Walks with Charley

Book excerpt: I have written about Arlington Ridge in terms of personal exploration between my best friend, Charley, and me. When you walk a dog several miles a day in the same general area, you encounter many things that are missed when you are alone, just walking or driving a car. With a dog, you must stop and attend to the duties of the dog. The shared journey is the important thing, not getting somewhere. You must stop and wait for sniffing expeditions. And you (the human) can share your observations and wonder with someone (the dog) who is nonjudgmental. Since we traverse the area a couple times a day, we are also a strobe light on change. We report downed trees to the county. We observe poor workmanship and repairs. And even though we may have passed a location hundreds of times, we see something new, even things as large as houses. Thus, I have tried to create a series of Readers Digestible stories (a made-up term for a story quickly read and easily understood) that relate here and now to yesteryear with the help of Charley. This book is organized by first introducing you, the reader, to Charley, then by working our way around the ridge geographically. If north is at twelve oclock, that is where I start and work clockwise and back to twelve oclock. I hope you will enjoy my shared journey and experiences with Charley as much as I have. Charley doesnt remember any of the story details (unless there are smells involved), but she does remember her way around the nearly twenty miles of roads, alleys, and paths of the ridge.