dog daze

I am not sure what it says about my dogs’ instincts, but creatures in our neighborhood “wildlife habitat” – bunnies and ground squirrels – have become accustomed to seeing Comet and Dexter off-leash in the last couple weeks. The dogs rarely channel their “inner wolf” to give chase. It may be my calling them to heel, is allowing the animals scurry off. Or that the dogs are well-fed and therefore their next meal is waiting at home. Perhaps our dogs are not overly frightening. About the only time I see Comet upset and barking is while Dexter is playing with Tommy, and he is on the “outside”. I think it is an attention-seeking or coping mechanism for both dogs. And it does work, as we lavish attention on them, then give them what they want (whether that is a biscuit at home, or time off-leash). But they may not give chase to the squirrels as they know I just as easily will keep them on the leash, every walk, which I had done for nearly three years, BC (before Covid).

making new friends

Comet, my occasionally attention-desperate dog, had a pretty good week making friends. While Dexter often seems to judge the quality of his walk by the number of dogs or people that “acknowledge” him, Comet seemed to be positively beaming that he was the focus of several people’s greetings. Including the two ladies walking a friendly female Pittie. A few days later, on Friday afternoon, as my wife, the dogs and I were setting out for a late-afternoon hill climb, our new tiled mailbox, a gift of my wife’s coworker, provided an opportunity to meet a family new to the neighborhood. While I said hello to the husband, and our wives discussed the mailbox, their little girls were enamored with Comet. Dexter was encouraged as well. However, that meeting just made Comet’s gait that much more springy going up the hill. And our “little piggy face” (the girls’ name for Dexter)? He was charging up the hill along with the Missus. As for yours truly? Let’s just say I was taking everything in more slowly.

The whole experience may be a lesson for our new world. When the outside world seems to be in a calamity, whether a world health crisis, joblessness, anger, violence or political corruption, our little neighborhood community can tune it all out for a time. Once folks -families, children, young and older people do not have anywhere to be rushing off to – a walk, and often accompanied by pets, seems more enjoyable than staying home. Meet the neighbors you have rarely if ever, seen other than going off to work. Share some pleasantries. Help one another. If there is a positive to find in these strange times, as our regions start toward economic recovery, is that people may have gotten generally nicer. Perhaps we learned that rushing about, with blinders on, focused on our own lives and wants, we have missed the benefits of community.