October 16, 2005
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About the dog. The male dog who found his way into my yard was a brief encounter. When it came time to look for a puppy I tried to buy another Brittany. I found the perfect litter and had my heart set on the last remaining male. But some little shit beat me to it. He was ten.
That’s when I saw the ad for German Shorthairs and remembered that cool dog. Kathy is the only reader I know of who has had a G.S. and knows what I’m talking about. They are like no other dog I’ve known. They think they are on equal footing for some reason. Literally. Bridget is almost as comfortable on her hind legs as I am (on mine)
When I go into the kitchen to make something she is right there with me, standing side by side, with her paws on the counter, using them like hands. I tell her time after time to get down but I have to admit I am amused by her always wanting to get into the act. She loves to watch me cook. And it’s not because I feed her any of it.
It just about kills her when I don’t let her go with me in the car. My Brittany sat in the back and if it looked like I was going to stop the car she’d sit up and take note of where we were but otherwise she never looked. Bridget STANDS on the front seat with her head on the dash, navigating from her side. I don’t think she trusts my driving.
At home she watches my every move. When I’m at the computer, the minute I take my glasses off she is at my feet waiting to see what’s next. At first it drove me crazy but I’m getting used to it.
When she knows she’s coming with me she sits by the door, barely able to contain herself. While I fetch my keys and coat, these desperate whimpers become a full cry as she bolts through the door. She races through the driveway but instead of getting into the car she tears through the front yard, which is roughly half an acre, speeding from her favorite bird-watching spot under the wisteria tree at the far edge of the yard, back across to the opposite end, inside the neighbor’s hedge. This goes on, back and forth, until I start to get irritated with the wait. Then instead of dashing into the hedge she circles the car and hurls herself into the backseat, crashing into the back of what she considers her seat, nimbly jumping into the front. Rather than sitting, while she waits for me to start the car, she does a half sit with her butt up against the back.
She is the strongest, fastest dog I have ever had. To see her in the field is a sight to behold. She leaps through brush like a rabbit, running just to run. She will go full tilt for the whole hour our walk takes and not tire. I’ve yet to see a dog outrun her. But when I take her to dog parks and she gets into these running matches it pisses some of the dogs off. And then she gets competitive. Kathy, if you’re reading this, is that typical? My dog can get really aggressive. And when I get crazy and dance around with her she gets really worked up and starts doing body slams into my legs. She’s a wild thang.
The gusto with which this dog lives life makes me laugh, and the way she always wants to snuggle melts my heart but when she starts walking around the kitchen on two legs like she does, it’s just weird. But that’s my Bridget.
Comments (27)
This dog is quite the character isn’t it? I love my dog Max for some of the same reasons you give about Bridget. Max gets so excited to go somewhere, anywhere if he hears the word GO, yes, we literally have to spell, and he is starting to catch onto that trick too, he too bolts for the door. Tireless too on walks. He runs the length of the lane 1 mile everyday as we go to unload then go on the 3-4 mile walk.
RYC: Jenny got herself back to the ranch, limping just a smidge. Queensland Heelers are so tough this was just a bump in the road to her. Also winterizing is putting our boats away where the winter can’t beat them up too much and taking the Evaporative cooler out of the window where it is literally chalked into place since it is through an existing window. Trust me if I could do these jobs myself I would of already done them. Dave is just so busy with feeding cattle already I hate to bother him. Course I love doing it all so it is almost a bother to me to ask!!
There is something about dogs that come into our lives. I have this theory that like the children we receive, our animals are destined for us as well. You got a great one.
One day i’ll post about the farm collie we grew up with
Here’s a little [James] Joyce for ya…it related to someone elses post, and since i still got it in the cache(?)
