I love taking my rescue dog, Liza Jane for walks. Liza walks so well on a leash and is very cooperative with me. This dog is very low-maintenance behavior wise. My relationship with Liza is quite personal. She is with me nearly 24/7 during this pandemic. She stays no further than 3 feet from me most of the time. I had to begin to train a new dog beginning in February after I had to put down my other dog, Dice in December. I do not feel stigmatized by sharing that my dogs are used for emotional support. We make a great team.
So, one my acquaintances from my school days calls me as she does on occasion. Susan C is from my old class of 1981 at Freeport High School. We have nice chats on the phone for the most part. However, quite often calls end abruptly with her saying something exceptionally rude, inappropriate or down right cruel. Several weeks or months later, she will call again. I do not hold anything over. Yesterday was yesterday and today is today. We can have a nice chat like nothing ever happened. If the coffee shops were still open, we could go have a cup of coffee together. But, that would be too simple. She ends up picking a fight with one of the patrons, demanding the manager do something or creating some sort of scene. She even used to bring her dirty little white dog into Starbucks and have the dog drinking water from the restroom out of their dishes. That is about when I decided not to go to Starbucks. It is darn same that she is totally batshit crazy.
And of course, she is a self-professed dog expert.
I am quite wary of any self-professed experts of any discipline or genre. I am not in search of any experts at the moment. Not even the legitimate ones.
So, meanwhile, here we are in the middle of this Covid-19 pandemic and all the social-distancing. She doesn’t do this and thinks if she pops in and visits people who are not sick with Covid, it is going to be all fine. She is such a bone-head. She invites me to come visit her in her place. Um…No. Listen to experts. STFH. I tell her I am getting ready to hit the trails with my dog. Yes, she is welcome to walk with us as long as she socially distances. And of course, drives separate. So, after I listen to her make me feel like an overly nervous Nellie, because I follow the rules, I tell her I will be at the Oakdale Forest Preserve momentarily.
In all fairness, she does have expertise. Susan is especially gifted at landing her butt in trouble. She has 9 mugshots in Stephenson County, alone. Which, I personally think that’s all cool. Thanks to skillfully picking a convenient number, we can design a Bingo board with all lovely faces available online. Not only that, a few mugshots in a couple of other states, so you can do 16 square Bingo.
I follow the rules. If it says dogs must be leashed, guess what my dog is leashed. She brings two dogs to Oakdale Forest Preserve. But mundane things like rules mean nothing to her stupid ass. Her scruffy white mutt is running around unleashed. Maybe she thinks she will get a special brownie if she has one dog leashed and lets the other run free. I said I have two extra leashes in my trunk if you want one. She says,
“No thanks, this dog never walks on a leash.”
I notice a few minutes later she is not carrying anything like the trusty Walmart plastic baggies to pick up crap on her walk. I offer to her, that I have plenty extra plastic bags in my car and even in my backpack. Once again, she says, no thanks. She never uses them and just kicks the crap away with her foot. Thank God for social distancing and her driving her own car because I do not want her riding in my nice clean car with crap on her shoes.
Well any hows, a few minutes later, I start down the trail at Oakdale knowing she will catch up momentarily. She is still near where she parked her car. Suddenly, her unleashed dog darts tow toward a small child. What do I hear, Susan C’s shrill ass voice screaming at other people for exciting her dog. WTF? They were just walking and minding their own business. And it is the child’s fault because the child is at Oakdale without a leash? Do people still leash their 4 year olds?
Well, eventually, she catches up. One little dog on a leash and the white one running loose as usual. Then my dog decides she wants to make sausage links. My dog is smack, dab in the middle of the walking path. After all, my dog had a touch of the squirts the past couple days doing root beer floats and I do not want that where families are walking. I gently guide mine to the side of the trail to do her business. I should note that although, for some reason I do not have the dog wearing the harness and only a collar, I walk with a comfy padded harness about 95 percent of the time. It is much nicer for the dog Crazy Ass Lady starts ranting and raving that I am being cruel to my dog dragging and yanking her all over. My dog wears a harness and I have a leash in attached in two place for maximum comfort. One in the mid-back and one on the nylon collar. Like this one below. 
Well, I just said, Bye Felicia. Have a nice walk. You are too psycho for me to be anywhere around. This a special peaceful time for me and I aim to keep it that way. Liza and I got in our car and went to on a walk at Krape Park instead.
I am sympathetic to people who have emotional or mental challenges, but it cannot rule their lives and prevent them from interacting civilly with the population. For example, she is known for for throwing things at passing cars and trucks on High Street if they go faster then 15 mph. She thinks its her right to let her dogs and cats roam in the street. As a matter of fact, her apartment building leaves their large garbage tote containers out on the street 24/7. Thanks to her and her people, High street is even more dangerous. Especially for children. She has definite issues with other human beings. If one cannot do that, they should be in a home or at the least an island. Tolerance is one thing, but being around someone who will verbally abuse anyone. You do not even have to be an acquaintance to be the recipient of her abuse.
The Great Global Divide 