Variously running dogs
This evening we burst through the illegal shortcut onto the sports ground and saw distantly on the far side of said ground a woman walking her two dogs. They were so far away they weren’t even identifiable.* One of them was black, so chances are it was a Lab; the other one was a small spotty white blob so chances are it was a Jack Russell. They were off lead, of course, or there would be no story, and to give the woman credit she was doing that tossing the ball while they walked trick, to keep the dogs paying attention to her instead of finding their own mischief. The only problem with this excellent plan is that it wasn’t working. From the far bloody end of the rec field the Lab saw us, froze, head and tail up, and then turned and arrowed for us. Oh great. So I reefed the hellhounds in and prepared to repel boarders. I don’t like having a whole thirty seconds or so to contemplate past sins, including the decision to walk on the sports ground this evening. If I’m about to die, I would rather get it over with quickly. It did give me the opportunity to observe Nemesis, however, including that it didn’t have its head straight out from the shoulders in that teeth-are-my-main-feature manner that a dog with mayhem on its mind often does.** I also notice inescapably that it is, in fact, a Lab.*** And the spotty white blob, which is also on its way, despite the considerable disadvantage of its length of leg–it is however barking insanely to insure that none of us overlooks it: not I certainly, I’m very impressed by its ability to bark and run at the same time–is equally clearly a Jack Russell.
These points converge, as they will do, and for a minute or two All Was a Seething Vortex. The Lab was, at least, friendly, rather mysteriously, because the thirty-second hurtle is not generally provoked by positive feelings toward one’s fellow canines. So was the Jack Russell, but aside from the native aggressiveness of terriers in general†, this was less surprising because it was obviously merely making sure the Lab wasn’t having some fun it was getting left out of. And the woman eventually turned up–she’s my age and not built for running–rather than continuing on across the other side of the field pretending she’d never seen those two ill-mannered and disobedient dogs in her life, which dog owners have been known to do in similar circumstances, and a critical amount of sorting-out occurred. And the hellhounds and I stomped off in the direction we’d been going, a trifle rumpled perhaps, but nobody was bleeding. I rate a lot of situations†† by the presence or absence of blood.
And then we went past the hall where Peter plays bridge from 7 pm every Saturday–where Peter was playing bridge. It’s on one of my regular town hellhound walks and now that it’s daylight gloriously late this is likely to happen more often†††. And the wall that faces into the courtyard is all glass, and with some difficulty I resisted the temptation to press my nose against some of it and make horrible faces. The average age of this particular bridge club is 120, which makes Peter young and me about twelve, and thus a quite plausible maker of horrible faces through windows.
Then we came back to the cottage and I began the mildly revolting task of washing dog kit. Please tell me I’m not the only dog owner on the planet who spends occasional evenings‡ squidging pongy nylon harness through biological detergent and hanging it up to drip-dry over a bucket. I tell myself at least this dog era I have an Aga to move any drip-dry situation briskly on.
And now, if you’ll forgive me for leaving you a little early, I have probably another brain hour or two left, and I’m at the cottage, which means no piano, and it’s dark which means no gardening, so I’m going to pull PEGASUS out again and see if I can make any sense of it. I had a Meeting with My Builder at Third House this morning during which he began breaking me in to some of the details of this dire business of The Loft Conversion including that it would be cheaper overall if I did it all at once instead of in stages. This is rock and hard place stuff: I have to get that weight-bearing floor in before the boxes of backlist plunge through the ceiling, but unless I want to let hellhounds off lead more often so they can run through barbed wire and catch rabbits both for their supper and ours, I can’t afford to do it all at once.‡‡ Meanwhile the very first thing on the agenda is finding out if the room walls downstairs are weight bearing walls suitable for having weight bearing floors dropped on them. Oh dear. Lighting candles. . . .
* * *
* And the only reason I was guessing it was a woman is because she was wearing a skirt. Not definitive, I agree, but it does raise probability.
** I see it often in the hellhounds, stalking ducks by the river. The fact that they are on heel at the time, and I have the leads run in to the snap and my mighty bell-ringing shoulders ready to take the strain should they forget themselves, has no effect whatsoever. If you’re a hellhound, you must stalk ducks. I think I’ve told you we march along the river margin, listing heavily waterward because the ducks tend to congregate that side of the path, with me saying loudly, Will you get in the water, you stupid ducks? We’re predators, damn it. I try to do this only when there are no other English-speakers around but I don’t always succeed. I didn’t succeed today. My notoriety is spreading.
