Dogs...

Some people claim that dog owners talking about their dogs are as boring as grandparents talking about their grandchildren. Sorry about that, but here goes –    dog talk coming up. If you have been reading my blogs you will know that I have already spoken (at length) about my little dog  -  the one to whom I once had to administer mouth to mouth resuscitation. Well not directly mouth to actual doggie mouth, but close to it.

Lately I have been taking an interest in dog names. I meet a lot of people who are out walking their dogs when I am out with my little dog. (That’s her in the picture) and I hear people call to their four-legged family members.

When I’m out I talk to many of the other dog owners and almost (almost, mind you, almost) consider them friends, even though I don’t know their names – or anything about them, apart from their dogs.

I am slowly learning a few dogs’ names. Isn’t that amazing? Dog owners get on well with other dog owners and share information – about their dogs, of course, not much else.

My dog’s name is Matilda.

Last week I learned the name of a little dog that I see almost every day and who (should it be ‘that’ rather than ‘who’?) Matilda greets with a happy wag of the tail and a friendly sniff or two.

His name is “BJ”. I suppose he looks a bit like a BJ, although it seems like a waste of a naming opportunity to me. But one day I might ask his owner if the initials B and J stand for something.

The writer Delia Ephron called her little dog Honey Pansy Cornflower Bernice Mambo Kass. How gorgeous! When asked why she gave her dog so many names she simply explained that it was ‘because she could’. Fair enough.

But, in case you are thinking that I am a dog obsessed person, please know that I absolutely abhor Dog Shows, where the poor creatures are shampood and sprayed and powdered and brushed to ridiculous lengths, then paraded around a ring with the owner checking and re-checking each and every hair and whisker on their (hopefully) prize-winning pooch.  Horrible.

No, I like a dog that can run in the park; who can cheerfully chew on a bone in the backyard, enjoy a walk in the rain, be friendly to other dogs -  and people from all walks of life and be a faithful companion.

It’s nine years since I brought Matilda back to life from her choking experience. I wonder if she remembers. She is the friendliest and most faithful little dog one could ever have and I’m glad she survived all those years ago.

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