Saturday, November 24, 2018

Black Dog Friday

I’m not big into consumerism, so I’ve never understood the appeal of Black Friday. I’m not averse to fighting, but for me, it’s strictly recreational- the idea of fighting over a television or a pair of sneakers is repugnant to me. I preferred to spend a Black Dog Friday- playing with my niece’s Dog, a Black Belgian shepherd. My niece really wanted an army of dragons, but that’s not feasible, so she decided to settle for a dog, with the proviso that it would be a big, wolfy dog. A husky-Alsatian mix had caught her eye, but had already been adopted. She settled for the next wolfiest dog in the shelter, a skinny fellow with big, alert ears and a shabby coat. Apparently, ‘Lupin’ had been running the streets for an indeterminate period of time, either a runaway or an abandonee.

A couple of weeks of good meals and good care resulted in Lupin being the strong, handsome dog I met on Wednesday. He’s a social dog, uncomfortable with being alone, and excitable around new people. He and I became fast friends from the get-go.

There’s one tantalizing clue to Lupin’s footloose days... I was telling the girls about a goofy mockingbird on my worksite which mimics car alarms. While whistling the opening bars of the typical car alarm, Lupin ran across the kitchen into the living room, took a flying leap onto the couch, and proceeded to exfoliate my face with his tongue. Ever since, if I want the dog’s attention, all I have to do is mimic the car alarm. It’s a mystery, one I find amusing.

I’m writing this post on my phone, but I will update it, including a picture of my handsome, wolfy friend.

6 comments:

  1. A few years ago, back in the early 2000's, my biological extened family got on my nerves to a degree such that my wife and I began a tradition of being out of town for the Thanksgiving Feast. That first year we drove my ancient Toyota station wagon on an over-nighter around Lake Michigan, and the trip across the Mackinaw Straits bridge was a real eye-opener. It was so windy the authorities stopped traffic on the bridge for a while! We stopped at Traverse City for the night, and ate in a nearby Mexican restaurant. In subsequent years we drove on to Luddington as closer to the half-way mark.

    My immediate family (spouse, daughters, and spouses) concluded treating Thanksgiving as a moveable feast was a fine idea. We met at my house a week later, on the weekend, and did a wonderful meal with turkey, dressing, etc., and thoroughly enjoyed each other's company for the day.

    All holidays have become moveable feasts for us, including birthday parties, Easter, and XMAS.

    I always enjoy your essays, and hope you and yours have a great time during the annual gorging season.

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  2. Thanks, John. I’m not a big one for getting hung up on holidays. The important thing for us is being together, not the calendar date.

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  3. from time to time i comment at the daily mail site "you have to be an above-average person to be a better friend than an average dog"

    i look forward to seeing pictures of your niece's dog

    if spouse and self adopt another animal companion or two, chances are they will be feline in nature - but as lawrence berra could have said, 'you never know when something surprising might happen'





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  4. A couple decades ago car alarms used to go off pretty regularly - often the ones that play a series of different kinds of sounds over and over. I lived in the Sunset district of San Francisco and regularly heard mockingbirds doing pretty obvious copies of those car alarms.

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