*** Sigh
† Yeah, yeah, yeah, you terrier people: tell me about it. Terriers are aggressive the way sighthounds run through barbed wire: it’s been inadvertently bred into them as a result of what you want: you want a brave little beggar that’ll follow a fox into its earth (or anyway you did, if you live in England, before the new hunting laws) and is hell on rats even after it finds out they bite. Sighthounds run through barbed wire because it’s been bred into them that they really want to catch that thing they’re chasing, and if they stick to it they probably will, because they’re probably faster than it is. Have I said all this before? Sorry. It’s a bit of a pet peeve. Domestic animals are what we have made them, and just like with human people, their greatest virtues are usually the flip side of their greatest vices.
†† Including the noisy 4 am ones
††† I was in the garden till after 7. It was heavenly. Except, of course, for the rain. Which kept fretfully starting and then indecisively stopping. I decided it was not wet rain^ and kept planting little green things. It of course desperately wanted to rain because my over-the-road neighbour was having a barbeque. They are very good neighbours, but too many of their friends drive SUVs and one of them has a braying laugh too frequently employed.
^ See, I am English after all
‡ Saturday night is optional. But it makes a change from shampooing the cat.
‡‡ The bit I’d been brooding about is the idea of having to claw my way into a builder’s schedule more than once.
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Only you could write such a long post and then apologise for leaving early. *Shakes head and reaches for candles* All I can say is, thank God I got that storm lantern, otherwise the candle burning that goes on in this house would set the place on fire now that the windows are beginning to be more and more open.
have some salad with fresh nasturtiums.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/susan_from_athens/2461831177/
Very healthy and very tasty.
Yes, and very PEPPERY. But so pretty, how could you bear to EAT? :)
The ***darling*** tortoise! You should have cut a strawberry up for him! :) (How on earth did he climb to a penthouse flat in the middle of a city?!? He must have come in on a plant?)
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Well, fairly obviously, I’m afraid, this wasn’t my balcony, it was in a friend’s garden, a couple of years ago, and she was overrun with tortoises, as her own (who arrived on their own) were joined by an extra eight that somebody she knew had brought over (as this third person was having work done at their home and was afraid for the tortoises – does that sound convoluted?).
The salad was pretty but also tasty, and there are more nasturtiums where those came from.
Oh but I LIKED the idea of the baby tortoise arriving in a pot of . . . well, not basil . . . :)
Tortoises (and they might start out baby but they grow) would eat me out of garden faster than I care to think about. It’s bad enough with the pests we already have. In a real garden they serve a very good purpose and have a good life, on a balcony they would be a plant-destroying nuisance and probably miserable.
But this one was unbearably cute. Tortoises are incredibly cranky animals and this one was obviously a miniature W.C. Fields
Well I@ve known one or two garden-pet, not pest, tortoises, but you’re right about the appetite. Alternate greens were provided!
By the way I just went far enough back to see your photo comments – sorry still very busy… Yes, very normal, I’m afraid. I will try and find some photos with interesting Athens backgrounds, or something more exotic, but I make no promises. The piece around my neck in the Embankment photo is a American Indian design with a lovely piece of spiderweb turquoise, with three tongues of stone-cast silver, that I got when visiting Santa Fe a few years back. I have a thing about jewellery, the artisan-made kind, with a mostly minimal look, and I have a steadily growing collection.
Very cool! I love jewelry too but I don’t think I have a specialty.
You might both enjoy one of my favorite films on YouTube–“Peanut’s Great Escape.” No tortoises were harmed in the making of the film… and btw Susan, those are some great photos!
(I’m still alive, and will have pictures of people actually enjoying the exhibit up on Flickr sometime soon.)
Hmmm. I’m not convinced that tortoise is having a good time. I’d like it better if there were a large platter of lettuce leaves or what have you at the foot of those stairs.
You’ve opened, have you? Congratulations! Do you get to dress up and say things like, Holy crowd control, Batman!
According to the video’s author, tortoises do that kind of thing all the time. :) Part of what I love about that video is that it shows how amazingly adapted tortoises are–they can do stairs (or rocks, or whathaveyou obstacles out in the wilderness) in their own way. They just have to not be afraid of falling… or of trying in the first place… :)
Yes. Opened. Opening went very well from the public perspective, the exhibit is fantastic if I do say so myself! From behind the scenes, there were a few powerfully awful moments with the Big Giant Head and I’m not entirely sure our entire exhibit team will still be here in another week. We’ll see.