—
Eternity! O, dread and dire word. Eternity! What mind of man can understand it? And remember, it is an eternity of pain. Even though the pains of hell were not so terrible as they are, yet they would become infinite, as they are destined to last for ever. But while they are everlasting they are at the same time, as you know, intolerably intense, unbearably extensive. To bear even the sting of an insect for all eternity would be a dreadful torment. What must it be, then, to bear the manifold tortures of hell for ever? For ever! For all eternity! Not for a year or for an age but for ever. Try to imagine the awful meaning of this. You have often seen the sand on the seashore. How fine are its tiny grains! And how many of those tiny little grains go to make up the small handful which a child grasps in its play. Now imagine a mountain of that sand, a million miles high, reaching from the earth to the farthest heavens, and a million miles broad, extending to remotest space, and a million miles in thickness; and imagine such an enormous mass of countless particles of sand multiplied as often as there are leaves in the forest, drops of water in the mighty ocean, feathers on birds, scales on fish, hairs on animals, atoms in the vast expanse of the air: and imagine that at the end of every million years a little bird came to that mountain and carried away in its beak a tiny grain of that sand. How many millions upon millions of centuries would pass before that bird had carried away even a square foot of that mountain, how many eons upon eons of ages before it had carried away all? Yet at the end of that immense stretch of time not even one instant of eternity could be said to have ended. At the end of all those billions and trillions of years eternity would have scarcely begun. And if that mountain rose again after it had been all carried away, and if the bird came again and carried it all away again grain by grain, and if it so rose and sank as many times as there are stars in the sky, atoms in the air, drops of water in the sea, leaves on the trees, feathers upon birds, scales upon fish, hairs upon animals, at the end of all those innumerable risings and sinkings of that immeasurably vast mountain not one single instant of eternity could be said to have ended; even then, at the end of such a period, after that eon of time the mere thought of which makes our very brain reel dizzily, eternity would scarcely have begun.
While i didn’t get nothing as profound as THAT in my book…i do think i caught some of the humour of the expatriated Dublin punmiester
NYC: I would rather’v heard about your farm collie.
That puppy sounds adorable!!
i’m sure you’d like to see the picture of me looking Sal Mineoish in my gaudy plaid jacket as a chile sitting in Queen Elizabeth’s lap…but since i had a sense of Destiny when i was about 7 i started destroying all those links to the past…NOW i only use them when i have nothing RELEVANT to write
The other day I met a woman who said she her dog was so wonderful, if he was human she would marry him. Cold wet nose and all.
Gosh, I love the detail in your posts. All I can say is, what a dog. Sounds like one I would like to see in action. Cheers.
I never had a dog. I am a cat person. But your writing about your dog makes me want one.
I am with writer_within. But I can truley witness this in my mind. I love your writing and this is a very visual story. Thanks!
That was great, Pru! So much detail, I feel I know her already. *smile* And it’s my Jack who thinks he’s a little person, standing on his hind legs either for me to scratch his head or so he can try to reach my coffee cup, when I’m putting cream into it. (Yes, I oblige him and Peaches with a couple of drops on the floor. I know it’s not good for them, but they don’t.) I think my world more complete with their company. While I do adore my boyfriend, I know I’d be lost without that extra 40lbs. of love in my life.
ryc: I so know it. It’s what makes me human. It’s hard to think one is “all that and a bag of chips” when one is constantly reminded by *shared event.* hehehe
I love you…GFW
A good dog who sees the possibility of being bipodal…all she needs is an opposing thumb…sounds like a good friend to have..my dogshadows me as possible as does my cat..and they don’t like it that they are not allowed in the room whereour cockatiel has his cage and at times his fly time……
note that i didn’t say “is worth” but that it didn’t cost me anything. comparatively, my part in all of this has been downhill.
I need to find a dog that suits everyone in our family.
We’ve tried out a couple (a Siberian that we foster-cared and my brothers Rottweiler) but ‘still haven’t met “The One.”
I love it when you write about your dog! You inspire me to make my post about her. We’ll see if that actually happens, since I JUST commented to somebody else about my Milly.
