Monday, June 27, 2022

Musing about our walk

I took Clawdia for a walk outside on Sunday afternoon, and she screamed bloody murder so loudly as we came through the lobby that two security officers (changing shifts) came to see what was wrong.  Clawdia, who likes people, was quite content to visit with them before we went on out the door.

Once we got outside, I put her down in the grassy area between our entrance and the office windows on the ground floor, but she knows where that door is, by golly!  And she hurried right back to it.  It opens automatically whenever I approach it, of course, but Clawdia is apparently too tiny for our electronic doors to notice.

Anyway, I carried her across the parking lot to grass that has dried out in patches from the excessive heat this summer.  As you can see in the photo, Clawdia chose to walk in the shade of our fence.  It probably feels extra hot if you are "wearing" black fur.  I was comfortable, even with temperatures in the 80s, because there was a breeze blowing through my hair.  After she led me along the fence to the street, Clawdia looked around, decided that's not the way home, and started back along the shade of the fence.

She's so smart, though, that she knew that wasn't where the door was (after all, we'd just come along that fence).  So she went between cars to the hot pavement of the parking lot.  Hot or not, she intended to cross it.  I picked her up, then put her down in the shade of the awning so she could lead us through the door to go back inside.

She refused to let me guide her to the elevator where we had exited earlier, though, because she remembered "the way" we used to go (before construction changed the landscape around the Crown Center) and marched through the lobby and around to the elevator's back door.  Yes, it took us up, up, up to our floor where Clawdia hurried off the elevator and turned toward our apartment.  When we got home, I gave her treats (for her ordeal, you know) and dished out vanilla ice cream for her and maple-walnut ice cream for me.  After 40-45 minutes outside, we deserved it!

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