By Rosalie Tirella

What a great day to own a dog! To ride with my new dog Jett in my car – he feeling full of himself (finally!) – me having a blast watching a once abused dog grow more confident. (In Kentucky, where Jett’s originally from, the men treated him rough.) Which is why I don’t make Jett heel – he can lead me anywhere on our walks! I feed him apple slices, too, and carress his little chest while cooing: “Oh, you’re a brave little man!”

I take Jett everywhere and he meets everyone! He is so tentative, but I know he will come around … .

“Here,” I tell a friend, giving her a dog treat, “give Jett a cookie!” And Jett gets his cookie! (she must throw it at his paws and look away the first time. A few times later and Jett walks up tp her and takes the treat from her hand)

“Look! Here’s a Worcester park! Let’s go!” I say to Jett, and I open the car door and out Jett pops, and we play tag in the park! Jett is running circles around me; I am pretending I wanna catch him! When I tire and sit on a park bench my little pal stops running, walks over and stares at me, as if to say: “Why are you sitting this game out?”

So the middle-aged lady gets off her fat butt and chases her new dog around the park like an idiot, saying: “I’m gonna get you! I’m gonna get you!”

And the dog races by me, “smiling,” and then I say: “Look at Jett go! Look at Jett go!”

Jett races by me all the faster! He adores his cheering section!

And when we need to leave, I call him to me and Jett jumps into the back seat of the car, where about 10 doggie toys await him (I bought them all for Jett!), My little guy grabs his favorite – a long, squeaky, furry monkey boa and pounces on it and grabs its monkey head and shakes it all over the car, even putting it out the windown – to show off to the world that Yes! Jett is playing with his favorite toy – “Monkey Boy”!

And then we are off to run InCity Times – drive about and see the world. Maybe we will stop at another park later on – and I will put him on his leash and he will lead me through brush and over tree trunks and through puddles. With a dog (this is my third pooch) you always see so much more of nature, lovely images you would miss if you were just being a stupid homo sapien: little daisies and grass beneath a spring snow dusting (with my dog #1 Grace); a sick, crud-covered duck, dying, in shock (with dog #2 Bailey – we took the duck to Tufts). Yes, you see all the passion and the pain.

You, with your trusty dog, are part of it all now.