Some people need to have the truth all laid out for them because the crap they try to perpetrate is dubious at best, sinister at worst. I find that as I get older, I am all too happy to be the one who does the laying out of said truth, if I am in a position of credibility to do so.

If you are a witness, you must come forward to be counted and to give an account of what you have seen, what you have heard, and what you know. Enough of revisionist history and revisionist historians. Most people, I have learned, can endure the indignity and grief of any agony or hardship if the truth is told about it. If the record is allowed to show who they are, who they were, and what really happened.

I recently decided to decrease Babygirl's walks from three or four a day to two high-quality walks. Now that the college kids are back, it is difficult to walk her without incident--barking, lunging, etc. I have made my peace with the fact that much of this is owed to her temperament toward strangers. She can calm down after a period of time in someone's presence, but a walk-in-progress is not the time for training. I can tell she misses that extra walk at night, and the extra two on the weekends, but really, they aren't necessary. I was overcompensating at first. We have a pretty nice rhythm now, and obviously, if she absolutely had to go out, I wouldn't hesitate to take her. Limiting our outings has relieved a lot of my stress. I try to make up for it by being a bit more leisurely with her in the morning, really letting her sniff and smell everything.

This is her last week with me. I am ready to have my freedom back and my apartment back, but I am going to miss her. Oh, she has stolen my heart...