Pictures will be up shortly, and you can judge my claims of fantasticness for yourself. Though I still don’t have a good shot of the Batmobile–the lighting in the cave is too moody for my flash to overcome…
I *did* like the tortoise wiggling itself to the edge of the stair–that’s creative problem solving!
Looking forward eagerly!
I liked it too, but in a cringeing – oh, no, not on its poor head! way. Very anthropomorphic of me, I know. But stubborn, I think those animals just define the word.
Glad you liked the pics Blackbear and congratulations about the opening! I imagine the last few hours or the night before were fraught.
Robin, I’d tell you another zoo story here about the mating habits of Aldabera tortoises, but (even more so than the penguin story) it really does require the use of gestures and sound effects. Suffice it to say, a tortoise’s lot is not an easy one! :)
Yes, there’s fraught and then there’s fraught. I can’t really blog too much about the fraughtness, unless I go friend-lock it on LJ. But gah. Seriously. Would that I were Darth Vader, and could strangle someone using only my mind powers…
Oh dear, I’m sorry. Maybe work on the mind powers?!?
Broaden your literary horizons. Figure out how to tell t he tortoise story WITHOUT gestures. :)
Right, here are the new photos of the final install and exhibit in action. I must say iit’s fairly thrilling to see something you’ve been working on for nearly a year finally realized in 3 dimensions, with kids and families having a great time enjoying it. I imagine it might be somewhat akin to walking into a bookstore and seeing someone happily engrossed reading your newly published novel. :)
Wow, it looks AMAZING! (I want a Superman logo wall light!!!!) Well done you!
I went to look but couldn’t get a picture – waaaah! That link comes up as private – but I soo wanted to view your exhibition!
and with some difficulty I resisted the temptation to press my nose against some of it and make horrible faces.
Oh gosh. I can imagine how strongly you must have wanted to!
I’m going to pull PEGASUS out again and see if I can make any sense of it.
Oh YAY! I wonder sometimes how you manage to write in between all the things you do. You’re always so busy! I’m excited to hear anything about writing and your books, if you ever wanted to babble about them. ;)
And I’m glad the encounter with the Lab and Terrier was bloodless. *pets the hellhounds*
and with some difficulty I resisted the temptation to press my nose against some of it and make horrible faces.
Oh gosh. I can imagine how strongly you must have wanted to!
******* some things you just *don’t grow out of.* I think maybe people get slow and boring from trying to pretend they’ve grown out of the urge to press their noses against windows and make horrible faces!!!!!
I’m going to pull PEGASUS out again and see if I can make any sense of it.
Oh YAY! I wonder sometimes how you manage to write in between all the things you do.
******** Yes, I worry about this too, when the ME is bad, which it has been too much lately. But this is why (a) I never go anywhere and (b) don’t read as much (fiction) as I want to! Pollyanna’s booklist is making me CRAZY!!! :)
You’re always so busy! I’m excited to hear anything about writing and your books, if you ever wanted to babble about them. ;)
********** I haven’t figured out *how*. The stuff I blog about is all on a different level. I should read your journal more often for ideas!!!!! :)
And I’m glad the encounter with the Lab and Terrier was bloodless. *pets the hellhounds*
******* *hellhounds purr* :)
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I think blogging about writing is easier when you’re first starting out. You’re learning so much and everything is new! And then the slog sets in. I mean, I ***love*** writing! With lots of exclamation points! But it’s harder to blog about writing when the learning curve is less curvy. *I* think, anyway.
But I’d be *honored* if you ever read my journal. These days, when I talk about writing, I yammer about fixing plot problems and stuff, or whine about not having figured it out yet. (Lately it’s been whining. I’m almost halfway through a novel and we’re not exactly talking to each other. Not about the things I *want* to talk about, at least.)
I think maybe people get slow and boring from trying to pretend they’ve grown out of the urge to press their noses against windows and make horrible faces!!!!!
Totally! Or girlishly squeeing in the middle of a crowded place. Or skipping! Holding hands! Spinning around! …yeah, I don’t get out much, either. There’s probably a reason for that. ;)
I haven’t read your journal lately, but I check in occasionally. It’s interesting specifically seeing a just-starting-out writer wrestling. :) I can’t even think how to explain my lack of blogging about writing, except to say again that the writing stuff seems to happen on a different LEVEL. Blogging is very *revealing* and I’d rather reveal the silly stuff! My day to day life, pfui, you know? :) But Merrilee has pointed out that since this blog is supposed to be about making my PUBLISHER happy it might be a good idea if I thought about this some more.
