IHOP Girl: "Does your dog bite?"

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

"Does your dog bite?"

This morning I really didn't want to go for a walk with the dog. It is wet and gloomy, and I just didn't feel like it. Therefore, I decided that we could train a little in the driveway. I'm sure I'm one of the worst (not the worst) dog trainers, but you know we all have to learn somehow. I know that I'm far to short tempered, and impatient when I should be the well of optimism and second chances. Oh well, maybe someday!!

Okay, back to my story. So, we're in the driveway training when I see out of the corner of my eye this couple who always walks their chow-looking dog around the neighborhood. They're a nice older Asia couple. I put Torque into a sit/stay before he sees them, because I know he'll be nuts once he does anyways.

The man calls over "are you a dog trainer", HAHA okay, sorry I didn't do that.

I politely replied "No I don't train other people's dogs, just this one".

I must admit that I love how people think a dog's size is somehow proportional to their age as the wife asked me how old Torque was, and then was SHOCKED to hear that he's just a year. I mean really if that misnomer was true Chihuahuas would be perpetually puppies - hmmm maybe I have just landed upon some truth to the human interaction with dogs...More on the that later.

The man then asks me if Torque is aggressive.

Please pause the conversation here while I have a Pink Panther flashback to Dr. Clouseau asking (in a French accent) a hotel owner in reference to the sleeping dog on the floor;

"Does your dog bite?"

The reply, "No my dog does not bite."

When Clouseau reaches down to pet said dog it bites him. "I thought you said your dog does not bite!"

Nonchalant hotel owner, "That is not my dog."

...After this speedy replay in my mind I wanted to answer the man "No, why would you think such a thing". As Torque jumps up and down, pulling at the leash...point and case. Instead I politely answered, "No, he just wants to play with your dog", which I might add is the truth. What is also the truth is that Torque would rip some body part off if someone threatened me, of this I am sure. I didn't say that.

They smiled, even laughed a little and walked on. Leaving me to finally turn my attention back to my bouncing dog, place him AGAIN in a sit/stay, and work on some of that attention he so lacks when in the presence of another canine.

THE END.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...: that's a crazy, but perfectly believable story.

the bouncing monstrosity wanting to "love" some poor frightened to death micro dog who probably thinks one hit by the monster will surely crush it's whittle head.

torque needs to work on his first impression skills. also needs to remember sit/stay command. he has poor short term memory...; 4:53 PM

Movie Night In...I love a good movie!

Mega Mind
Taking Chance (Will make you cry like a baby)
Charlotte Grey (A bit of a different take on Nazi Germany)
Series - Merlin (I LOVE BBC)
Robin Hood (Okay, a love Russell Crowe, you'll have to understand that about me...)
Kingdom of Heaven (Chuck full of acting power with an epic tale)
Miss Potter (Such a great film! Story of the creator of Peter Rabbit)
How to Train your Dragon (Possibly my favorite animated movie ever...I'm like a little kid, I watch it over and over)
Buck (Sundance winner, Biography of Horse Trainer, heart touching)
Lost in Austin (Modern day spin on Pride and Prej.)

Life as a nurse...

Great words by Reb Jeff: Vayishlach: Facing Death

"Rachel died. She was buried on the road to Ephrat — now called Bethlehem. Jacob set up a pillar above her grave. It is the pillar at Rachel’s grave to this day."–Genesis 35:19-20

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidui http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_(Judaism), and preparing the notifications to the community, feel like little fragments of the sacred. I have been entrusted with the care and tending of the most powerful, complex and difficult emotions that a person can experience in life. I have been made, in some small part, a guardian of the memory of a departed soul — a life that touches upon many other lives.After dropping off my older daughter at her high school this morning, I made a stop at Treasure Coast Hospice http://www.tchospice.org/, a remarkable organization that sets a very high standard for the loving and respectful care of the dying. There, I visited a lovely man whom I have seen a few times in his hospice room. I sat by his bedside and listened to him (in full possession of his faculties) as he told me about his worries about his family, the support of his wife after he is gone, and the future of his children and grandchildren. I was deeply moved by the way he put any concern for himself — even while facing death — in a distant backseat to his concerns for his family. When my own time comes, I can only hope to have his awareness of the way that one life can touch so many others.Also at hospice, I visited a woman I have known for the past two years — a dear soul who is a former Jewish religious school director. I sat with her, too, singing psalms to her as I listened to her heavy and labored breathing. I have no medical training, but I have come to know the sound of a person who is close to death. The body begins to fight for each breath as it slowly looses it grasp on life. As I held her hand and sang, I realized that being a rabbi is no protection against becoming one of the people caught in the web of connection. I, too, am changed by the loss of a life that has touched mine.Later in the day, I met with a couple from our congregation. She had just learned that her brother died yesterday in a car crash. Coming to terms with the loss is made more difficult for her by the fact that she and her brother had not seen each other or spoken in five years. Sometimes, people think it is easier to mourn the death of someone who has moved out of your life. In my experience, though, it's harder. Grief is magnified by wounded love and regret. I have no magic words to say to ease the pain of mourning. All I can do is listen, become a vessel in which people place their stories, and offer compassion.Actually, there is one more thing I can do. I can have faith that "all I can do" is all that I need to do. It is enough.In this week's Torah portion (Vayishlach) Jacob watched Rachel, the love of his life, die in childbirth. He was overcome by grief. Jacob had worked for his cruel uncle Laban for fourteen years to earn the right to marry Rachel. Now she was gone. Because she died while they were traveling, Jacob had to bury her by the side of the road. He built a pillar of stones on the spot to mark the place as sacred.This is what we all do, in one way or another, when death enters our lives. We grieve and our hearts break. We wish that we could continue to walk along the path of life with our loved ones forever, but the dead cannot fully join us. We have to leave something behind in order to resume our own journey. So, what do we do? We mark the moment as sacred. We erect monuments — both in cemeteries and in our hearts. The stones we place on top of stones remind us that a life may end, but its sanctity is forever.The Torah says that the monument Jacob built for his beloved continues to stand until this day. A life that touches the lives of others never ceases to send living reverberations throughout the web that binds us all.