Several times a day dogs need walking in order to do their business or to get busy as a guide dog of my acquaintance would be instructed. Guide dogs are highly trained in all aspects of their lives. One moment they are getting busy the next they are helping their person cross a busy road and the next they are off lead running free socializing with other dogs. I was always so impressed that our guide dog would get busy to order and in places his blind owner would not walk, or anybody else for that matter. Uh! dog poop on the pavement is no fun is it.

This morning while out walking I saw up ahead a man, with a dog, talking to another with two little dogs. I could tell it wasn’t quite a passing the time of day talk either. Turned out the second chap was being ticked off for not picking up after his dogs. Thankfully the civically minded man had done the deed and was just returning from the doggy litter bin when we met. He passed the time of day with me. People should pick up after their dogs and isn’t it terrible etc. etc…. Quite reasonable complaining really but I never seem to be able to join in a full blown rant, and this wasn’t one of those. So as we walked on the subject changed and I learned that salmon run up the river here at this time of year to spawn. We leant over the bridge looking for fish briefly then parted, each going our separate ways.

It is one thing to point something out, like the civic minded man (and to have a bit of a private rant too) and quite another to verbally saw people off at the knees. Either to their face or behind their back. We all must surely know when we have crossed the line. However, whether the righteous or the miscreant, crossing the line leaves a bad taste doesn’t.

Hah! I’d intended to write about the sound, the music, of the river I walk beside each morning. It’s no exaggeration to call it music either.