08 May 2008

Otterpop spent dirt night all alone next to the dreaded border collies.

Usually she has Ruby to sit with and protect her. People in dog agility class tend to have pairs of matching dogs. It's sort of a Thing Us Dog Agility People Do. Have sets of matching dogs. Pair of border collies. Another pair of border collies. Another pair of border collies. Pair of labs. Pair of King Charles Spaniels. Pair of aussies. Pair of little black dogs. I think even when I've had Ruby on other vacations for other aches and pains I've still let my set sit together. I was trying to think, have I ever had Otterpop do a lesson or a class where she doesn't have her Ruby sitting right next to her for moral support? They usually look like a scarey little matched set of gargoyles. No one can tell them apart.

So last night, I left Ruby in the car and pulled Otterpop out solo. Parked her in her spot right there with the border collies. Hobbes doesn't really register Otterpop. They take walks together sometimes and he doesn't even know she's there. Oh, that was Otterpop's frisbee? Who cares. He spends class barking or staring at whoever is running. Ruby doesn't really register border collies on her radar and they don't really think about her. But Rob's other dog, Fate, her and Otterpop have a thing. Otterpop sits there miserably next to Fate. Fate creeps as close as she can to her to STARE at her. Otterpop has this look on her face, like I believe it to be somewhat scrunched up muzzle and eyes all wrinkly with a look that says, "She is STARING AT ME." She'll give her a careful stink eye, but it's the special border collie stink eye. That is very aware that this dog could just get up and start chasing her in circles if it wanted and it is the Boss. Border collies live in a special place in Otterpop's hell because they DO have the ability to get the FRISBEE WHENEVER THEY WANT. What border collies want, border collies get is what Otterpop's learned. I believe that border collies represent an inevitability for Otterpop that she doesn't run the universe and she probably knows that someday, we'll have our own. I believe that border collie and Otterpop will have to like go into therapy or just learn to work out some issues at that time.

Fate moves closer and closer to Otterpop every chance she gets. Sort of pulls her leash along the deck so she hovers and can be closer to STARE RIGHT DOWN AT HER WITHOUT BLINKING. She's never done anything to Otterpop, I'm not sure what's on her mind. She's sort of a herdy type border collie. Is that an oxyclean? At some point during class, Otterpop moves underneath the deck into the shadows. She disappears from border collie sight. Maybe this is a good thing for Otterpop to do sometimes. Character building. She still had nice, fast runs all night so she figured out a way to deal with it. They're maybe like her State Park Rangers and news headlines. They're there. There will be confrontations and ramifications. But most of the time, we just try to block them out and ignore and keep our own reality the way we want it to stay in our mind.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow that was like cosmic man!

Anonymous said...

"oxyclean" requires separate grammarizing comment

(Also, note, for past and future present,"separate" has two "a"'s in it [see above]. I don't complain about much, but--word to the wise.)

Did you make that up? Oxyclean? Got coffee all splattered onto my keyboard, again.

Anonymous said...

Oxyclean- Its like Oxymoron only tidier and maybe smarter

Elf said...

Oh, people having Bobbsey Twins sets of dogs, you're usually right. I really messed up the theory with my first three agility dogs (photo) but yes now I have two blue merley things even if they're not directly related in any manner we can detect beyond the subatomic level. Because I used to call them my blue-merle herdy things, but apparently Tika isn't into herding the way I thought she'd be, so they don't even have that in common. But your otterpop and ruby being so close is amazing. It was meant to be.

-ellen

Anonymous said...

Our theory has been get dogs that look like your previous dogs then your neighbors don't have any idea how many dogs you really have:) We do have pairs though- two tan and white smooth Jacks, two tri rough coat BC's, two tri smooth coat BC mixes and the odd man out, broken coat tri Jack.

Urban Smoothie Read said...

luckily we only have 1 border collie in my place.... n my dog never get along with her... most of the time ended up fighting if they started to stare at each other....

tash said...

Word from your fanatic bike crew...this Bobbsey Twin fetish is not just limited to dogs!!! Two road bikes, two MTBs, two x-cross bikes...I think you are secret Malcolm Gladwell of the doggie/bike world!!!! (must read latest NYer...MG article. Different subject, but maybe the same?) It's late, I might not be making sense...night-night. Tash