Tears..as in from the eyes. To catch all those hurt feeling cries, WAH-WAH cries, fall down and hurt your knee cries and sadness. Open up the jar, scoop up the tears off the face and save them on the top shelf. Just the act of scooping up tears makes them stop crying and start laughing or at least be quiet. Yeah quiet!
I know what you mean about German Shepherds. My sister had one that had to be put to sleep a month or so ago. It was so sad. That dog was the gentlest and most affectionate pet. And I’m a cat person! I used to be afraid of big dogs until my sister had her G.S. Maybe watching him grow up helped my phobia about big dogs.
I wrote about animals in my blog. It soon will be replaced by Art Smarts, so you might want to scroll back a day if it’s not the current blog.
Lynn
ryc: /hugs
That would be a hard class. I just wish you had another way of dealing with it sides a bar.
As for Merlin, I can’t yet give up…I have one real possibility with Hypothyroid disease. And if it isn’t that, then I’ll consider, but I can’t just do it without trying my best. And it may not make any sense to you or anyone else, but when I was sick once and “biting” so to speak in my illness…everyone else in my life “put me down” so to speak and I was left alone. If only someone had tried to help me. And so I feel the same way about my dog.
I know you’re thinking of me, but those words still hurt.
dogs are great.
You have a wonderful companion. Britanny sounds adorable and unique to
say the least. She watches you cook? That is pretty neat. I like her and dont know her.
I have a dog who was left in a cage for six months, when I gor him in April, he was so timid and would hide. He would skulk out after midnight to run to the food and water dish. Then skulk back to his hiding place. He finally got used to me and he follows me every place, even to the bathroom, I say , please may I have some privacy while bathing, but he insists on staying.
Im sorry you pick was given away.
I havent, that I know of seen the a German Shorthair.
I loved reading this. It was fun and made me smile.
About trackers on your blog, I dont have one nor want one. Like you, I am happy with the people who come by.
There are some people who’s comments; I really miss when they dont come by, you are one, truth.
I love people, and being a reluctant recluse, this is a way to interact with so many people and learn so many things. Sometimes those people bnecome dear to your heart.
I am glad to have found your blog to read.
Take care
Peace and Love:)
RYC and I do know what you mean….instinctively we read other people’s eyes. I worked with a man once who had both expressive,and receptive aphasia..-he could hear but could not use or produec language due to a brain injury,but I and other staff were highly committed to his recovery in part because his face was so expressive,,and he learned signs quickly.When you can’t communicate with your eyes it is a major disadvantage…and they can be the clue to others that you are capable of communication if other modalities are not functional Thanks for reading…
Thanks for stopping by. Please post th eimage of someone You know in this war—Let’s put a face on the WAR for Peace.
Thanks
M
She sounds like a magnificent dog. I’m such a dog person.
I must go look up the breed so I can have a picture in my mind.
you made her come alive and i loved this piece of descriptive writing! it was perfect!
ryc: i am very tired- it’s not impressive, it’s just a lot of work for not nearly enough money, but i love the side benefits and the actual teaching, so maybe i’ll get better at it- i hope so!
ryc: this is the adopted one…
the apathetic one is the one i sent you that long email about. i don’t claim him as one of my children. he is 100% friend.
Those dogs… This “new” one (and I realize we’re coming up on a year together) is a creature of habit. I started taking her out on her walks at lunchtime. It’s a nice break for me, working from the house as I do. So now about 11:30 she comes up and starts batting me with her paw. She knows I’m going to eat lunch first but she wants to get me downstairs! Whenver I put shoes on she goes bananas, twirling 360 degrees (yes a full circle!) in front of me, yelping with excitement.
you’ve written of the only dog i’ve ever heard about who might be as nifty as the late japanese chin, buppy and spock…..and written well. she sounds marvelous…. also congratulations for being five and eight years out with no recurrance and here’s my good wishes that you always stay in good health…..