Out for a Walk

Despite lack of their mention before I do indeed have pets. I have an Australian Shepherd names Aleu, and 2 ferrets named Twilight and Sora.

When I walk in general I walk barefoot and when walking the dog there is no exception. I live in a nice enough neighborhood (lower middle class, but one of the quieter areas as far as crime goes), and thankfully the only issue I tend to run into are the leavings of other dogs with owners not polite enough to pick it up (on the odd occasion I do step in it I simply rub it off on the ground to the best of my ability, and wash when I get home). I notice when walking my dog I don't get many, if any comments. I'm simply one of quite a few locals that walk their dog, and Aleu gets more of the attention than I do.

As the weather cools off though I find my ferrets enjoy going on the occasional outdoor outing as well, and while the ferrets don't tend to walk as far they seem to draw far more attention. Yet as odd as tit is to see ferrets out and about... Somehow that attention transfers over to my bare feet far more often than walking my dog.

I've asked a couple of people, and most of them seem to give me some variation of 'I've never seen ferrets before, and their so close to your feet!" This may be true as at least Twilight is shy of people and will try to get me to pick him up when presented with a new person, but I wonder if it's simply the fact that people tend to ignore the little things when they see what they're use to and the mind simply fills in the blanks. I wonder if people don't simply see someone walking a dog and move on, but are jolted by some other animal at the end of the leash and thus see the other oddities as well.

Just a theory, likely based on taking far too many psychology courses, but I wish there was some way to really test it.

As cold weather is soon coming in I await the "aren't your feet cold?" comments, and some of my class mates are taking bets as to when I'll put on shoes (never if I can help it, but I've considering investing in some soft soled moccasins though I honestly doubt I can due to the high price tags they tend to carry).