Adventures: Posts from August 2009

Two posts two days in a row is unusual, I know, especially two posts about dogs. This one deserves video or at least a photo, but unfortunately I have neither.

Picture it: You are walking down a damp sidewalk just inside the entrance to a large park. The sound of dogs barking, many dogs barking, prompts you to look behind you. A grey minivan swings into view, its windows open to the cool air, and you see that the driver is wearing ear protection and what looks like a life jacket. You then realize the van is full of dogs. Not just a few dogs, but at least eight dogs, quite possibly more, all barking joyfully at the prospect of a swim at the dog park.

You stare, disbelieving, then you laugh the rest of the way to your destination.

So we're moving this weekend, and our landlord has been showing our old apartment to prospective tenants for the past week or so. This not only entails that the apartment be in showable condition (i.e. all cat hair tumbleweeds must at least be out of sight), but also that Jack, Andy's 11-year old Australian terrier, be absent during show times. As Michael, the landlord said, "We love Jack, but it can be hard to have a conversation with him around."

Jack has a distinct personality that is (to me) likable only about 15% of the time that he is awake. I have no quarrel with the dog when he's sleeping; i find his snores funny. One of Jack's quirks is a decided dislike for rain. Unfortunately, he doesn't have the reasoning skills that would allow him to figure out how to get out of the rain quickly. That is to say, when it rains, Jack goes out and stands motionless, disgusted and distressed by the precipitation. He makes very little attempt to do what he went outside to do; instead he looks pathetic and gets very wet.

Well, today it was pouring down rain when Michael came over, and Jack and i needed to vacate for about an hour. We went out, and Jack stopped. We bumbled around the neighborhood a little, with Jack halting every 5 feet to make sure i knew it was raining. These halts, by the way, are not just a stop, they are a dead-weight-with-heels-dug-in braking system. Since there was no way Jack was going to consent to walking the 6 blocks to our new apartment, i decided to take advantage of this forced exile by peering in the windows of the empty house across the street from us. It has been vacant since June, and i'm nosy.

Jack really liked standing at the front door as if we were waiting for it to open, but the porch afforded very little shelter from the rain. I was also wary of looking like a lurker, especially to any of the prospective tenants that were coming to see our apartment. I took us around the side of the house toward the back yard just to keep moving, and that is when opportunity knocked. On the side of the house are some stairs that go down to a covered entrance to the basement. It was completely sheltered and dry. So we made like hobos and trespassed for about 45 minutes. Jack spent most of the time staring through a window, while i read a book i had with me.

When we eventually climbed up the stairs, Jack tried to go back down again. Twice. I guess he finally figured out how to get out of the rain.