What the dog saw

"What happened to you?" the middle aged Italian woman asked, showing grave concern on her face.  She was asking another woman of similar age.  I could only see the back of the woman being asked, but I gather she was pretty banged up.

"Fell over the dog," she replied.

"Oh it's easy to do isn't it?"

"Oh so easy.  Yes, very easy.  Falling over the dog."

"Yes, falling over the dog.  You've got to be careful....you can't be too careful."

"Oh I know.  Can't be too careful.  And the dog."

Of course, now I was really curious about the fate of the dog.

What kind of dog was it?  Or should I say "is" it? If it was a chihuahua and she fell on the dog, the past tense may well be appropriate.  But wouldn't falling over a chihuahua be akin to falling over a blade of grass, a speck of dust, a stray hair?  It's a completely different scenario if the dog in question was a Great Dane.  I mean, there is something to fall over, but it would be hard to fail to notice the dog leaning there.  Go round!  Unless she is blind.  I hope it wasn't the guide dog! Oh no!

I love these snippets of conversation.  I love listening to the way people actually talk.  They talk like this in a mundane, ordinary way, full of non sequiturs, unfinished thoughts, words unsaid because they are already understood.

I wondered what the dog would say about the situation.

"Rex! What happened to you?"

"My human is an idiot. Got all excited. running around like a maniac.  Stood on me."

"God, those humans. You never know, you never know."

"I know.  She wouldn't listen to me when I told her to watch where she was going.  Now look at me."

"Still...you know...oh dear...what...", shakes head.

"I know. You never know."

"Well take care Rex."

"Yeah."