Unbridled Excitment

Today Sammy and I went for a walk. We have our normal route where we start at the top of Memorial Park walk down, go over the bridge down the trail on Happy Hollow, into Elmwood park along the crick til we hit South Campus, then walk back along the golf course until we hit the edge of North Campus then back to Happy Hollow, over the bridge and back up the giant hill of Memorial Park. When there isn't anyone (mainly dogs) in the park, I take Sammy off the leash and we race up that hill. It's about a 3, 3 1/2 mile walk. I like to take Sammy there because it's a good uninterrupted walk, and there are lots of other people, kids, and especially dogs.
We had just gotten over the bridge and just started on the little trail when we ran into a nice couple. Some people take exercise very seriously and don't want to be bothered by dogs, so I try to make Sammy remain respectful of others when we walk (a very lofty goal with this one!) and I try to keep him right by my side. Well this couple was taken by Sammy's cuteness. And he was all about getting them to pet him. So the girl was excited and practically exclaimed "is that a corgi?!" to which I responded, "he sure is!" He was his normal self: ears back, smile big, tounge out, on his hind legs dancing for pets! The guy said, "He is cuu..." as he bended over to say hi himself, when at that moment Sammy (without putting his front paws on the ground) hopped from the girl to the guy and jumped and jumped with his nub going full speed. The guy just smiled big and said, "Wow, what unbridled excitment you have" to Sammy. At first I thought, you need to meet more corgis, but I realized that as happy as other corgis seem to get, Sammy hits a new level. That comment of his "unbridled excitment" just stuck with me the rest of our walk, it's a very good way to explain Sammy's hellos.
I'm glad he got that little burst of energy out, because he settled into our routine. After the initial excitment of a walk, Sammy calms down. Sammy is much different when it is just the two of us. When Erik joins us, Sammy kind of goes to his own tune, sniffing and walking from side to side on the sidewalk. When it is just Sammy and I, he stays very close to me. He is either next to me looking up with a big smile on his face or just one corgi-length ahead of my moving feet looking back over his shoulder periodically at me with a big smile on his face, and tounge flopping on the side. We bond on our walks, just the two of us. I know that probably sounds silly, but I firmly believe. I believe it so much that I let myself look like an idiot because I catch myself talking to him every once in a while!!
However, he gets distracted every now and then. Say when there is a person, dog, and especially squirrel, he likes to dart. He usually recovers quite fast and is right back in his position. Along our walk we ran into another lady and her dog. I don't know what it was, it looked like a mutt of a few breeds, but he was adorable. His namy was Lenny, and he was 18 months. Sammy was so excited when he and Lenny were allowed to play for a few minutes. His owner told me that she has seen alot of corgis in the last couple months. I have to say, I felt a little proud! I have really entered the corgi world with a giant bellyflop!
After that, we really didn't have too much else really happen. We avoided a family of three labs, where the two owners had little control. Except this one squirrel waited until we got two feet away from him until he decided to bolt up the tree. Sammy, if he had had his wish, would have sat at the bottom of the tree until he came back down. I know how tricky those little buggers are, and know that that mean squirrel would have hopped to the tree next to it then come half way down and made his little squirrel noises at Sammy until Sammy ran over, then the squirrel would go back up the tree and back to the original tree. On and on. So I had to drag Sammy back along the path, where he took his position.
When we walk and we see those overly exercise savvy people, I moslty watch with part jealousy that they have that ambition, drive and concentration, and part, hmmm...maybe they should smell the roses, boy am I glad I have a puppy to slow me down to watch things. Sammy however has this burning desire within his small nearly 30lb body to give and recieve affection. When we have someone run by us, he tries to run with them. Once he realizes they are not going to stop for him, he immediately goes back to his place next to me. He looks up at me, smile as big as it can be, tounge flopped out and ears back, as to say, "I'm sorrry mom, I still love you more!" To which I reply (hopefully I keep in in my head) "I know, and I love you, too!" with a big smile (no tounge flopped out and my ears remain on the sides of my head).
With that, our walk was great. We got back into our car and Sammy jumped to the passenger seat where I had a water bottled that dropped out of my purse I think. Sammy started by licking the top, and then trying putting his paw down on the middle. I think he is too smart for his own good and figured out how to drink from a water bottle. It was unsucessful because he couldnt get the knob thing up, but he was working on it!