Park Dogs – Part 2

This is the conclusion of Park Dogs – Pt 1, posted yesterday

You don’t have to be an opera fan to be able to visualize Brunhilde, the helmeted Valkyrie warrior of  Wagner’s epic four opera cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen … which should help you picture the Dog Nazi striding purposefully across the parking lot, sans helmet, shield and spear but intimidating none-the-less.    All I wanted to do was get back to my painting so I considered my options:  retreat (my car is only a few feet away); denial (you misunderstood me); apology (I’m sorry … I’m really having a bad day).   It wasn’t me, it was my Inner Curmudgeon didn’t seem like a viable option, so I tried intimidation.

Park Dogs – Part 1

The Inner Curmudgeon doesn’t always stay in …

My favorite writing-painting-justsitting park is also a haven for local dog owners.  The dogs come in every size, shape, and  breed from anorexic chihuahuas to overfed Labs and Newfoundlands that look like well-groomed bears, often hilariously matched to their owners or hilariously mismatched.   If you’ve noticed my gravatar, you can probably guess that I’m a cat person … though I’ve never met a cat I didn’t like, I take dogs on a case-by-case basis.   As an observer of life, though, I enjoy watching the interactions of owners with their dogs, the obvious affection that exists between them and the peculiarities that an intimate relationship with a dog seems to bring out in humans (above and beyond talking to them like they actually understand, which cat owners do, too).