Winky & Millie Take a Walk

An excerpt from Edward Grinnan’s new book, Always By My Side

- Edward Grinnan

After we brought millie home, it was a few weeks be-fore her vaccinations kicked in and we could walk her outside on the Manhattan streets. I was looking forward to it. Nothing attracts an adoring, cooing crowd in New York like a puppy, especially a golden retriever pup. You think New Yorkers are tough? Just watch them make fools of themselves when a golden puppy comes trundling down the street. Kids squeal, doormen bow, cool cats whip off their shades and shout.

Except none of that happened with Millie because she declined to trundle down the street. She refused to go anywhere beyond the sidewalk immediately in front of our building. She’d politely do her business, to my effusive praise, but when I’d try to walk her down the block, she’d come to a crouching halt, digging in her nails, nipping at her leash, as if she had encountered a force field. All efforts to entreat her to venture farther failed. I followed the tried-and-true strategies. I tempted her with her favorite toys, enticed her with high-value treats like sirloin chunks, which I gave to the garage guys next door to wave in the air. Real sirloin.

Early one morning I bent down in exasperation and looked into Millie’s eyes, stubborn with fright. Across the street a garbage truck raucously hoisted an industrial-sized Dumpster high in the air, like a monster in a Japanese horror film lifting a car with an earth shaking bellow, the garbage Godzilla. The clamor set off car alarms. Drivers honked at the traffic stoppage occasioned by the groaning, grinding garbage truck. There were rolled-down windows and angry exchanges.