We had to evacuate the building yesterday. The speaker in our apartment was announcing ‘Evacuate Now’, very loudly!

It’s been a while since we’ve had to take the 9 flights of stairs to the ground. Let’s say, Lockie was a much fitter dog then, and I was telling her not to pull me over as she rushed down the stairs. It was a considerably different story yesterday! In fact, she doesn’t do stairs anymore, we always use a ramp. So, it was with trepidation that we entered the stairwell.

It was a long, slow descent, with us moving to one side to allow other residents to pass us. There are quite a few dogs in our building, mostly small ones. Their owners were carrying them down the stairs. I even stopped at one stage to see if I could carry Lockie. You know how that would’ve ended!

I was thinking about Lockie’s book, and how it mentions that some people carry their dogs around in handbags. I never really understood why anyone would do that, but yesterday, I got it! I would’ve given anything to be able to carry her down the stairs in a backpack.

Anyway, we made it down, to find out that it was a false alarm. Good news really. We did it Lock! I had to take a photo of Lockie in the stairwell today, just for this post and the fire engine photo was from my camera roll.

How good are Rina Bhabra’s illustrations from ‘Lockie the Famous City Dog’? Never a dull moment, living in the city!