A Dog’s Eye View of San Jose

So my Mom has been posting about this sort of move to part-time residency in San Jose. She’s mentioned some road trips and excursions to find places of interest. She should have made clear that most of those jaunts didn’t include dogs. Well, the one to Los Gatos Creek Trail did. But my sister, Lucy, and I had to be on a leash. In fact, leashes seem to be the rule nearly everywhere around here. So far, Mom hasn’t found any good places where we can run free like we do in Sonoma. Or maybe she hasn’t been looking hard enough — wasting her times as she is trying to find historical places and dry cleaners and stuff. So let me tell you what it’s like for a dog in San Jose. Or at least what it’s like for a new dog in town who hasn’t yet been brought to the cool places. First of all, there are those leashes. Since I’m not very good at walking on a leash, I have to wear a harness. And Mom just grabbed a stupid pink one from the Martha Stewart Collection at PetCo. So color me embarrassed in addition to annoyed by this leash thing.

So anyway, here’s what I know about San Jose — or the Rose Garden District which is where we always seem to be walking around.

Almost the first thing of interest we come to on our walks are two schools: Abraham Lincoln High School and Herbert Hoover Middle School.

I prefer to wee and poo at Herbert Hoover. Perhaps because he was one of the worst Presidents ever.

Or perhaps I prefer its historic 1933 Mediterranean Revival architecture.

Or it could just be that Hoover has a good rolling lawn.

As we continue on, some of the streets aren’t too bad. At least they have lots of trees.

I’m not sure yet if I like palm trees.

And trees like this are just stupid. Not to mention that Mexican gardeners will yell at you if you try to wee on them.

Our destination is always the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden. Apparently, San Jose has two Rose Gardens, but this is the one we can walk to.

Then we get there and find out we can’t even go in! We can walk on the wide grass lawn around the park, but we can’t get in to wee on all those rose bushes.

We’d rather be IN the garden away from the traffic that goes by the outside of the garden.

Are they fricken serious? A park with no dogs allowed?

So we head back a different way and admire the paintings on every street utility box.

Not sure about this one. It’s kind of creepy.

Not to mention that these big street sweeper thingys go by here.

I hate those things. RUN AWAY!

Then walking, walking until the utility box art shows us we are near one of our favorite places.

But wouldn’t a picture of the Jackal Headed God (who looks like a terrier) have been a better choice than a cat?

Yay! The Rosecrucian Gardens near the museum. Are dogs allowed? Well, there are no signs saying otherwise.

We like hanging out near Sphinxes. But we never wee on them just in case it would bring on a mummy’s curse.

Yeah, this place is pretty cool. And no one said we can’t be here.

So that’s a typical day’s walk. It’s not like Sonoma where we run and splash in ponds and there are never any leashes.

But it’s amazing how tired a walk like this can get you.

Say, it’s not easy being a city dog.