Totally! Or girlishly squeeing in the middle of a crowded place. Or skipping! Holding hands! Spinning around! …yeah, I don’t get out much, either. There’s probably a reason for that. ;)
******* Generally speaking one of the GOOD things about getting old (and there are a lot of CRUMMY things) is that you Just Don’t Care That Much, so if you want to go on behaving like a loony (I Have Always Worn Purple, I Did Not Wait to Get Old), you just do. But every now and then–partly because this society is so damn youth-obsessed–you/I DO start to worry about the whole Mutton Dressed/Behaving as Lamb thing. Mostly I don’t worry about it. And if I get it wrong occasionally, feh, the world will probably survive. :) And I’ll post that picture of me in my denim miniskirt some day . . . :)
If you need topic ideas — maybe specific writing things to blog about — I will be happy to ask a million and one questions. And *not* where do you get your ideas. (Even if it wasn’t already in your FAQ, everyone asks that question, and people’s answers are pretty much the same. Dunno. Idealand?)
Blogging *is* revealing. More for you than a lot of us, since you’re a fancy published author and have oodles of fans. You have to be extra careful about the things you blog about. I have less to worry about. (Although I try to plan for the day when my fame finally figures out it can use Google Maps to find me. Hellooooo fame! *waves hands*)
The world definitely needs the denim miniskirt picture.
The world definitely needs the denim miniskirt picture.
******* Snork! speaking of revealing.
blogging about writing: I’m thinking, I’m *thinking.* You might try a few *seeded* questions, just experimentally. . . .
Haha, yes, revealing. *giggle*
I’ll email a few questions over, since this post is about to be closed to comments. :)
***** with some difficulty I resisted the temptation to press my nose against some of it and make horrible faces
Oh please, pleeeeease, don’t resist! I’ll join you.It sounds such fun! We can make faces at them together, then stagger off giggling, in the wake of hellhounds :)
To the PUB. :) We met an ADORABLE Staffie today. I thought she was about three months old, but she’s a runt of the litter and nine months old and absolutely too cute and too friendly and I wanted to take her *home.* (The hellhounds would have helped.) And yesterday I met an adorable BULL TERRIER. When this one wrenched its lead out of its walker’s hand I had the whole life-in-front-of-eyes flash again but she trotted up–with the musclebound swagger they all have–to us wagging her tail and put up with the hellhounds as if born to be social. I wanted to take her home too.
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******* To the PUB. :)
Sounds good to me :) I found a lovely cider which tasted soo appley (I know they all should, but …) and thought of your post bell ringing habits. Sounds like another reason to ring :)
Very glad you and hellhounds have had fun meeting bullies. If I hear of any kidnapped in Hampshire I kow where to look lol. Good bullies (BT and sbt) are fabulous, bad are to-be-avoided-at-all-costs. I totally understand the life-in-front-of-eyes; long enough to panic, not enough to escape.
I think sighthounds and bullies are very art deco, all sweeping lines & curves. Definitely visually attractive – altho it’s very common to walk down the street and hear someone say loudly “Urrgh! That dog looks like a pig!” At which the offending bullie usually grins widely (showing many teeth) and attempts to head towards them (any one who speaks to me MUST be a friend!) Exit commentator briskly!!
The musclebound swagger is what won me over I think, but how do you pin down elements of attraction?
******* To the PUB. :)
Sounds good to me :) I found a lovely cider which tasted soo appley (I know they all should, but …) and thought of your post bell ringing habits. Sounds like another reason to ring :)
******* It is THE reason to ring. Ringing is the excuse to go to the pub! It’s in the rules! :) Wha tKIND of cider?! Cider’s my FAVOURITE. (Although if the pub’s cider is boring, best bitter will do nicely. too.)
Very glad you and hellhounds have had fun meeting bullies. If I hear of any kidnapped in Hampshire I kow where to look lol. Good bullies (BT and sbt) are fabulous, bad are to-be-avoided-at-all-costs. I totally understand the life-in-front-of-eyes; long enough to panic, not enough to escape.
******** Yes. Exactly. Sigh. A couple of moments to brace yourself AND say, okay, we’re probably NOT going to die. Although I do NOT want to tangle with a bullie or a staffie or any of those lock-jaw things in a nasty mood. Labs let go again and border collies generally only snap.
