They say that a puppy is a ticket to immediate exercise, but our 3-a-day walks of the new pupper have surprisingly been a ticket to something else …. getting to know our neighborhood in a completely new way.

We thought we knew the neighborhood well already. We’ve lived here for almost 11 years and have met everyone up-and-down the street at one time or another. We even helped host the neighborhood block party in front of our house and in our garage for many years.

Still, having a dog changes everything. I knew there were a lot of people with dogs on our street, but I had no idea how just many. Until you have a dog yourself, I guess the number of people out walking their dog is somehow invisible to you. We’re now matching dogs with the neighbors we already knew and learning the dogs’ names, breeds, and habits.

In addition, we’ve become much more familiar with all of the people that go in-and-out of the neighborhood each day. Riley interrupts our walks to sit down and watch all of them as they come and go. The school buses, Amazon trucks, garbage men, landscaping teams, house painters, and public works crews are busy from early morning to late in the evening.

We’re just two months into walking Riley around “the loop”, but it has been fun to be introduced to this new neighborhood perspective. The whole point of the FIRE lifestyle is to slow down and enjoy life. Little Riley is showing us how to do it even better.

How busy are your neighborhoods with pets?

Image Credit: (c) MrFireStation.com