“Oh Mia.”

I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve said those two words in the four years I’ve walked Mia.

We began when she was a puppy and, along with Ivan, Edgar (RIP), and Odin, I’ve walked them four to five days a week ever since.

Mia’s biggest issue in life is that she’s much too energetic and just can’t contain herself. She’s calmed down a little now that she’s an adult, but she was pretty crazy when she was younger. Her owner and I have both been driven nuts by her escapades.

While out on walks, Mia has found every way possible to get tangled in her leash. She’s had it wrapped around three of her four legs at the same time. She’s managed to get the leash underneath whichever dog she’s walking with more times than I can count. And once she even included me in her tangles. While barking at another dog, she backed up between my legs, went right, then forward, then backed up between my legs again, wrapping the leash around my lower leg.

But the best Mia walking story is when she high-centered herself on top of Ivan. She was still under a year old and, for some reason known only to Mia, she decided to jump over Ivan instead of walking around him. Well… she only made it halfway and ended up perched on top of him with all four feet dangling off the ground.

Ivan, bless him, didn’t freak out or anything. He just stood there looking at me, silently asking for help getting this crazy little dog off of him. I can’t remember exactly how I did it, but somehow I got her back on solid ground and we continued our walk.

“Oh Mia.”

Now don’t take any of this the wrong way. Mia is a sweet, loving dog. She just has an incredible talent for getting herself into messes. She’s matured a lot during our time together, and for the most part, the leash-tangling days are behind her.

But every once in a while she’ll still find herself tangled in some strange way on our walk. I’ll get her untangled, give her a scratch behind the ears, and we’ll be on our way.

“Oh Mia.”