Dogs I've Met

Ned was a brown, sleek-coated, frisky hound puppy being walked for one of his first times on a leash.  I was riding my bicycle near a golf course in Naples when I first saw Ned.  He looked very much like the hunting hounds my father raised when I was a child.  "What a fine-looking hound!" I called out as I stopped to meet him.  "Is he a hunting dog?" I asked. "I'm actually not Ned's owner.  I'm his neighbor giving his owners a break.  As you can see, it is exhausting trying to walk Ned.  We jokingly say it takes a whole village to raise Ned."  A few weeks later I saw Ned again, much taller already and walking  better on the leash, but far out in front of his owners.  When I stopped to pet Ned, the young couple who owns him told me he is their first dog.  I wished them the best of luck as they learned to harness and direct the energy of their sweet dog.

On the day I met Ditka the black Labrador, he was dressed as a construction worker complete with a lightweight tool belt over his back and a small yellow hardhat on his head.  This attire was in recognition of the monumental construction project going on around the entrance to the hospital where I was visiting a friend.  Ditka was working as a therapy dog with his owner, a hospital volunteer.  I could see that Ditka (named for, of course, Mike Ditka, the famed  Chicago Bear) made people smile wherever he went.  Construction workers passing inside the lobby showed their appreciation of his solidarity.  One called out, "Does he have a union card?"  

Biff was a six-year-old 10 pound Pomeranian.  His salt and pepper coat closely matched his mistress's hair, making the two of them a quite striking pair.  When I admired him as I walked by her parked car at a plant nursery, Biff's owner proudly lifted him out of her car to introduce him to me.  She then related the following:  "He was a stray that I found.  I should have known not to bring such a darling dog into my house.  I had intended to find an owner for him because I'm not a dog person.  However, who could resist such a sweet little fellow as him?  "Some folks say he looks like a bear.  Others have said a raccoon, and some say he looks just like an otter.  Most Pomeranians have a fluffy tail that curves over their backs.  Biff's tail is more of an exploding Brillo pad!  "I named him Biff because he's such a big macho man!  There could be no better dog to have than this one.  He eats very little so is a most inexpensive dog to feed.  And his poops are so small I have to watch where  he goes and pick them up immediately or I'd lose them in the grass.  He is such a gentleman.  Everyone just loves him!"