"Have you ever noticed how easy it is to identify dog lovers?" the boy asked the girl.
The girl nodded vigorously. "Completely."
"We should go see if we can find some."
"Yes, let's. But we need the necessary equipment."
"Let's ask if we can walk the neighbor's dog."
"Sounds like a plan."
The pair soon found themselves walking down the street, plastic newspaper bags on hand and with the boy gripping the leash on the golden dog tightly. "Now we need to find passerby," he declared.
"Try to find older people with children. They're almost always in love with dogs."
They passed a lady with two children. "Oh, what a cute dog!" the woman exclaimed. She and her children crouched down and began to pet the dog. She cooed, "Who's a good dog? You are! Yes you are! Yes you are!"
The girl nodded to the boy; he tallied three for the Dog Lover column on his notepad.
They continued on. When they passed a young girl, she spared them a glance and continued walking. The boy tallied one in the other column, aptly titled Non-Dog Lover.
"D'you think she's a cat lover?" the girl asked the boy.
The boy shrugged. "Who can tell? We can't walk a cat and see, after all."
"True enough."
They kept walking, passing a boy. He stopped them and asked them if he could pet the dog. While he did so he said enthusiatically, "You know, this dog is kind of big, smaller than a Saint Bernard, of course, maybe the size of a German Shepard. No, a little smaller than that. The fur is curly, too, maybe like a Goldendoodle considering the color..." He ranted on and on before the pair politely pointed out they actually needed to walk the dog, to which he apologized and left. The boy marked a tally for the other column.
They passed a young girl and her mother. "Ooh, mommy, I have a picture of a dog like that in my room, don't I?" she asked the parental unit. The mother nodded but shooed her onward, muttering something about allergies under her breath as they passed the pair. The boy tallied one under eachcolumn.
After the walk, and after returning the dog to its rightful owner, the girl and the boy counted the ways to identify a dog lover.
"People stopped to pet the dog," the boy offered.
"The girl had franchise," the girl said.
"That boy had knowledge of breeds."
"The woman before cooed at it."
"Half of them owned a dog and were walking it too."
"People gave it endearing looks."
They both became quiet, thinking. "Any more?" the boy asked the girl.
"Not off the top of my head."
"Hm."
"Yes. Hm."
The two fell silent.
YOU ARE READING
Whole Grain Bread and Other Musings
Short StoryA little something about bread and a bunch of other random stories, inspired by random quotes, conversations and thoughts. Each is under a page, and the characters are an unnamed boy and girl. Some of these are good, some of these are great, and som...
