Dog Walking in Annapolis

If you have never been to Annapolis, you owe yourself a visit. Go on a busy weekend when there is a regatta or the Naval Academy’s Homecoming or one of the in the water boat shows — sail preferably. It doesn’t matter that you are not interested in the Navy or sailing or boats in general . . . just go.

Walk down the main drag. Have a few beers. Buy a book at the classic used bookstore, or a hat at the best hat store I have ever been in. Make your way down to the water through too much traffic and too many people. And keep your eyes open for the fresh-faced navel recruits dressed in their whites and looking self-conscious as hell.

Annapolis is one of the few places where people dress like me: early American yachty. I fit right in even in a bright yellow rain slicker. There is the way-too-rich crowd, the snotty racing sailboat owners, and their cocky young crews. There are power boaters of every description and traditional Pete Seeger loving seafarers. And then there are the dogs.

Of course, it pays to dog walk on a warm summer afternoon, and that is what Adele, Charlotte, and I, and Miss Piggy and Cassie were up to. The latter two being the stars of the show: Miss Piggy, the runt of a litter of pugs, and Cassie, a fine example of a King Cavalier Spaniel.

These two canines brought more attention down on us than we deserved. Both were drawn to every opening shop entrance and it seemed like every other dog was drawn to the two of them. Big dogs, little dogs, middle dogs; dog that consisted of odd mixtures and pedigreed dogs; dogs with diamond collars and dogs with inch long spikes around their necks.

Dogs appeared from the N-S-E-W, from above and below and in between. When Adele and Charlotte left me alone on the street with Miss Piggy and Cassie to go get ice cream I was barraged with compliments: little girls, big girls; elderly and youthful. One classy older gentleman with a beautiful Eastern Shore accent offered to Miss Piggy that a pug was the best dog as long as you didn’t hunt or cared if they sat in your lap all night.

It was quite a whirlwind for the likes of me. Someone who has never owned a pet let alone a dog. Did these two beautiful little dogs make me more attractive — hardly. But did they say something about me, false as it might be — definitely.

I may just have to get myself a pug, move to Annapolis, and spend the rest of the days left to me promenading. So, like I said, you owe yourself a visit!