Was Zum Teufel?!
Tuesday, Sept 25 – The week commences with another display of Oslo’s racist tendencies. And no, not against Jews, Muslims, Arabs, or Myanmar Monks. For some reason, he hates Boxers and Yellow Labs. Not all of them, but enough of them for me to faites attentions when I see one or the other walking down the street.
This time, though, the racially inferior wasn’t walking down the street. He was playing nicely at a dog park near Snohomish. We were coming back in to the park from wandering the trails on its outskirts when Oslo saw the young upstart. He was a male Boxer puppy, about a year old. Exactly the kind of dog whose ass Oslo wants to kick, not sniff. Anyway, Tyson (the Boxer) ran up to Oslo in what I now know is a very rude canine greeting. The show dog in Oslo doesn’t like not being bowed to and worshipped on approach, especially by young male dogs. Bitches he has no problem with. They can walk all over him, as long as they’re in heat and smell nice.
So, needless to say, Oslo started going after Tyson, with Mies taking his position as back-up stealth fighter. Luckily, 01.) I was able to quickly pull Oslo off and put him on his leash for a time-out and 02.) Tyson’s owner was cool and totally understood the whole un-neutered-male-dominance-I’m-going-to-kick-this-puppy’s-arse thing.
Wednesday, Sept 26 – News from the DC front today tells of Will’s continued efforts to find an apartment for us. This new dwelling place must be within short walking distance of a park big enough to handle two energetic Weimaraners. Stained concrete floors with drains would also be nice, as would dog-proof cabinets for Mies, and indoor agility course, and self-cleaning furniture. But I digress….
When I told Oslo + Mies that dad was looking at a place on U Street that allowed dogs for a mere $800 non-refundable pet deposit, they both just stared at me, then hung their heads. "We really, really wanted to live on W Street, Mom."
Sigh. What a nice letter that was when it stood for good things in life, like Weimaraners, William, and Woodstock; instead, we’re now semiotically cursed with meanings derived from Walker, Weasel, and right-wing Whackjob.
Thursday, Sept 27 – To prove that he is fully aware of Oslo’s dominance issues, today Mies decided to test them. I had given the dogs each a rawhide bone and twenty minutes after they each took them gingerly from my hand, they slowly paced the living/dining area, holding their rawhides gently in their mouths, giving each other the evil eye and at times emitting low growls.
I thought for sure the stand-off would end with Mies drawing the guns I never knew he had from his holster first, but in the end, he gave up and started chewing his rawhide on the Golden Cushion (more on that later) while Oslo continued to stand there, boring a hole in Mies’s head with his menacing glare.
Today also marked one week since Oslo + Mies went to an orientation for potential therapy dogs. Oslo, the ever stable, confident alpha dog, is a good candidate for this training. Mies, on the other hand, needs a little work. He’s a little skittish and shy at times, and might easily confuse a little old lady sporting curlers and a walker with Jabba the Hut and try to save me by acting like a canine Jedi or something. God knows we can’t have that.
Friday, Sept 28 – Today began with a depressing forecast of rain and thunderstorms, causing us to cancel a hike we had planned with Oslo + Mies’s friend, Eli, the Border Collie. We went to Marymoor instead, avoiding the weather and staying within five minutes of the nearest espresso joint. Except that there was no bad weather. There were sunbreaks and no rain, which is practically like summer to native Seattlites. So the dogs got to run and we didn’t get soaked in the process.
Today also brings news from Austria about one Matthew Hiasl Pan, a 26-year chimpanzee for whom animal rights activists are lobbying to be legally recognized as a person:
The association, which worries the shelter caring for the chimp might close, has been pressing to get Pan declared a "person" so a guardian can be appointed to look out for his interests and provide him with a home.
Group president Martin Balluch insists that Pan is "a being with interests" and accuses the Austrian judicial system of monkeying around. – Newsvine.com
Oslo + Mies found this story a bit surprising. The way they’re treated around here, they just assumed they were legally recognized as humans and thought other animals were, too.
Saturday, Sept 29 – Nothing happened today.
Sunday, Sept 30 – Today commenced soaking wet. From now until the end of next June, it will take me no less than 20 min to get out the door to walk the dogs. Why? Because of the donning of my rainpants, polypro layers, Gore-tex shoes, Gore-tex coat, hat, gloves, swimming goggles, fins, etc. And ditto for the Weims. Minus the fins, though, because they have webbed feet.
Only wait, I will be in DC by next June, so there are only a couple more months of this soggy, everlasting dampness for me. We love you, Seattle, but…. With a capital "B".
Monday, Oct 1 – Today was marked by an anecdote found online via photographer Alec Soth’s blog about one of John Steinbeck’s dogs:
"….an Irish Setter named Toby, [who] chewed up half the only existing manuscript of Of Mice and Men. Steinbeck wrote to his agent, "The poor little fellow may have been acting critically."
I will think of this every time I look at the textbook of the course I’m now teaching whose cover Mies ate. Perhaps he was acting critically, too. Although if he ever eats one of my pieces of writing, I’ll just assume it’s because the paper tasted good….