I think sighthounds and bullies are very art deco, all sweeping lines & curves.
******** Yes.
Definitely visually attractive – altho it’s very common to walk down the street and hear someone say loudly “Urrgh! That dog looks like a pig!” At which the offending bullie usually grins widely (showing many teeth)
********** Yes! George Booth!!!!!
and attempts to head towards them (any one who speaks to me MUST be a friend!)
******** This is of course what won ME over. Something that looks like a bouncer from a particularly ugly end of town trotting up to me wagging its tail so hard it’s about to come off, smiling with all those TEETH, and just KNOWING that I’m a soft touch for a tummy rub! First one I ever met of these I was her immediate slave! As I say, I seriously thought of a bullie after the whippets died and I wondered if I should *not* get sighthounds next time. But I decided that since of the locals I know *I* know more about dogs, I didn’t want to be without back up if it turned out I had a bullie with socialisation problems. Sighthounds just don’t get into that unless there’s something seriously wrong.
Exit commentator briskly!!
The musclebound swagger is what won me over I think, but how do you pin down elements of attraction?
********* Indeed. It’s the sparkle in the eye. :)
The cider is
Duche de Longueville Cidre du recoltant/Normandy varietal cider, made from “Gros Oeillet” apples (vintage 2006)
I quote directly from the label, but I bought it in my local Sainsburys so it should be available that much nearer the Channel :) It war luvverley!!
and I’ll post the story of my standard poodle,bull terrier and the tramp on my lj page and link to it when I have – how can anyone not love that bullie grin??? wide eyed fake innocent expression!
Duche de Longueville Cidre du recoltant/Normandy varietal cider,
******* Good grief. I tend just to drink Weston organic . . .
Here it is http://www.emporiabrands.com/brochure/spiritpages/longueville.htm
just look for the bottle on a shelf near you!
********** aside from the native aggressiveness of terriers in general
snork! – look at my native aggressive terriers (a Birmingham breed)
http://pics.livejournal.com/southdowner/gallery/0002cbrt – pics taken yesterday, with six of* the bestiary. Dangerously cute* mwahaha
* … just like Darkness & Chaos of course :)
I am about to go rowing in the not wet rain. Hope it doesn’t get any wetter.
Can’t you jsut pretend it’s spray from vigorous backstrokes? :) I was out in the IT’S NOT WET RAIN gardening again today. Mind over matter: I *did* manage to forget, more or less, till I got back indoors again and thought, for pity’s sake I’m SOAKED. But I didn’t come in early or anything . . .
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Dare I say that it is sunny and hot here? I put out two loads of laundry today and it was all dry in about three hours. And I mean dry as a bone, rather than OK, it isn’t sopping wet. I’m just happy it is still cool in the evenings.
It’s been MUGGY here today. The hellhounds glare at me accusingly.
Do like the Emma Tupper’s Diary secondary hero (pander to Peter Dickinson following) and pretend it is a light mist which you can stride through regardless. It does work better than scrunching up shoulders, nose, brows, and saying Eeeew, Eeeeeew, I’m getting wet, oh yuk…….
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This is the ‘not wet rain’ approach. It only lasts so long as it takes your hair to start running icy waterfalls down inside your collar however.
“a braying laugh too frequently employed”! Oh, Lord! that is sheer brilliance – the world is a delightful, joyful place again… (I had to write it down, with my poor memory for exact quotes I was afraid of forgetting it.)
I’m still terribly curious about the sound…
LRK
I’ll corner one of my neighbours one of these days . . . oh, (*&%$£”!!! I had a long chat with one today AND NEVER THOUGHT OF IT!!!!! Kill me, I’m too old to live. . . .
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You are definitely not the only one to spend spare time washing dog harness… being a (now former) dog owner in Seattle (at least as rainy as England), I ended up having *two* sets of leashes and collars – one for walks in the dry, one for walks in the rain or the dog park. Somehow my dog (golden ret/whippet mix) always found the one muddy spot even on dry days to tear through in pursuit of balls or other dogs.
Oh good. :)
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I’d guess having an Aga makes almost anything better.
Just about. :) It does become one of those things you put on the list when you’re having a bad day.
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Glad the evil-off-the-leads dogs turned out to be not so evil. Mesquite does that, rushes around the yard and heads strait for a guest, then slows down at the last second to let the love fest begin. He’s almost 6 though, so he’s behaving a teensy bit better.
Hey–I ordered Chalice today! Or pre-ordered it. Along with McKillips new book which comes out in September too. Good reading for at least two days! Yay!
