Carissa Conti (@Carissa_Conti)

Part 1/3 - Dogs So this evening Tom and I were walking on the El Rio Trail next to where we live in Boca, after dinner. We passed by a middle aged woman with her dog, not thinking anything of it, or really noticing. Then we hear her laughing a little behind us to our right, and calling out something to us about how her dog had ".....laid down when he saw us." Which made her jokingly wonder, "....does he know you guys or something???" I turned to look back at the dog, really looking at it for the first time. It looks like this totally happy "smiling" Pitbull mix (I can tell by the jaw and other physical traits; but it's clearly not a pure breed Pitbull as it's smaller in all aspects, mixed with something else) with the tongue hanging out, just looking up at us with a big ol' happy dog grin. Neither of us saw it lay down on the sidewalk, but I said "....awwww!" when I looked at it, since it looked so happy, innocent and cute, and we both smiled at the lady as we passed by. This led to a discussion, initiated by Tom, about my history with dogs. Which is interesting, because I've never actually owned a dog as an adult. And neither has Tom either for that matter. I've only had Kitty as an adult, whom I've never gotten over, even 10 years after her death. But the incidents he was referring to without having to mention in detail, because we both know, include: - My former coworker Karen’s two dogs, in 1999, when I was 24: This was the first ever incident that I can remember. I was new to working at an executive suites in Newport Beach, CA as a switchboard operator/admin assistant. Karen was super cool and had trained me, and was there visiting us after leaving to say hi, and had her two tiny dogs with her. As soon as both of her dogs saw me specifically though they went BESERK. Despite there being other people around. They started literally *fighting* their way out of Karen’s arms, going nuts, until they both actually made it out of her arms and *lept* through the air and I had to lunge forward to catch them. I’m not kidding. There was a 1-2 second period where they were between us in the air. Now I had both dogs in my arms, and both just went *sigh!* and settled in blissfully. Completely going passive as I looked down at them, like, Okay…..?! cuddling them. Karen was just STUNNED. She said they’d NEVER done that before with anybody, and she was kinda insulted to be honest. She said she thought they loved her the best. ;D She just stood there stunned while I cuddled both dogs in my arms, resting peacefully. (Continued in attached comment. 👇 👇 👇)