Rewards exist

Alpha and Beta have started walking. For two reasons, I guess, the first being that Beta's doctor told her to after her most recent hospital visit, and the second being that retirement can drain all the fitness out of you if you opt for the rocking-chair version.

I go along, and the walks are getting longer, so I've seen some new territory and made some new friends.

Several blocks away, the neighborhood goes decidedly upscale, and that's where I met Crystal.

Crystal, in spite of all the money floating around, is a regular dog, more like Gus and me than hoity-toity. She'd fit right in down at Len's bar-and-grill-and-swap meet.

When we went by the other day, she was sitting on the front porch chuckling.

It seems her humans had just fired their maid, who, on the way out, had tucked a fifty-dollar bill in Crystal's collar. Her human, of course, asked why, and the maid said, "Because I never forget a friend. That, Crystal, is for doing the dishes all this time."