Dog Social Hour

I saw a cartoon recently, and I can't recall where, but it showed a couple of dogs at some sort of convention or gathering and they each had "Hello my name is..." tags on their hind ends. I thought it was pretty funny. I was reminded of that cartoon this morning, as Baxter and I went on a long walk down a country road near our home. These walks are our alone time, sans puppy, and Baxter loves it. For me it's a workout. For him it's a sniffout. And we both enjoy the birdwatching.

This morning's walk turned out to be quite a canine social event. The farmhouse down the way has a young yellow lab and an older golden retriever. Baxter loves to stop by in front of their house to say hello, but today we want another way. Somehow the dogs got out of the yard and were running around in the hayfield. Of course, they found the one break in the fence and came trotting out onto the road to greet us. I just stood there in a mass of happily wagging tails and sniffing, trying to get everyone onto the shoulder so the occasional speeding pick-up wouldn't create a disaster. Eventually everyone was sufficiently reacquainted and we continued on as the yellow dogs went back out into the field to pick up more burrs in their fur.

As we approached our neighborhood we met another little black dog, on leash, and did the familiar "you go over, I'll go under" accomodations as the dogs did their swirling greeting and leash macramé. Eventually we humans did our own introductions and the woman said "Boy, aren't you glad we don't greet each other like that?"

Yeah, I really am. And this reminded me of the "Hello my name is..." cartoon. If you know where I can find this, please type me a comment!