Welcome back to the party kids; where have you been? Oh, you've been checking the blog, you say? There hasn't been anything to read, you say? Ok, truth be told, WALK IT OUT has been slightly MIA from the blog scene for the past two weeks but please don't call this a come back. A lot of cool and interesting things have happened over the past 14 days or so and I'm going to share a few of them with you. Ready...set...go!(actually, don't go, stay and read, please???)
One of the keys to running is business is, well, staying in business. In order to do so, we need to raise our clientele significantly over the next 6 weeks. We have primarily been using the direct approach with mailers, flyers and word-of-mouth advertising. This approach has been somewhat fruitful but we've gotta crank it up to really get this thing going. So, Walk It Out has been trying to partner up with local pet service providers in hopes to gain a presence in the Vinings dog community. Some places have been very receptive to helping out while others have been stank-face about it. The jury is still out on this approach but we'll keep y'all posted on any feedback.
Now on to my favorite portion of the blog and yours...STORY TIME!Ok, so sometime about two weeks ago, I was doing a back-to-back walk down in the Peachtree Hills area and it was raining something fierce. I'll tell you right now, rain is the worst thing I could possibly see in the morning. It puts me in a bad mood, dogs hate the stuff and people can't drive in it. So I get to the appointment and the gate has been shorted due to the rain--I can't get in. I am then forced to park across the street and walk a country friggin mile, IN THE RAIN, to Walk It Out. Ok, no biggie, it's part of the job. Thank goodness this was one of my regulars and I've got an awesome rapport with the little fella. With that being said, I take him outside and he goes #1 & 2 in record time. I'm not kidding, as soon as I opened the door to take him out, he looks at me like, "do we really have to do this today", hauls butt outside, bing bang boom and we're back inside in under 90 seconds flat. I play with him for a little while then I'm off. While it's still raining, I hightail it back out of the neighborhood, across the street and into my car to get along to my next appointment. I check my VM (that's voicemail for any of your readers over, um, 30) and to my chagrin, my next appointment has cancelled. Bad for business (well, not that bad b/c I still charged them), but it's raining, ergo, good for me. As I'm driving down the street I notice that traffic has slowed in the oncoming direction. Naturally, my first thought is because of the weather, but then I notice....
I'll wait while you formulate your guesses...Regardless of what you answered, you're all winners! I have experienced all of these over the past 6 weeks while driving around ATL, but, today's winner is answer C. There was a dog running in the rain right down Peachtree Hills. What a dilemma I was faced with. Being that I'm a dog walker, I have to help this poor dog. But, being that I HATE THE RAIN, I would like to pretend I never saw it and just move along with my day. You know, kinda like when you see a parent just beating the tar out of their child...or not. Anyways, I pull over, grab my leash out of the car and start running down the street. At this point, I'm already soaked and I don't know what I'm going to if/when I catch this dog but I don't really care. Sooooooo, I finally catch this this critter and, let me tell you, fastest dog alive. Sweet, I've caught the dog and the rain is starting to let up a bit but I have no idea what to do now. First thought is take this bad boy to the nearest shelter. Second thought is to walk it back towards the direction from which it was running. Third thought is, "what if its running back to where it was originally coming from?" Obviously I was crucially conflicted and needed to make a decision when, out of no where, comes this lady wearing a poncho and carrying a leash. Turns out this lady isn't the owner of the dog but she's the...wait for it...you can probably already guess...dog walker. Ok, I can see a dog walker mistakenly losing a cat, but a dog? C'mon man!
I'm not going to list her name, the dog's name or what operation she's running because it was her first week and my heart goes out to her. I just gave her the dog, quick chat about the goings of dog walking, exchanged cards and I was on my way.
That's all I've got for this week, kids. If you have any comment or suggestions or YOU NEED ME TO WALK YO DAWG, leave it right down there in the box. Until next time...