You and McKillip are my favorite fantasy writers–I call you my McWriters. Hope you don’t mind. But–Chalice! How exciting, up on Amazon and everything! (And if I’m the 400th person to exclaim on this, well, I’m still not sorry.*)
Only a summer away!
*Well, if it really bugs you, maybe.
I’m happy to be a McWriter in that company. :)
(And if I’m the 400th person to exclaim on this, well, I’m still not sorry.*)
Only a summer away!
*Well, if it really bugs you, maybe.
******** Not at all! Yay away, please! :)
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Oh, I quite agree with this! Though I don’t have a name for the two of you, other than, “People I want to be when I grow up (should such a thing ever occur)” which is an unwieldy title at best.
Still the “Mc” section of any library or bookstore’s fantasy shelves is always my first stop. I keep hoping I’ll find a book by you or Patricia written long ago that has somehow been hidden behind a secret door only the very devoted can open and I can settle happily in and get lost in words and wonder. It hasn’t happened yet, but I maintain hope.
>”My notoriety is spreading.”
That has to be my favorite line in this entire post!
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LOL! thank you!
I would love an Aga. I don’t know if it’s even possible to get the things in Canada. One day, in my Dream Kitchen…
I agree- people don’t grow up, they just get self-concious or too tired to do silly things. I’ve just found out that having a baby is a marvellous way to make people think I’m less crazy when I talk to myself in public. It was a problem, especially if I was talking to my cats or a stuffed animal. And, err, doing their voices so they could talk back.
Anyway, it’s acceptable behaviour (even the making voices for untalking things. Or people) if you have a pre-verbal baby.
It will be a problem again when he starts to talk. I’ll have to go back to cats and potted plants and being thought crazy. Unless I have ANOTHER baby….
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!
My copy of Dragonhaven arrived today,
causing calls of ‘hip-hooray!’
I still don’t think I rank as a poet
but I’ll take the book happily – don’t you just know it!
:)
(And Caleb the wanna-be-hellhound ain’t getting near this copy!)
Yes, what, two months late? Three? You’d be forgiven for reacting ‘Robin–who?’
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My Scottie walked better without his lead, strangely. Of course, Dad spend a long time training him extremely well. He always ignored the other dogs if he was off his leash–I think he was lording it over them.
Also he had a sweet beard and eyebrows.
But he did snap at my cousin and bite my grandma’s mailman (the cousin had it coming, I say), and I definitely agree that terriers are aggressive.
Once, we went to my aunt’s house, and he stole their (much larger) dog’s bone and ate it on the dog’s bed.
he stole their (much larger) dog’s bone and ate it on the dog’s bed
******* typical terrier, if nobody’s repressing him. And the on-lead thing that makes me NUTS is the OFF lead dog who attacks specifically ON lead dogs while the owner stands there saying ‘oh yeah he’s like that’.
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I’ve been lucky in that the majority of Labs I’ve interacted with are absolutely provoked into the 30 second run by anything that Might Be Friends With Them. So long as one doesn’t get hit in the chest by these specimens, one is usually safe. And unlike pit bulls and boxers (obnoxiously friendly to humans and Very Bouncy), Labs have that bad-hip thing that eventually keeps them from Jumping onto one’s shoulders. Are there Labs out there that actually scrap with other dogs on purpose? I always thought that Labs were the Charlie Browns of the dog world.
Bad owners can even ruin Labs, yes. The vast majority of them are at worst obnoxious, but every now and then there’s one that means it, or acts like it means it.
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Terriers. (Rant follows). Very Small terriers. Microscopic rat-sized toy dogs which no-one has bothered to train properly because they are so sweet (!!!!). The bitter snarl comes from having encountered a small fluffy white terrier which treed me – in the middle of the street, for pity’s sake – by snapping round my ankles interminably while I stood there holding a newborn baby and therefore appearing prey-like and thinking about how, were I unencumbered, I would give it SUCH a kicking. Owner comfortably inside her nice house while the sweet doggie ran around the yard ( in her world view). Elegant sight-hounds, yes, lovely cheerful mastiffs and Great Danes yes, super dogs. Not small terriers.
Gods spare me from defending terriers (or Labs) but there ARE nice ones (and Labs). I know EXACTLY what you’re talking about of course–some breeds simply have a more in-your-face downside than others. The aggressiveness of terriers combined with their smallness and theoretical cuteness is VERY in your face.
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