As I walked Joy, she drew the normal amount of attention from strangers cooing over her sweet, innocent face. I paused on the sidewalk to speak to a mother whose tiny baby scooted on his stomach on a blanket covering the grass. I kept Joy on a short leash so she wouldn’t scare the baby, but soon let it go lax as I got caught up in conversation.
A mere moment later, I looked down in time to see that the little baby had scooted himself to the edge of the blanket and pulled himself up onto his hands and knees. It took all his strength to hold up his wobbly frame. Joy saw him, and though she was practically bursting with excitement and her tail wagged so hard it nearly knocked her over, she instantly dropped to her stomach just a few inches from the baby’s fascinated facial expression and inquisitive large blue eyes. She now was the same height as the baby and slowly inched herself straight towards him as he continued to fearlessly crawl towards her. There they were, both on all fours and nose to nose in wide-eyed curiosity of the other. Joy stayed on her stomach until the encounter was over, successfully avoiding scaring and overpowering the baby.
The mother and I laughed as we watched the stare down and I was suddenly so proud of how Joy handled herself around such a small child. I wished I had captured the moment on camera because it was definitely the cutest thing ever.
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