OMG, this is big, this is HUGE! I am so excited it’s hard to keep my fingers on the keyboard. The canine gods have heard my cry and delivered me from the dreaded “morning walk” with the gentle giant. Leo is crossing over the eighty pound mark (hard to believe I know) and in the morning after a good nights sleep he is a force to be reckoned with.

The first half mile is worthy of a “You Tube” upload because one half of my body is normal (this would be the Harley half), while the other side looks spastic as my one arm flings from all directions as he must “sniff this, grab that, run get this, double back for another look at that”, and so on. I can’t tell you how ridiculous I look at times. Well, this is how my relief came: Over the three day weekend, my husband (like millions of other holiday enthusiasts), decided to officially fast forward from Thanksgiving to Christmas and put out the window wreaths for the rest of the year.

Leo hung out on the front lawn (leash-less I might add) as Lee completed his task. Harley (comically called the “get away kid”) watched from the foyer, because he can’t seem to stay on the lawn. To keep Leo company, my husband gave him his favorite miniature soccer ball to play with and it landed in the garage instead of the back yard at the end of the day. So now it’s morning, we exit the garage, and I’m walking, talking, giving the usual commands I do robotically: “easy”, “Leo no!”, “stop Leo.” This time though, I’m feeling pretty good, because, he’s walking like an obedience school scholar! With a new lease on life, and even a little pep in my step (at 7:25 am), my arms are relaxed, I’m breathing like a normal human being, and I know we must have walked at least three blocks, but then when Harley stopped to conduct a little “business”, I saw it – Leo was carrying the soccer ball!

Yep, he grabbed it in the garage, and I never knew. So it wasn’t the repetitive commands, nor the three different “guaranteed to work or your money back” wonder leashes. It was a soccer ball! Carrying it proudly like the Brazilian Soccer Icon of all times, we walked a few extra blocks – one because I was curious as to how long he could hold it and also Harley and I were enjoying the walk …. He put it down once, and that was only to eat some grass, and then off we went: Me & Harley, Leo & his ball….

Like MasterCard, we’ll never leave home without it!