Evening stroll along the Victoria Promenade...

I tell everyone that Laz can understand "human language" and just about everyone who knows him and even meets him says "that dog understands everything you say to him" so it is not just me. But every once in awhile he really surprises me and kind of freaks me out if I am honest, when he understands a completely new sentence that literally has no references he would already know.

Like last night for instance.

I had spent a good part of the day talking to David, my kids in California who are all sick with strep throat on fb chat. Laz just chills in whatever room I am in and if I move rooms he just gets up and then lays in that room with me and we do this many times a day. He may look like he is sound asleep but he has some kind of motion sensor on me and he knows when I go to another room it might be for awhile and so he gets up and makes sure he always can keep an eye on me.

Sometimes when he looks particularly comfy when he is sleeping I will just tell him "honestly I just have to pee I will be right back" and if I can get in and out of the bathroom in less than 5 minutes he will stay in his bed and wait for me. Otherwise when I open the bathroom door he is laying right there waiting.

So I was standing in the kitchen making coffee for the boys and it was getting late and I felt bad that I had not taken him outside as much today cause I was quite busy talking, so I said to him as I passed by him while he was sleeping "give me a sec I just need to give the coffee to the boys" and then I walked to the boys gaming room and handed them their coffee.

When I turned around Laz was standing right behind me with super excited, I mean really over the moon look and energy which is his "I know you are taking me out" look on his face and he started doing his Briard bunny bounce dancing all around the room so excited we were going out.

This is a Briard thing...they just love to get bouncy and excited about the littlest things and "going out" to Laz is like I suddenly mainlined him with coke.

But how did he know we were going out I just said "give me a sec I just need to give the coffee to the boys".

This dog is so utterly amazing I feel so blessed every single second I get to spend with him. God I am sure must be a little tired of always hearing from me. I am not mad into praying but I am mad into gratitude. I would have to say a good thousand times a day I say something like...

"thank you God so much for bringing Laz into my life, thank you for watching over him and keeping him safe"

"thank you God so much for bringing us here to Edmonton to this wonderful place where Laz and I get to meet so many wonderful people and spend so much time together"

"thank you God for all of the amazing people you bless us with in our life and for watching over us and keeping us safe"

And this goes on and on, over and over all day while I am awake with just different things that I think about that I want God to know I am grateful for. Probably a bit OCD but it brings me peace in this very uncertain world.

I always tell people if they have any issues with me to please go and take it up with God because I was His idea. And for people who don't believe in God just spend one full day with me and see how He works in my life. Or you will feel like you are in an episode of the Twilight Zone which is what my friend Emilio over in Australia thinks after spending an entire month with me.

So we finally make it out the door and barely got a few feet from our apartment when a lovely Korean woman stopped us just absolutely giddy at the sight of my dog and asked if she could please pet him. I of course said yes and Laz is pretty patient with this kind of stuff and I think his ego may be getting a little big because he let her pet him for like 5 seconds then he walks over to the grassy patch and lays down and just stares off like he isn't even remotely interested in what we are saying but you can tell by his ears he hears every single compliment this woman is saying about him.

I not only love this dog, I love this breed so I was gushing right along with her.

She then asked to take his photo...this happens a lot.

Just then we saw our lovely neighbour Genie walking towards us and Laz recognized her and went over to say hello. He will not approach strangers without me giving him the command that it is okay to approach and engage but he does walk up to people he knows. The lovely Koren woman we met, her name was something I can't even hope to remember, kept thanking me for letting her pet my dog and said she couldn't wait to show his picture to her family and friends and tell them she met him. I just LOVE this. My dog brings so much happiness where ever he goes.

We love Genie...this poor woman has been stuck hearing me talk so long and is so patient and really has helped me to sort a lot of things out, she is like my corner therapist I just love it and her. Several months back when I had my first trip to the ER here in the ambulance I was deeply traumatized by the EMT who had no clue what he was doing and not once but twice blew out my vein while he was trying to put an IV line in.

This is a horrendously painful thing to have happen and it triggers some very traumatic memories for me of ambulance and ER trips in my life, and there have been a lot. He was not even remotely nice about it either so it was not like I had anyone comforting me. They are only allowed two tries thank God and the other EMT got it in on her first try so him telling me it was my fault because I had "junk veins" was just really not very nice when I was sitting there with tears streaming down my face just wanting my dog and wanting to be home.

Things is too I didn't even know where "home" was because they had taken me from my apartment in the ambulance and to a place called St. Albert where the hospital was and when it was time for me to leave, 8 hours later and at 3 am in the morning, I was all alone and had no clue where I was or how to get home.

Thankfully the nurse let me call Reid and he immediately sent me an Uber and this wonderfully kind man from South America drove up and when I got in his van I was crying and asked him how far away from my home I was and he said not to worry that we were just 25 minutes away and he would get me there safe.

He was very sweet to just talk to me and make me feel better telling me stories about his family and life in his country and how he came to Canada. I love this stuff so the car ride went very quickly and he did get me home safe like he promised.

The next day I ran into Genie and a few other ladies and their dogs from the neighbourhood and they were so sweet when I burst into tears when they asked me what happened to my arm and hand from the huge bruises he left me with. There is nothing like being coddled and fussed over by a group of little old ladies and their lovely little dogs.

God sends you earth angels everywhere you turn you just have to walk around with an open heart full of love and they just always appear. This is one thing I know for sure in life because it has happened to me just so many times.

So after talking to Genie for a VERY long time I realized it was getting dark and we still hadn't made it to the promenade which is truly Laz's favourite place in the world to go.

He was just made "to stroll the promenade".

When we got to the promenade I immediately noticed my Lebanse friend Mike sitting there and I rushed over to give him a huge hug. This man is always so happy to see me it always makes me feel so happy too. He was sitting with his friend Mohammad and so after standing so long on the sidewalks talking to the lovely Koren woman and Genie my back was just wrecked so I just dropped down onto the sidewalk in front of them and made myself comfy.

Mike likes to talk and tell me things so I knew I was going to be there awhile.

One thing I did learn is Mike likes to "sneak away from there" meaning his apartment and go for coffee at Starbucks at 6:30am so that "they" can't give him a huge list of things he has to do that day and he can just wander down to the promenade afterwards and find interesting people to talk to.

Mike is a lot like me and loves to do this as often as possible we both agreed that "being stuck inside four walls will drive you mad".

I felt very honoured when he invited me to join him for coffee this Sunday and he explained to me that "Irish coffee" to an Irish person is when a bunch of Irish people get together and drink coffee and gossip about the neighbours. I had never heard this one before so I asked him how many people did we need to be there for it to be "Irish coffee" and he said at least three, so Mohammad seemed rather happy when I said he has to come along too!!!

At 53 I am probably well too old to be sitting on sidewalks for this length of time and the two herniated disks don't help but while I am in the energy of talking and being with such wonderful people I am easily distracted from the pain. It was getting very late though so I had to get up, we hugged goodbye and Mohammad really looked very happy that he got a hug too.

Laz sauntered and I staggered home...it was a lovely, lovely evening as usual.