Saturday, January 21, 2012




I would like to visit Africa to see the baobab trees.  The only trouble is that I no longer want to travel anywhere without my dogs.  That's okay because the trees of Eagle Landing Park are just as amazing as anything in Africa.  Maybe the alders near the beach are not as massive as African baobabs, but they are sleek and graceful.  Many homeowners consider alders a "junk" tree, something to cut down so you can buy a tree from the nursery.  I don't see how any other tree could be considered more beautiful than the alder.  Certainly no other tree is more beneficial to the environment. 

People have the same variety of opinions about dogs, Canis lupus familiaris.  Well, even my opinion of dogs varies from moment to moment.  Mostly I think they are wonderful.  In certain brief moments, I entertain the notion of taking them all to the pound.  I took all four dogs for a walk in the park today.  I stopped to take pictures, and sure enough, each time I sat all the dogs down and let go of their leashes, someone came along the path.  It is amazing how quickly people come up on you when you are trying to set down a camera and gather four dog leashes. 


People often ask me, "Are your dogs friendly?"  Because I usually have about two seconds to answer, the default answer has to be "No."  The true answer is Yes with an asterisk.  Yes, my dogs are exceedingly friendly.  However, when you get a dog on a leash in tight quarters, she can get tense, and there can be misunderstandings.  I have been asked, "Are your dogs  friendly" by a man with four dogs off-leash, smoking a cigarette in a park where smoking is not allowed.  He did not have control of his dogs, and he kicked one because he could not control her.  In this case, the answer would be, yes my dogs are friendly, but please keep your dogs away since you do not have control of them.  When two dogs meet, and one dog is on a leash and the other is off-leash, it creates an imbalance, and a short bout of snapping and snarling might ensue, even if both dogs are otherwise friendly.  When eight dogs meet in a confined space, and four are on leash and four are off leash, the results can be very unpredictable.  I only have two hands, and it's hard to micromanage four dogs at once.  If I just let all four dogs off-leash, things would probably work out okay, but that's not legal, and it's generally not in the dogs' best interest to be let off-leash in a park.  


A woman with no dogs approached us before I could grab all the leashes.  As my dogs ran up to her to be petted and greeted, she pulled up her hands and asked, in a rising voice, "Are your dogs friendly?"  It sounded a little like, "Are your dogs about to eat me alive?"  I grabbed them as quickly as I could and assured her they were friendly in that circumstance.  


As a general rule, when someone asks if my dogs are friendly, if I say yes, one of the dogs will misbehave and embarrass me.  If I say no, they will all sit there like the happiest, friendliest, safest dogs you ever could hope to meet.  The people we meet have all sorts of attitudes toward dogs, and I cannot say that my dogs will behave themselves in every circumstance.  For example, children often stare directly into a dog's eyes, right at eye level.  In dog language, this is an aggressive gesture.  Each of my dogs has barked at a child who was staring in this manner.  I can't stop and explain to every child that staring like that is rude in dog language.  


The bottom line is, yes, my dogs are friendly.  They are among the nicest people I know.  However, they do have a talent for misbehaving just at the crucial moment.  They have never bitten anyone, human or dog.  Kelsy and Karma work for Missing Pet Partnership, where Kelsy finds lost dogs and Karma finds lost cats.  Komu, the puppy, is in training to find lost cats.  They are not dangerous.  It would be nice if people approaching us on the trail gave us a few moments to get organized so we can be on our best behavior.  If one of my dogs misbehaves, I apologize in advance, and I assure you that you are not in danger.  A little patience and understanding would be greatly appreciated.

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