In the Society of Dogs

Before the sun is up, before all the stars go to bed and the moon makes an exit, Amelia and I are out for our morning walk. But we are not alone, no, we are in good company. There is a plethora of shadowy figures out doing the same thing at this ridiculous hour.
First there is Daisy (and owner). Daisy is a bassett hound that stumps along in a funny manner due to her short legs. Her ears flop about and she kind of waddles. If she is going past our house before I have Amelia out the door the raucous barking begins. Sometimes Daisy has her pet Cat tagging along. First Daisy (and owner) will waddle by and not far behind will be the Cat. This is a beautiful orange and white persian that is so amiable she/he does not know that not all dogs are like Daisy and it's never good if Amelia and I run into him/her. Not that Ami would hurt the Cat but she sure wants to chase her!
My favourite is the guy on the bike. My first winter when I moved to this neighborhood I would find what looked like bicycle tracks in the snow on the road. I could not figure that one out. Three feet of snow with this clean long thin line from a bike. But eventually I ran into "the guy with the bike" and the mystery was solved. This fella is out, usually before 6:00 am riding his bike through the neighborhood in all kinds of weather. Eventually, about 50 feet behind him will come a retriever mix running full tilt with the occasional stop to pee or sniff chasing "the guy with the bike." The dog is not leashed, he simply follows "the guy with the bike." Sometimes the dog is a good two blocks behind and I think "the guy with the bike" is gonna lose his dog. But no, that dog just keeps following. Amelia and I will be walking along and soon out of the darkness I can see "the guy with the bike" coming down the street. Amelia and I know what's coming next. She gets very excited so I pull her leash in tighter. Then we see these two red lights bouncing and blinging in the dark. These would be around the dog's collar, I assume for protection so the average car would see the dog. When the dog zooms by us he barks loudly and boisterously. I've yet to figure out if this is the dog saying "Get out of my way! I'm following "the guy with the bike!" or if he's saying "Ha, Ha, Ha! I'm running free, look at me and you are stuck on a leash!!" Either way, it is one happy dog.
Another is a very sedate German Shepherd that is very well behaved and stays close to it's owner. Occasionally, the German shepherd will be a little rebellious and bark a good morning to us.
There is quite a society going on in my neck of the woods. Long before the average human is up. I'm in good company.