Big City Dog

Before I get to the topic of this post, I just wanted to mention that Eric is back home safe and sound! It's great to have him back. He returned with lots of interesting stories and cool pictures (and some delicious loose tea as a souvenir for me!). I'll be sure to share it all with you as soon as I can. For now, I'm working on editing his pictures and trying to decide if I can keep everything straight to write up a recap for you myself, or if I'll be forcing him to make his My Life as a Lawyer's Wife blogging debut to do it himself. In the meantime, check out our photo share site - I'm going to try to get his pictures up there this afternoon. Then stay tuned for a post about his adventures!

But for now, I want to talk about Achilles. More specifically, I want to talk about Achilles and New York.

Since we moved here nearly two years ago (wow!), Achilles has had some great New York City experiences. I feel like he is luckier than most dogs of the world in that respect. For example, he has experienced the Presidential election festivities in Rockefeller Center...

November 2008

...has seen a U.S. Marine Corps band concert during Fleet Week...

Memorial Day weekend, 2009

...has spent many afternoons in Central Park and explored all its sights...

March 2009

...has seen the Naked Cowboy...

July 2009

...has rung in a New Year in New York fashion...

New Year's Eve 2009-10

...and has participated in the Easter Bonnet Parade.

Easter 2010

How many dogs can say they've done all those things? Probably not many.

Yesterday, Achilles got to do what is probably one of his favorite things to do in New York City: walk through a street festival. Yesterday was the Ninth Avenue International Food Festival in Hell's Kitchen (our neighborhood!). The awesome thing about Ninth Avenue is that there is really any kind of food you could ever possibly want, all within about 10-15 blocks. We're talking anything - Indian, Chinese, Thai, Japanese, German, Caribbean, Cajun, Mexican, Italian, Irish, Puerto Rican, Ethiopian, Greek...and the list goes on. During the Festival, all these restaurants set up tents and booths out on the street for you to sample their fare. And of course, there are all the other joys of a good street festival: live entertainment, games, traditional fair food (funnel cakes and the like), and tons of vendors with various goods for sale. I do love me a good street festival.

Ninth Avenue International Food Festival. This picture was taken at 57th Street, the northern end of the festival. It stretched south to 42nd Street.

Eric may not be in Mumbai (Bombay) anymore, but he can still get the food if he wants! (He does not want.)

Achilles seems to also really enjoy street festivals. He's been to quite a few. Sure, he might kind of live in fear of being trampled or kicked in the face (although he is surprisingly good at avoiding being stepped on), but the risk is worth it. Because you know what happens when you get a million people walking around one street while eating? Lots of food on the ground. It's basically a buffet of fallen goodness for this dog. We pretty much have to drag him along the street because his nose is pressed to the ground, checking out every last inch for any dropped morsel he may pass. I even saw him try to eat a napkin at one point. He means business.

Of course, Eric and I also had to eat, but we prefer to buy our food directly from the vendors rather than scrounge around on the NYC sidewalks. We did pick up a couple of delicious things while we walked, including a crabcake sandwich, roast pig, and a big ol' bowl of crawfish. The crawfish was the really fun part.

We sat down to eat our delicious bowl of crawfish at the tables set up outside the restaurant, and went to town. As we ate, Achilles was looking pretty interested in what we were dining on. So, I decided to see what he thought of crawfish and gave him a little piece.

He never actually ate it. Rather, he picked it up in his mouth, then dropped it on the ground and rolled around on it. Then he picked it up again, dropped it again, and rolled on it again. Over, over, and over again. Why??? Can anyone venture a guess as to why he was just rolling all over this tiny piece of crawfish? I don't understand. It was really funny, though, so of course we got some pictures and video of this spectacle.

Achilles rolling on crawfish at my feet

VIDEO: Achilles and the Crawfish

Of course, although this was very entertaining, it left Achilles smelling a bit fragrant. Fragrant like a crawfish. Needless to say, he got a bath pretty quickly after we returned home.

After the food festival, we needed to run a quick errand, and Achilles came with us. You see, New York is really a very dog-friendly city. There are dogs everywhere. During the summer, dogs are always sitting with their owners as they dine al fresco at the restaurants. Dog parks are always heavily populated, sometimes even downright crowded. On any nice day, it seems every other person on the streets is walking a dog. And dogs really go everywhere with their owners. Of course it isn't abnormal to see a tiny dog stuffed in a purse as a person shops or runs errands. But even the big dogs get love here, too. It is not at all unusual, for example, to be perusing the DVDs at Best Buy and see a yellow lab walk by (attached to its owner, of course, but still). Maybe you're browsing the travel books at Barnes & Noble, and a golden retriever walks past you. Or, a dachshund may wander by while you check out the Band-Aid selection at the Duane Reade drugstore. Anything goes, my friends. It seems the general rule is that if there is no sign explicitly prohibiting dogs on the door of the establishment, bring 'em on in.

Our errand yesterday was to Bed, Bath and Beyond to pick up a couple of things. This store is especially accommodating to dogs. Check this out:

Achilles does some shopping at our local Bed, Bath and Beyond

Canine Carts! They have carts specifically designated for their dog patrons, and they include a nice cushion in the bottom for your pup to relax on while you do your shopping.

Let's get this shopping done!

I guess I was taking too long. He looks bored.

Of course, we do take him out of there before using the escalators. This is another fun thing about our Bed, Bath and Beyond: it is multiple stories high, rather than one big, sprawling floor like many I've seen before. I think there are three or four floors to our BBB, and it's all underground. As soon as you enter, you go downstairs. In New York, everything is built either up or down, not out. Since our BBB is so many stories, there are escalators, of course. But there are also special lifts for your shopping carts so you don't have to either wait for the elevator or figure out how to drag your cart up the escalator. You stick your little cart into the lift, and then go up the escalator yourself, and meet your cart at the top. Needless to say, we do not let Achilles ride the lift in his Canine Cart for fear of his psycho self leaping out at us. So, he rides with us and the cart rides separately.

Achilles and me on the escalator, with our Canine Cart riding along next to us

I do love how dog-friendly this city is, and so does Achilles. There are so many things for him to see and do and smell. He's one lucky dog!