Most days the 4 legg-ed fur people are the best part of my mail routes. SERIOUSLY. They don't bitch ( much), and I have a lot of fun naming them for what they do or don't do.

I had 'grumpy's' route for the past 8 days. TWELVE MILES A DAY of walking in this godforsaken humidity and heat. So I HAVE to entertain myself somehow so I dont go nuts. I have my favorites along this route. First there is "Not" Hes a big ole yellow lab. I call him "Not" because he's NOT nice, NOT friendly, and NOT the kind of dog who I can nicely feed a treat I carry in my mail chick satchel. when I walk past his yard he acts like he wants to gobble me up entirely WHOLE. I mean the whole ears laid back, showing all his sharp teeth type thing. WELL I met his owner at Pizza Hut last week where we all meet for lunch every Thursday. Turns out he used to be a letter carrier too! So Mr. R comes out of the house 3 days ago and talks to me and "Not" goes to doing the 'Im going to eat you alive and screaming" bark thing, and he tells him "HUNTER BE QUIET" and 'Not' hushes right up. I have to laugh because, well see, Hunter is my son's name!
ANYWAY, as I walk down the sidewalk which boarders "Hunters" fence, we have a chat. I tell him, "look, we have to be friends now since me and your dad are fellow carriers and all, but ESPECIALY since you have a cool name right?" and he responds by only acting as if he'd eat HALF of me. So I toss him a treat and he does this neat catch-it-in-mid-air-trick.
'cooooollll' I tell him.
so TODAY I walk up and he's just laying in the shade. I ask him if he's sick. He just gets up. and meets me at the fence. he stands up and hags his paws over the top and hes as tall as me. I think he could easily just leeeeaan over and nibble on me pretty easily if he wanted so I stay back. I tell him hi and he gives me a half hearted barking thing that says he'd only gnaw my leg off at the knee so I toss him a treat and he does the catch in the air thing again. I tell him he's a prettty dang cool dog, if he'd just stop the madness, and he actualy DID. He went and laid back down in the shade! Maybe it was progresss. Maybe he knew that I had talked to his dad.
maybe it was just too hot to try to eat a mail chick.

2 streets over I have a nest of baby birds in a mail box! Well I don't, but a mama bird does, and I've been watching them for this past week! First they were eggs ( obviously) then right after I noticed the nest they hatched!!! Talk about UGLY!!! bald, big head-ed things, but still, they are sorta too ugly NOT to be cute!! I kept putting the mail on one side of the mailbox, hoping the owners had noticed the babies, but I kept worrying that they wouldnt, and what if they just stuffed some heavy mail in and smooshed them? I mean they were only the size of an average goldfish! So I put a little note on the outside of the mailbox that read:
"CAREFUL!! BABY BIRDS INSIDE!!" ( and added a happy face so they wouldnt think I was being bossy. I mean it IS their mailbox after all. ) I was kind of worried that they might be the type of people who would think GROSS!!! BIRDS CAN CARRY LICE!! and toss them out and kill them. So I was stressing over 'my babies'

so the next day, I walk up to the house, and they had hung a wal mart bag from the botttom of the mail box with a BIG typed note that read PLEAS PUT ALL MAIL IN THE BAG! WE HAVE A FAMILY OF BABY BIRDS WHO HAVE TAKEN UP RESIDENCE IN OUR MAIL BOX! I did a litttle happy dance right there in the drive way!! Then I open the lid to say hi and mama bird does a dive out of the box and almost takes out my eyeball.
niiiice.

As of today they are 1 week old, and getting some fuzz. Today was my last day on Grumpy's route. Im sorta sad to leave my babies. : ( I left him a note on his case to be careful of the eye stabbing bird, and to be nice to the babies. Hell make fun of me, but I make fun of all of them too so were even.

tomorrow I have the route where a dog named 'short bus' lives. and no, thats NOT the name I gave him. but it IS a really cool name isnt it!