two days, I kept looking for her and it took longer than that to remember I shouldn’t leave a spoonful of food to mix with her kibble. Today I dropped popcorn on the floor and looked around for the canine Hoover before I realized I’d have to pick it up.

But as a result of not having a four-legged dependent, I can take longer and farther walks than I did before. Yeah, I could have technically done them with her but not without carrying her backpack with water and bowls, plus I make better time without her because I don’t stop and sniff every nine inches.

Last Sunday, I took 20k steps before 1 p.m. I went up the river from my house all the way to Victory Park, which is much farther than I’ve been so far, at least on foot. I found a little island in the river that boasted of being a good bird-watching spot. I didn’t see any birds, but I didn’t see any other humans, either. It was entirely peaceful and I’d totally do that walk again, although I’d pack my own water bottle. I was gone much longer than I anticipated.

When I popped back up on the main road, I realized I was about out book fair had been way back when people were allowed to go out in public without masks.  At that point, I decided I’d hit a grocery store and grab a candy bar and then head back, but when I followed the directions from the phone to the grocery store, I found it wasn’t open that day. I wasn’t the only one trying to get in, so I think it might have been a protest game-day decision to close.

At that point, though, I was tired but had talked myself into a candy bar, which at that point I felt I deserved. I headed home by way of another grocery store and got luckier when I ran into a different store that worked out. It had some of the really good Ukrainian chocolate (Roshen) and I got some frozen Thai veggies to mix with my rice at lunch.

So life is fairly boring without a dog, but I’ll adjust. The weather is changing – already – and I am honestly glad to not be walking her at 6:30 in the morning. It’s already pretty chilly outside and I do not look forward to winter.

With Shelby, I was easily able to get in 10k steps a day, but now that’s a challenge. Fortunately, I now have a hand-me-down treadmill and have finished out evenings trying to get in a little workout before bed, which sometimes means walking at a brisk pace in my PJs and slipper feet. I’m vowing to start running again but that doesn’t sound like the best of ideas at put-up-ot-shut-up time. Walking is so much easier, and since it appears the Minsk half-marathon was canceled this year – it was supposed to be last Sunday ... there’s no incentive.

But walking is something I’m pretty faithful to and it’s certainly helped me keep off the COVID-15.Protests continue but the government is shutting down many of the areas where people protest so they’re not walking by my window anymore. I do, however, see various types of trucks and vans parked outside my window on Sundays, where the “OMON” and other enforcers hang out.

People are still being rounded up and detained, but I no longer have a front-row seat for it. I’m not sure how to feel about that.

It's fairly easy to see how Belarusians still feel, though. See the photo taken of a cartoonist's rendition of the "OMAN" enforcers. I saw it on the sidewalk on my way to work one morning this past week. It was thoroughly covered by the time I went home.