The brown dog in my neighbourhood, who will hereafter be known as Brown Dog, is a frequent recipient of pats from yours truly. Typically, the correspondence between Brown Dog and myself goes like this:
1) I walk up to his house.
2) I see Brown Dog in the front yard.
3) I call Brown Dog over.
4) Brown Dog proceeds to
Flip flip
Lollop lollop
Wiggle wiggle
Flollop flollop
Over to my side.
There is a stick of wood in the front yard along with Brown Dog, and sometimes this makes a slight difference to the distinctive Brownian motion of Brown Dog. The flop flop bit, etc, still happens the same, but it's what happens afterwards that's unique - Brown Dog will
Flump flump
Flounce flounce
Over to the stick, and
Flollop flollop
Bounce bounce
Back over to the fence. Then he will indulge in a perverse game in which he dangles the stick above the fence and then moves the stick back behind the fence so it is unreachable. This is driven by two competing desires in the Brown Doggian heart: the desire to fetch the stick, and the desire to keep the stick. He can never quite decide which is best, with the result that he can stand there, turning to and from the fence for hours.
This morning, however, I arrived at the fence and called Brown Dog over. This time he didn't
Flollop flollop
Nor did he
Flounce flounce
Nor did he
Bounce bounce
over to the fence. Rather, his motion was more akin to a
Flop flop
Bloop bloop.
Indeed, there was something distinctly dejected about it. He was certainly an eager recipient, as always, of pats, but one had to wonder what the cause of this sorrowful flopping and blooping was. Why the absence of the typical lolloping and flumping? How did his flollop get broken? What can I do to bring Brown Dog back to his usual flollopsome self?
Dogs can have bad days too.
ReplyDeleteMaybe his owner is away over Easter, and he's being looked after by some pimply brat from across the road who forgot to feed him last night.
He's outside a lot - probably a safety measure, more than anything else. He's a large labrador sharing a small inner-city home with two adults and a baby, so he has his moments of loneliness and forlornness. (Hence all the pats he's able to get from me.)
ReplyDeleteI was very charmed by this post but also saddened. I hope you are able to get a dog of your own soon! Does your landlord not permit it?
ReplyDeleteI should probably have to be only working part-time, or filling in a lot of hours at home. A dog would be a fine thing to have, though.
ReplyDeleteFor the moment I will content myself with patting the neighbour's dog on the sly.