Mayor of Shutdown Town

Our latest sad tale begins with a trip to the first farmer’s market of the season. It’s held in a parking lot where we typically park before our routine creekside walks through town. Lilly has been known to howl from her crate when I turn onto 10th from Washington. She loves going to this part of town.

But, this summer, things are wonky. The library is closed for renovations, so there are huge steel storage containers blocking the way and much of the parking.

It’s been getting worse year to year, but for some reason there are a bunch of generators humming, growling, rumbling all around the edges of the market. As I mentioned in my comment to Elayne’s farmer’s market entry over at Days of Speed, it feels much more like a construction site than an open-air market.

Seriously. Someone please explain why so many vendors need electricity. It truly ruins the mood, not to mention freaks out Lilly.

Usually, though, once we get past the moat of noise, Lilly settles in. Things looked promising when Lilly latched on to a man & wife and showed her wiggly self in public. It turns out these people have a sensitive BC at home as well, so maybe Lilly knew that somehow. But, she was super friendly to them out of the blue. (Maybe she was looking to trade me in on a new model?)

Things went downhill from there, though. We made it up and down 2 aisle before she showed me that she was ready to go. I hadn’t even bought anything yet. I was still cruising to see what was what. (Sad it say, it looks like the same old, same old again this year.)

The last straw was another couple with a small brown & black puppy (not sure on breed/mix, probably 14 weeks or so) offered a full-on reactive display at Lilly who was minding me well. She kept it together, but she gave me the look that said, “I’m done.”

So, we looked for an exit, and ended up diving between 2 booths and out. Heed the warning. Read her signs. Get her out when she needs to get out. I often feel like a commando on a secret mission, I swear. Cue the Mission Impossible Theme as we careen out of the crowds and into safety.

In just a few strides, Lilly was her normal self again. We played picnic table A-Frame, just 30 feet or so from the farmer’s market. We went for our usual walk, where she did fine except for an incident with a BBQ lid slamming on a hotel restaurant patio. There were dogs and people EVERYWHERE, so I asked her to switch to my right side so that I could protect her better, and just as she moved into position, SLAM! the lid went down about 10 feet from her, and she shot back to my left and crouched in terror.

I totally would have let her stay there for a second to catch her breath, but there was a woman with at least 4 small dogs about 3 feet away, just standing there watching us. The dogs were looking right at Lilly, and I was worried that would be the final straw. I considered scooping her up, but instead, we took a couple breaths and ran. We just ran away. Then, we hopped around when she recovered.

We looped around, and she splashed in the creek. She played dog walk on a high brick wall. She changed sides when asked so that I could work her around people, dogs, and bikes on the path. She seemed back to normal.

So, I thought I’d give the market one more try, but as we approached again, she dropped to the ground in her hell-no position. Classic, classic message. Clear shutdown. “Don’t push me!”

Four young new-agey/hippie-like people started laughing at the sight of us. They asked what on earth was going on, so while they fed Lilly organic veggie chips. I explained the situation. But, when an onslaught of tiny dogs on flexi-leashes headed our way, we jumped behind a park bench and made our way to the car.

I thought about a patio date with some hummus, but when I pulled into the *that* lot, I saw a huge doodle-looking dog already having lunch outside. SO, I ran in to get our hummus and headed home.

So, instead of the outing I’d planned for our Mommy & Lil day, we enjoyed an outdoor lunch on our own patio at home. Then, we sacked out in the shade on the grass.

Not what I’d planned, but it’s what the Mayor of Shutdown Town needed. Can I have a proclamation?